Reader to Reader

For as long as I can remember, I’d hear about “the new Bob Dylan.” There’s probably been hundreds--everybody with an iota of talent, from Steve Forbert and Bruce Springsteen, down the line to Robert Hilburn’s ludicrous statement that Public Enemy’s Chuck D. is “the Bob Dylan of rap.” Now I have to read about Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who is said to be “Bob Dylan before Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan” (Letters, Sept. 10).

There is one Bob Dylan, and everybody else is just that, everybody else. Just because you read a column in the local Pennysaver that catches your eye, would you say there’s “a new Shakespeare”?

MARVIN BLUTH

Los Angeles