I'd written:

>>...Jagger once replied to Dylan's slight about his not being able to
>>write 'Mr Tambourine Man': "I'd like to hear him sing 'Satisfaction.'"

And Deryk Barker replied:

>Well he'd probably have made a good, if different, job.

I don't think so, not in the way you mean.

>IMHO Dylan was a great singer - not technically, but the emotion he packed
>into it was astonishing.

Absolutely; very much so.

>I can still clearly recall listening to the acoustic CD of the 1966 "Royal
>Albert Hall" concert when SOny finally released it a few years ago.  Ths hair
>on the back of my neck stood on end in place,s, particularly, IIRC, in
>Visions of Johanna.

Superb song.  (Thanks for the coordinates.)

>Oh easy to pick up on a single poor line, but how about
>
>The motorcyclef, black madonna
>Two-wheeled gypsy queen
>
>or
>
>Praise be to Nero's Neptune
>The Titanic sails at dawn

Certainly pretty belaboured (I'll take your word as to their authorship),
though not quite the same caliber of cliched awfulness, IMO.  All the same,
point taken.  What's more, I don't know if I could cite another such bit.
('Must've been the unforgivable way it mars "Blood on the Tracks.")

>>'Fact is, few have the emotional luggage to deliver on songs like "Hoover
>>Factory," "Pills and Soap," Boy with a Problem," The Long Honeymoon," and
>>"I want you": the often ironic yearning and self-pity and rage -- and
>>malizia, to use Wm Walton's epithet -- which his music requires.
>
>Not even the man who wrote/sang [...well, and frequently]

Yes; didn't claim otherwise.  Dylan's one of the few, IMO, who might
deliver on precisely such songs.  Their kinship is strong, and not just
in terms of their abundant lyrics and the way they've both carved singing
styles out of unusual voices.

>Not that I have any problem with Costello (and I was, after all, born quite
>literally across the rado from the Hooever Factory) but the influence of
>Dylan on his work is undeniable.

Agreed.  My picture came out unintentionally lopsided: I certainly wasn't
out to dump on Dylan, but merely to contest the view that Costello's
singing is somehow deficient.

Bert B