>Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.
I will credit him with expanding the general public's notion of what could be sung in popular music, but saying he was the first to sing his own material either in terms of a political or popular artist isn't really accurate from my perspective.

Well, he was sure the first one in the pop realm who was taken seriously on the basis that he performed his own material. The guys you mentioned didn't cause too many people to all of a sudden realize that these rock'n'rollers could actually write songs. Few could deny Dylan as someone who put thought into what he was doing. Rock'n'roll was not taken seriously until critics & people too old to appreciate rock noticed the level of his writing. As such, his influence on pop music is beyond description. If you want to say you simply like Marley better & you don't care about who or how many Dylan influenced, like I said, great. But I disagree. He was a huge influence on the entire rock genre, folk music, blues, and, again, 'singer-songwriter.' I don't think it's unfair or overstated to suggest that with him, there wouldn't have been someone like Bruce Springsteen, someone like Tom Waits, someone like Patti Smith, someone like Steve Earle, someone like Phil Ochs, someone like Leonard Cohen. His influence on John Lennon was tremendous & obvious. Marley's simply not in the same universe when you take this into account. Don't get me wrong--I love his stuff. But I don't see a heck of a lot outside of reggae that his work inspired, and that's a big part of the basis on which I'm choosing to view this particular contest, because in this case I think a straight-up comparison needs to be looked at in more ways than just personal preference. Dylan's historical impact & importance can't be overlooked, is the way I look at it.

>He sung bad on purpose?

Well, maybe it's bad to you, but it never was to me. And the answer, again, is 'something like that. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can't get past Dylan's vocals might as well listen to a genre where the vocals are more important than the material. It's just one part of the big picture. None of you reading this has to agree with me on this, but for my money Dylan was by far the best lyricist ever in the rock genre. Nobody ever put words & thoughts & ideas together the way he did, and that's where his influence is felt most. If somebody can't get past that, then how could any rock lyrics be considered important?

>And I much rather do that that than huddle round the speaker reverently studying the other Bob's super serious, supercilious shuck and jive.

If you don't think there's a relevance & an importance to songs that raise the question of why the son of a well-connected bigshot of some sort or other gets away with cold-blooded murder with a six-month jail sentence, I would wonder why. I'm not big on politics & topics in music, myself, but nobody did it like this guy. The way he worked with politics & topics was something that few others could do in ways that weren't downright embarrassing. Besides, he had a sense of humor. Didn't I throw on a scene or two from Don't Look Back on that video I sent you awhile back? I really don't get the 'pretentious' jab. This is a guy who's typically thrown critics a curve throughout most of his career. Maybe you could say the born-again period was pretentious, but that's a blip on the radar.

>Bob Marley? It's just good time party music

What, like Exodus? Who did politics first, and who did it better? 'I Shot The Sherriff' doesn't strike me as party music, either. Marley was deft when it came to weaving politics into his music, but Dylan was the master. And he chose not to keep it up rather than beating something of a dead horse while his skills might've declined, which is admirable. Meanwhile, the majority of what he's done for over 35 years has been anything but political or super-serious. So I really don't get it. I'm hearing that not liking voice trumps any other consideration. If we were talking about Tom Waits, even, I could see it. But not with this guy.