Once upon a time I thought that what Dylan had to say was intelligent and important. Then I went to high school. Personally I always preferred Tom Waits - his early stuff wasn't an attempt at reaching the soi disant intelligentsia, better a photograph of what life is like for the lion's share of society.
Compare if you will Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" - basically a song about a whore and Tom Wait's "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis". Dylan lacks the grit that Tom Waits' song has. And where Dylan lost his voice because of... who the fuck knows what, listening to Waits you can almost smell the Lucky Strikes and cheap bourbon.