Songfacts®:

• This is an ode to the folk singer Bob Dylan. It includes the lyric: "Now hear this Robert Zimmerman, though I don't suppose we'll meet." Funnily enough, Bowie would go on to meet Dylan multiple times throughout the '70s and '80s, though Dylan was reportedly rude to Bowie and according to one biographer, Dylan told Bowie that he hated his Young Americans album!
• David Bowie originally wrote "Song For Bob Dylan" for his school friend and King Bees bandmate George Underwood believing he could make his pal into a star. "David had written 'Bob Dylan' for me and I did a version in a studio," Underwood recalled to Uncut magazine. "It's like somebody doing a painting for you. It was a gift."
• Bowie wrote this in 1971. It appears on his Hunky Dory album, which was recorded at Trident Studios, London in April of that year. Like the rest of the album, this song was produced by Ken Scott.
• Dylan wrote a tribute song himself once. His was dedicated to Woody Guthrie, whom he visited when Guthrie was ravaged by Huntington's disease. Bowie's song is slightly more uptempo than Dylan's and includes electric guitar played by Mick Ronson.
  
  Bowie's song is said to mimic Dylan's ode; it has also been suggested that it is a commentary on Dylan's album Self-Portrait; the line "You're ever nation's refugee" is clearly a reference to Dylan's ethnic origin, i.e. the wandering Jew of Christian folklore, though Bowie was probably thinking more of the wandering minstrel. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• When Bowie premiered "Song for Bob Dylan" on June 3, 1971 during a BBC concert session, George Underwood sang lead. Underwood doesn't feature on the final recorded version though.