The 1960s gave us some of the most iconic and influential musicians in history. It birthed rockers like The Rolling Stones and The Who, gave rise to folk legends like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and spawned Californian harmony aficionados The Beach Boys. But by far, the most important artist to emerge from the era was The Beatles, a group of four lads from Liverpool who would soon change the industry forever.

Over six decades have passed since the inception of the Fab Four, but their impact on music and broader culture is unwavering. Many of their biggest hits still resonate with audiences, often owing to Paul McCartney’s inimitable talent with a pen. Their advancements in the studio are still used by producers, and their impact on popular music extends beyond music and into fandom and youth culture.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that The Beatles transformed music as we know it, and their impact still reverberates throughout our current iteration of the industry, but the Fab Four weren’t exempt from influence themselves. They were inspired by a number of other artists during their time as a band, from McCartney’s Elvis and Little Richard-inspired vocals to George Harrison’s love for Ravi Shankar.

However, there is one songwriter who seemed to have a particularly transformative impact on The Beatles: fellow legendary lyricist and folk icon Bob Dylan. Dylan’s influence on The Beatles has not gone unnoticed. Most fans of the Fab Four will know the story of how Dylan introduced the band to marijuana, an event that would change their sound forever, but his impact extended beyond that initial high.

Dylan also influenced The Beatles’ changing lyrical style, as The Who founder Pete Townshend once acknowledged. “Dylan definitely created a new style of writing,” he commented during an interview for Rolling Stone, before suggesting that he was the one who “got the message across to The Beatles, which was that you can write songs about subjects other than falling in love.”

Dylan certainly was a pioneering songwriter, pushing into topics of politics and protest before most popular writers, and his work inspired McCartney and Lennon. The Beatles had spent the earlier part of the decade consistently writing and singing about love, declaring, “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” and “I’ll send all my loving to you,” but their lyrical style changed as the decade drew to a close.

More complex, thoughtful songs like ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ and ‘Across the Universe’ began emerging in their catalogue, and even seemingly nonsensical tracks like ‘I Am the Walrus’ showed lyrical progression. They weren’t always pushing into the same topics as Dylan, but their lyrics extended beyond the realms of love and rock and roll.

The Beatles aren’t the only ones who were inspired by Dylan’s way of writing. Townshend admitted that ‘My Generation’ took from Dylan’s influence and suggested that, even now, “You can take any song of his and find something in it that’s pertinent to today.” Like The Beatles, Dylan remains one of the most wholly transformative songwriters in music history, his influence still finding its way into modern music.

It’s easy to see why both The Beatles and Dylan always appear in lists of the greatest songwriters of all time, but perhaps the former owe some of their genius to Dylan’s influence.