Posted on 08/29/2006 2:03:12 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Fans hail return of Dylan
Early critical reception to Bob Dylan's first album for five years suggests the 65-year-old is far from ready for retirement.
The living legend's 44th album, Modern Times, earned five-star reviews in Uncut and Rolling Stone magazines, with the latter calling it a "masterwork".
The BBC News website asked six Dylan fans to explain their enduring fascination with the man and his music.
"He has said enough important things for us to be interested in what he has to say next" Katie Melua, singer-songwriter
"The music, the voice, the lyrics all combined to be something really special for me" Bob Willis, former England cricketer
"Dylan seized me in the 60s as nobody else has seized me" Christopher Ricks, University of Oxford Professor of Poetry
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I bought it today at lunch. Listened to the whole thing. It's VERY good. I liked it better than his last two. If you like Bob Dylan.... you will like this.
Living legend? Is this one of the people who views Max Yasgur's farm as "hallowed ground?"
We know he's living.... you don't think he's a legend? :)
The bimbo in the article Katie Melua has not a clue what dylan is about.
Bob Dylan is not a hippy, nor has he ever been one.
He is indeed a living legend. One of the few. He is Frank Sinatra and Louie Armstrong and Miles Davis.
My understanding is that Joan Baez tried to get him to join up with her on some VN war protest tour and he wouldn't do it. Heh!
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH.....whether you like him or not..he IS a living legend. Get over yourself.
He's thought of as a hippie, but actually seemed to reject the hippie lifestyle, especially in more recent years. In some ways he comes across *almost* conservative.
OK, OK, he's legendary because he sounds like he's been suffering from the same head cold since 1965.
The whole album is good... but I predict when you hear it.... "When The Deal Goes Down"... and "Workingman's Blues #2" will really strike you :)
Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock before the festival. He didn't show up for it. Supposedly he called the sheriff and asked if he could shoot anyone who trespassed on his property.
Try Infidels or Blood on the Tracks.
Blonde on Blonde is excellent. I bought "modern times" today. Drove around at lunch and listened to the whole thing. Then brought it into my office. Listening to it on a boombox right now. I REALLY like it.
Wonder if he plagerized anything on this CD like he did on a recent one. He plagerized from an account of a former Japenese mobster. It was on the front page of the WSJ.
Dylan, Frank Sinatra and Louie Armstrong and Miles Davis
You got that right. I tell my son the first album I put on the day we brought him home from the hospital was Miles Davis' Greatest Hits.
I haven't had a chance to really listen to the whole cd, but I already really like "Workingman's Blues #2".
And it available as a vinyl LP, for $16.99.
I guess I'll be ordering one.
a really smart marketing person would have brought Al Cooper in to play organ on that song :) But yeah.... it's great!
Here is a GREAT line from another review/interview:
"I hate to go on my soapbox about the recording industry. I'm sure there's a lot of good songs getting recorded today, but I can't hear them. I'm just hearing buzz. There's a superficiality to it which might be successful, but people forget about it real quick and go on to the next one instantly. I don't want to be a performer like that."
Dylan aims to tell a truthful story and nourish it on stage. Keeping it real doesn't mean copping ideas from CNN or responding to the conflict du jour, which is why you won't find an updated Masters of War on Modern Times.
"Didn't Neil Young do that?" he jokes, referring to the rocker's recent anti-war disc. "What more is there to say? What's funny about the Neil record, when I heard Let's Impeach the President, I thought it was something old that had been lying around. I said, 'That's crazy, he's doing a song about Clinton?' "
I haven't viewed the DVD yet
"Try Infidels or Blood on the Tracks.
Or John Wesley Harding, and Oh Mercy. Both excellent LPs in a low-key vein.
Dylan got boo'd by the hippies at the Folk Festival for playing Like a Rolling Stone. When asked a few years ago about his contribution to the counterculture he said he played guitar to meet girls. I like him much better now.
I like some of his offbeat stuff the best. From Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat to You Ain't Going Nowhere to Black Diamond Bay to Brownsville Girl to Poor Boy.
A couple of the best moments in the documentary "Don't Look Back":
A reporter asks Dylan if he is going to be at the Moratorium.. "No."
Baez saying that everywhere she went she got asked, "Is Bob going to be at the march on..." Baez said, in effect, Bob wasn't at the last march, he never was at any march, what makes you think he'll be at this one?
Dylan was for the little guy, against authority, but a mindless hippy? No, never.
Brownsville Girl is incredible.
Gotta get it, gotta get it, gotta get it!
Miles' "Kind of Blue" is my favorite
Yep he stole a half dozen lines or so and twisted them into his songs. He's been doing that since he started.
Yeah, but she sure is cute.
Not bad at all. My 2 YO daughter already grooves to Birth of the Cool amongst other Miles gems.
Infidels was fantastic. Came out in 1984, I believe.
And a very timely tune is on it: "Neighborhood Bully."
It's about Israel being blamed for defending itself.
>>He plagerized...<<
That's why he namde the album "Love and Theft." Really.
They are all so different. Nobody seems to like Street Legal except me. LOL
Uh, about everything in music is deriative of something or other.
That, is indisputable. ;o)
Yes, you're right. And he went on one of the civil rights buses? Performed "Pawn in the Game"
Yep. And a great rocker that song is. My fave on the CD is Man of Peace. It still blows me away.
Ha ! haven't seen that before. Very good.
He calls minself zimmy in Gotta Serve Somebody from 1979's Slow Train Coming.
yep
It was kinda of interesting watching Dylan going from town to town in Britain in a beat up car and not the luxury busses that rock stars have today.
You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy, You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy, You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray, You may call me anything but no matter what you say You’re gonna have to serve somebody, Yes indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it maybe the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
And he pissed off Pete Seeger at Newport when he brought out electric guitars.
And also pissed off a bunch of effete Brits at the Albert Hall. Someone yelled "Judas!"
Bob said, "You're a liar.
"Then "Play, f'n LOUD!!"
Point is, he has always been his own man. Does not let other people get his kicks for him.
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