FOLK LIES: Joni Mitchell Outs Bob Dylan

Big Hollywood ^ | April 28, 2010 | Jonny Whiteside

[EveningStar]

“Bob [Dylan] is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.” — Joni Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2010 

Caterwauling Canuck “folk singer” Joni Mitchell got just about everybody riled up with that sweet morsel of self-serving insight, but the real shock is not that Mitchell is absolutely correct but that someone finally came out and said it. After decades of carefully manicured deification by Columbia Records, brain-dead rock critics and the slimy elite institution that elevated such barely able snake-oil salesmen as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to celestial heights, it’s high time to flout indoctrination and examine Dylan’s track record as a Grade-A phony. 

[Mr. Mojo]

If I had to pick Dylan's top 5 (in order of release date): 1 - Blonde on Blonde ('66); 2 - Blood on the Tracks ('74); 3 - Saved ('80); 4 - Oh Mercy ('89); 5 - Time Out of Mind ('97).

And he has a whole bunch of great albums on the second tier as well. ...including recent releases. Unlike most other old-timers, Dylan's songwriting talents didn't diminish once he reached his '30s. ...which accounts for a whole lot of professional jealousy. (See Joni Mitchell).

[Ransomed]

Time for another put-down song, Bobby!

Freegards

[Bigg Red]

She looks pretty good for 70...

^^
Dude looks like a lady.

[dmz]

Time for another put-down song, Bobby!

<><><><

Nah, just re-release Idiot Wind.

[Mr. Blonde]

A good list. It is hard to pick a small list from such a long list of great work.

While there were some others from that time frame who came close, I don’t think anyone then and probably in the future will ever match what he accomplished in 14 months in 1965-1966 releasing Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde in that time frame. It is really pretty amazing even still.

His ability to stay relevant while going through many different types of music and putting out something of quality in each genre no doubt inspires some jealousy in others who started in a similar vein as him. They are also probably pissed that from the start he was interested in folk music more than protesting and all that other stuff they were more interested in.

[Ransomed]

But how great would it be for him to put out a new single along with some unreleased stuff. Call it the Joni ep!

Joni needs to understand what a drag it is to see her...

Freegards

[allmendream]

At this point I have to say that there would be sufficient “selection bias” such that those who log onto “Metacritic” and tune in to LISTEN to Bob Dylan are, for the most parts, big time Bob Dylan fans.

At this point there is no reason to listen to Bob Dylan UNLESS you are a major Bob Dylan fan.

That being said, I am a major fan of his earlier work and take the charge of plagiarism against a bunch of songs I have barely heard of, and plagiarism of his style as a rather lame attack against a groundbreaking songwriter and performer.

[Gay State Conservative]

She looks pretty good for 70...

In her day Joni was quite attractive...as was Joan Baez...and Judy Collins.But I've always liked that girl hippie look...even now.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Wow, it must be a slow newsday at Breitbart. Whats the next article that we should write about? How the Beatles ripped their sound off from Buddy Holley and the Crickets? Every artist that ever lived copied things from someone else. But they usually blend things together and come up with their own sound. I’m sorry to say, but Dylan’s sound is pretty darn unique though he may have copied things from this artist or that artist. The totality of it is all Dylan.

[pissant]

My top 5 today (it’s always changing)

1. Blonde on Blonde

2. Bootleg series of unreleased material

3. Highway 61

4. Infidels

5. Love & Theft

With runners up BOTT, Desire, TOOM, Basement tapes, Together Through Life, Hard Rain, and Another Side drifting in and out of the top five.

[Liberty Valance]

Yes Joni, we heard you the first time.

[shibumi]

"If I wrote this article, I would have written it about Eric Clapton instead"

Are you referring to that guy whose brain is almost as slow as his hand? The mavin of ennui? The guy whose greatest hits were written by Albert King, Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolf,, Muddy Waters and Jack Bruce's wife?

[Mr. Blonde]

And yet you are the one who has not listened to come to an informed conclusion.

I fail to see how using a review aggregator is evidence of selection bias. It is a useful tool to find out what kind of reviews new albums, movies and tv shows are getting. I would really like an explanation of how that equals selection bias.

As for me liking Bob and being predisposed to liking what he puts out, that is true, but that doesn't mean I can't be right. I have at least listened to the music to judge it.

Mississippi A great Bob Dylan song from 2001.

[Mr. Mojo]

I'd have put Infidels up there on my list if it included two songs Dylan strangely left out from the sessions (but were subsequently released in the Bootleg Series) -- "Blind Willie McTell" and "Foot of Pride," specifically. Two of his best ever, imo.

And of course Highway 61 is top shelf. ...as are The Basement Tapes.

[Mr. Blonde]

Don’t forget Oklahoma’s own JJ Cale who wrote After Midnight and Cocaine.

[pissant]

If Infidels solely consisted of Man of Peace and Jokerman I’d still have it in my top 10. But you’re right. McTell & Foot certainly are top notch as well.

Another oddball song that never made it to any album was Caribbean Wind. For some reason I love that song.

[shibumi]

I was just giving what I knew off the top of my head.

You’re right, of course, and there’s probably a lot more stuff he’s done that’s really other people’s work.

My biggest beef is when a *performer* of other people’s work touts himself (or allows others to tout him) as an original artist.

[Mr. Blonde]

Yeah, I was just mentioning a big one from a guy who is less known than he should be. Not that I think he minds much. From what I know all those royalty checks were rolling in and JJ was living in an Airstream making music how he wanted to.

[allmendream]

I have listened, at both a concert and a recent album. I was not impressed.

And I am sure all the fans who logged on to Metacritic to listen to Bob Dylan were objective as far as their opinion of Bob Dylan. Certainly there would be no obvious selection bias favoring rabid Bob Dylan fans, after all, EVERYONE has an opinion of Bob Dylan's new albums that they want to register...... um OK, not really.

Sorry if you take my non acceptance of the exceptional nature of Bob Dylan's recent work as an issue that needs further elaboration. Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"The guy whose greatest hits were written by Albert King, Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolf,, Muddy Waters and Jack Bruce's wife?"

If that is what qualifies a person as a second rate artist, then I guess you better include Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Dean Martin in there as second rate artist. Eric Clapton is a virtuoso on the guitar and his unplugged album is one of the best albums ever made, period. Yet most of the songs on there he did not write. Big deal.