I never understood why he gets tagged as a communist or even a liberal. Maybe it stems back to the counterculture of the 1960s when he was lumped in with that movement and many anointed him as their generation's spokesman. Dylan always rejected that mantle and by the time Woodstock happened in 1969, Dylan made sure he was far away from that whole scene - even though he had a house nearby.
Yes, Dylan did have a more liberal bent when he was a young man but then, didn't most of us? Dylan will always remain an enigma (it's part of his appeal) but all indications are that he lives a rather conservative private life and is more like us then them.
For fifty years now, Bob Dylan has been writing songs and putting out quality albums. When his first album came out, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones hadn't even started to record yet. Now that's longevity.
Thanks for your kind reply.
I bought my first Dylan album as a teenager and it was, naturally, the ‘Greatest Hits” LP. It came with a poster and I had the poster on my wall for years. After listening to ‘Greatest Hits’ I ended up going back and acquiring most of the albums from which those songs came anyway. (Back in the ‘60s in my neighborhood, a lot of trading went on - - baseball cards, comic books, records...)
The first newly released Dylan LP I ever bought was ‘Nashville Skyline’, and it’s still one of my favorites 40+ years later. In fact, I bought it soon after buying the ‘Lay Lady Lay’ 45. My favorite Dylan LP, though, remains ‘Blood on the Tracks’. Just wow.
The people here who call Dylan a “communist” or a “liberal” are simply knee-jerk know-nothings. They don’t mean any harm - - they just bleat without really having a clue. Brush them off like dandruff. Dylan is indeed an enigma, but he is also a family man who keeps his private life private. Near as I can tell, Dylan is probably closer to libertarian than anything else. I suspect he doesn’t trust or particularly like politicians in general.
FRegards,
LH