Posted on 04/29/2022 1:34:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Frank Zappa was not a man who had many heroes. He was wary of the ways of the world and had the wherewithal to view his peers for what they were rather than celebrating them like idols and sinking into the past of their output. Zappa was all about pioneering the future and he felt hero-worship was a hurdle that got in the way of that.
Nevertheless, he was only human, and some tracks seem so heaven-sent that it would be a sin not to revere the ground that their sound resides over. This is the case with the defining American rock ‘n’ roll anthem of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan.
In the song, Dylan crucifies the crux of counterculture’s exposed achilleas heal—and he does it with such disdain that the world would never truly be the same when his cutting intellect, stirring poetry and the brilliance of the soaring melody all mingled into one pop culture opus.
Bob Dylan’s rage: Exploring 10 of his most cutting, nasty, caustic lyrics Read More
Zappa’s appraisal of the track is pretty much that. “When I heard ‘Like a Rolling Stone’,” Zappa told the writer Clinton Heylin, “I wanted to quit the music business.” That is quite a statement considering that when it was released in July 1965 Zappa was yet to release an official studio album and he would go on to unleash 62 of his own.
He continued: “I felt [that] if this wins and it does what it’s supposed to do, I don’t need to do anything else.” The song heralded the same sort of iconoclasm and societal incision that Zappa would champion throughout his career, but much like the moustachioed guitar God, Dylan’s anthem is actually more cult than you might think.
While the track is revered as a masterpiece and is rightfully recognised as one of it not the greatest song of all time, it somehow only wound up only reaching 41 on the US Billboard end of year charts. As Zappa wearily continued, “But it didn’t do anything. It sold but nobody responded to it in the way that they should have.”
While the brilliance of the anthem might not have been fully reflected in its reception, it has a legacy as rich as any that proves befitting of the masterpiece itself. Commercially it might not have accrued great masses and the revolution hidden in the welter of the words might not have fully materialised, but as Paul McCartney once said, with the song “he showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further.”
In truth, there is an unrelated quote from another iconoclast named Serge Gainsbourg that helps to define the legacy of the grisly, thistle-grabbing anthem. “Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty,” he once said, “because it lasts.” ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is still yet to gather any moss as it blazes a trail of just what rock ‘n’ roll music can be, and with that timeless intent in mind, Dylan went electric, embraced charged particles, and changed the world for a second time in a matter of years… Thankfully, it didn’t sell so many copies that Zappa hung up his hat before we had even seen it.
Nice. Thanks.
Interesting tidbit
But be wary of today’s rock mags — typically replete with Leftist tripe.
I never found Bob Dylan to be all that great. I guess I just don’t get it.
He may not have released an official studio album, but he had been recording. He had waxed some discs in a studio in Cucamonga, Calif., at the time a wide spot along Rte. 66 in the middle of the San Bernardino Valley's wine country.
The World's Greatest Sinner--Baby Ray & the Ferns (1963)
Dynamo hum bump.
5.56mm
Such horrendous writing. My favorite is “achilleas heal.”
It helps if your name is also Bob.
Yes. That stopped me right there. I couldn’t read any more.
I don’t “get” Bob Dylan either.
I have never owned a record, album or a cassette of Dylan or Zappa. They were just not listenable. The same goes for the Greatful Dead. There was a lot of great music over the entire length of the the 20th Century. It was not by them. The best thing that Dylan ever accomplished was touring with others who were better.
The writer talks like he and Dylan and Zappa are members of a secret club which we can’t enter because we don’t know the code.
That song continues to irritate me to this day and I hope I never have to hear it again.
There is music that is art, and there is music that sells. Very rarely have the two ever found a conjunction in the Venn diagram.
As Hermann Hesse put it, "Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours."
I’ve learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side
1962
That song is a self-pitying adolescent whine. So lame. Why is it embraced? I can only guess that there are millions who think it represents something authentic, which they are too inarticulate to define and too feckless to pursue, which they sense is absent from their pointless existences. The song fairly begs for parody — as does its author.
LOL. 🙂
Best version of the song is Hendrix’s at Monterey Pop IMO. He forgot the lyrics and skipped a verse but his R&B flavored rhythm guitar totally makes the song.
This is my rifle
This is my gun
This one for killin
This one for fun
1968
8^)
5.56mm
Exactly.
crucifies the crux
Huh?
Got a chuckle from this:
As sinner he’s a winner
Honey, he’s no beginner
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