Posted on 07/09/2022 7:36:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
IIRC, from a movie about him, his switch from folk instruments to rock instruments was also a rebellion against fans who thought they had him pegged. Also, IIRC, seems like the same movie implied he left Joan Baez because she thought he was something in particular. He isn't one to be put in a box.
I grew up, literally, with Bob Dylan playing in the background of this tapestry called life...SOme of his songs hit the mark, others maybe not so much...the worst concert I ever went to was a Dylan show...he raced through his songs at a speed freak pace, like he hated his own music.
But, when it all boils down, Bob Dylan is an American creation for good or ill. I am always fascinated how he uses circus and carnival imagery in his songs—like the Grateful Dead uses trains/locomotives....
At times, I think Dylan caught the wave and rode it to the crest—what was he really singing about? Who cares—if one likes the song—enjoy it—if not—move on...
“Only to become themselves a variant of the monsters they slew. “
They were always the monsters they inveighed against. Many saw that way back when. I sometimes wonder if they are the most prideful godless jackasses ever to rise.
When you get to be in your 70’s - as I am - I doubt you will have done any better. From what I see your legacy will be worse than those you are criticizing.
I am a Boomer. I’m 63. I saw them generating their bullshit in real time. They were so full of hypocrisy and malicious hate it was amazing to me. In 1968 I was a kid who WANTED to like them for their hipness, youthful irreverence and Rock music… but I kept seeing what they really were.
Dylan was good at adding several really good lines in a mish mash of poetic word salad.
“Dylan was good at adding several really good lines in a mish mash of poetic word salad.“
Lennon and McCartney as well.
Maybe so, but his mentor was the old Stalinist Comrade Pete Seeger and his early recordings definitely leaned left.
Agreed.
Pete Seeger was an anti-American all the way and a big Stalin era Soviet Union supporter.
Anecdote: On Union Maid song by Woody Guthrie:
Pete Seeger, writes: “I’m proud to say I was present when ‘Union Maid’ was written in June, 1940, in the plain little office of the Oklahoma City Communist Party.”
song from Bob Dylan to Brian Wilson -—
Thanks for sending that. Wasn’t aware of it.
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez——
One guy who knew the young BD claims (no one can prove it) that he was trying hard to impress the woman he was with just before her (Suze Rotolo who was on the cover of Freewheelin’) and “as soon as they broke up he dropped all interest in that stuff.” Songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan and certainly the electric guitar songs later had no “message.” His reputation as “the voice of a generation” always bothered him.
Dylan is far from a Lefty. It’s true that Lefties like to claim him, and he is annoyed by that.
Mish-mash it may be, but there's always the hope that time will eventually give it context and enable a more readily discerned common understanding of the thoughts behind it.
I remember Dylan saying years later.. he could’nt write like he did in the 60s.. and he also said he didn’t know where it came from.
bump
It’s kind of amazing to me how many freepers consider their tastes and talents superior to those of Bob Dylan.
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