 |
 Skooz: 1986 - present |
Posted on 09/27/2004 5:38:26 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
It's not easy being a counterculture icon - just ask Bob Dylan.
The unwitting voice of the Make Love, Not War Generation has written a memoir chronicling the agonies of fame, which include a plague of peaceniks so intrusive that he kept guns in his house and "wanted to set fire to these people."
In an excerpt from "Chronicles, Volume I" published in the current Newsweek, Dylan bemoans the consequences of writing "songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities."
"I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of," Dylan writes.
In fact, Dylan says he had two pistols and a rifle in his upstate Woodstock home to protect his family from his rowdiest fans.
His home was once a quiet refuge, but after his success, "road maps to our homestead must have been posted in all fifty states for gangs of dropouts."
"At first, it was merely the nomadic homeless making illegal entry - seemed harmless enough, but then rogue radicals looking for the Prince of Protest began to arrive - unaccountable-looking characters, gargoyle-looking gals, scarecrows, stragglers looking to party, raid the pantry," he writes.
"Not only that, but creeps thumping their boots across our roof could even take me to court if any of them fell off. This was so unsettling. I wanted to set fire to these people."
All he ever wanted was "a nine-to-five existence" - not to be some "Big Bubba of Rebellion."
"In my real life I got to do the things that I loved the best and that was all that mattered - the Little League games, birthday parties, taking my kids to school, camping trips, boating, rafting, canoeing, fishing," he writes.
But his genius for penning songs that spoke to a generation torn apart by the Vietnam War apparently turned him into "a scapegoat - someone to lead the charge against the Roman Empire."
For Dylan, 63, the soon-to-be-published book seems to mark the recovery from what he describes in Newsweek as a 25-year "downward spiral."
He spent three years writing this first installment, but says he didn't enjoy the process.
"I'm used to writing songs," he tells Newsweek, "and songs - I can fill 'em up with symbolism and metaphors. When you write a book like this, you gotta tell the truth and it can't be misinterpreted."
I'm guessing that this is his born again '70s stuff? I lost track in the early '70s. I found most of his '60s stuff to be unlistenable. I always liked "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Lay Lady Lay" which were undoubtedly recorded by someone else. 8-)
Like A Rolling Stone is very much anti-hippie.
Fine sentiments and very true.
I've had that tune (Mr. Tambourine Man) in my head ever since I posted that, haha!
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/teenagefanclub/mrtambourineman.html
"Mr. Tambourine Man"
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you
Though I know that evenings empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can't feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my bootheels to be wandering
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone
It's just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind
It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you
Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you
Actually so are most x-hippys. As they grew old, about the only thing that remained the same for most of the them, was their mistrust for big government. Actually, a few of the people I know that are former hippy's are now more conservative, and more to the right than most Republicans. Of course nowadays, if your not a socialist, you could be considered a Republican.
8-) I'm a "Darkness" and "The River" guy. I think "The River" is the greatest album ever recorded by anyone.
Dylan just isn't my cup of tea.
Strangely enough, I like Steely Dan, whose "poetry" is completely indecipherable. I can't explain why I like them and not Dylan.
Yowza! This quote is becoming like the claim by many that they let somebody else have a seat on Buddy Holly's ill fated airplane. It's been attributed to James Dean, Elvis Presley and now Bob Dylan? Actually it originated in the 1954 film The Wild One with Marlon Brando:
In perhaps the film's most memorable exchange, a girl asks the gang leader, "Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" Replies Brando with a world-weary sigh, "What've you got?" ... continued The apex of his career was "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River." I like bittersweet albums, although "Darkness" is mostly bitter.
Both of these albums capture the essence of working-class America. "The River" has everything; joy, tragedy, selfishness, failed relationships, desperation, hope. "Stolen Car" and "Point Blank" are sublime tracks about broken relationships. There isn't a bum track on the album. And it's a perfect mix of rockers and ballads.
Born in the USA continues to mine this vein, but is weaker overall and more commercial. It's pretty much downhill after that.
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Skooz: 1986 - present |
I still, frankly, cannot see how a generation, who had rightly looked upon an intrusive, overreaching government, rife with laws, rules and regulations, as the beast to be fought, tamed and rendered marginal so we could lead lives of freedom; can now seek to employ that same (but infinitely larger and more powerful)intrusive, overreaching government, rife with laws, rules and regulations, as a mechanism to impose their morality on others. THAT was what they had fought so hard against back then...and today, they have become that which they had so hated...
That is so well stated. So true.
Richard Thompson. Sorry for the code.
todays' New York Post also reported this story. in it there is mention of his "arsenal". i couldn't figure out what a "single
shot repeating pistol" is though. (my quotes, i left the paper at the diner)
I'm surprised he is a Muslim. Islam frowns on musical creativty. Cat Stevens hasn't played a guitar in many years.
Remember Field of Dreams? Remember James Earl Jones as the J.D. Salinger character telling Kevin Costner that he was accosted all the time by Peaceniks, etc. Same thing.
Shelter from the Storm. just reading it gives you chills. The only other writer from that era that was as good was Leonard Cohen.
Good morning.
"I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn."
I think that line from 'Shelter from the Storm' perfectly captures the '60s' for Vietnam vets, even though it came out a couple of decades later.
In '64 I got into an argument with a classmate over my right to call Dylan 'Bobby'. A quarter of a century later she became my ex-wife after several minutes of marriage.
I believe Dylan and Jackson Browne are the two great American poets of the 20th century. Too bad Jackson is so liberal that it affects his music. Now I can only listen to his older work. Bob Dylan's music just gets better and I can overlook his politics.
Michael Frazier
I like a lot of Dylan songs....when they are performed by other people.
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