Posted on 05/24/2020 5:00:33 AM PDT by Sir_Humphrey
Here are eight ways to salute the living legend as he embarks on his 80th trip around the sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Happy 80th Birthday Bob Dylan and may you have many more!
So what? I like his music. Besides , don’t know if that’s true. Not too many junkies reach 79
He kicked a $25/day habit in the mid sixties. That makes him a junkie 60 years later? If you don’t like the guy, fine, but can’t you do a little better if you want to try to slander him?
However, most influential is another matter. No question Dylan influenced generations. He even influenced the Beatles who in turn influenced most pop/ rock music of their era.
BTW, I am huge Joni Mitchell fan as well. It is possible to like both ya know
Nothing against Joni Mitchell, but Bob Dylan has shaped popular music as much as or more than just about anyone.
Pete Townsend correctly called Dylan "the fulcrum of modern music."
Pre-Dylan, rocknroll was only about cars and lost love. After Dylan, rocknroll has been about anything and everything. His impact is far more than most people realize.
Dylan changed everything about rock and pop music.
Dylan has helped me tamp down political arguments at my house. Those kinds of arguments solve nothing, and they turn friends and relatives into enemies.
Cousin Mike: Trump is nothing but a troublemaker.
Me: The times they are a-changin’. Now, who can recommend something good on Netflix?
Sorry...but Dylan has been a one-trick pony - either with acoustic or electric instruments.
Same old, same old...
“And the only sound that’s left,
after the ambulances go,
Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row.”
Happy Birthday, BD.
Two of my faves are “Tangled up in Blue” and “Everything is Broken”, though he has so many more good songs.
Sirius XM highlights artists and then does ‘interviews’ with them. Driving to Ventura and they were highlighting a group(don’t remember which one) but they were talking about some recordings they did with Bob Dylan. The musician said he learned a lot just from working with Dylan on a few songs and that Dylan was a musical genius. He said he made suggestions like....slow the temp here, off beat there and they didn’t make sense until they listened to the recording after and that it all ‘just worked’. By the way, not a huge Dylan fan here but I recognize his talent.
I agree with you about Joni Mitchell. I’m used to being one of the few who know and really like her work.
In fact, Joni would agree with you herself about Bob Dylan.
She was always fully aware of her abilities as a performer during her active years, and could be very blunt describing the ‘sub-par’ work of other people. In 2010, Joni had an interview, in which she called Bob a ‘plagiarist and a fake’.
“We are like night and day, he and I” she scoffed. “Bob is not authentic at all. His name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”
In my opinion, sometimes, Joni just gets cranky and jealous of other performers. Of course Bob Dylan ‘is a deception’, he is a performer, Joni, just like you used to be.
She is wealthy, but never hit it really big with mainstream work. People with far less talent, but greater overall appeal have hit it big and got rich. People like Dylan, People like Madonna.
I used to be a big Joni Mitchell fan as a youngster, but in hindsight, now that I’m older with more Conservative views, I find her lyrics to be snobbish, condescending, and self important....and like a typical Liberal, breathlessly unaware of her own biases and arrogance
As I noted, Dylan was a one-trick pony - same old, same old regardless if it was acoustic or electric.
Joni Mitchell’s music was ever changing, ever exploring and ALWAYS far more complex than Dylan’s...including her lyrics.
Not even close.
Early on, Joni was searching for accomplished musicians to play her music and that led her to the jazz world’s best of the best.
As Lee Martel, accurately posted, Dylan was a fraud and plagiarist.
A few personal notes/thoughts on Bob:
**As much as I like Dylan, some of his songs are best when performed by others. Hendrix’s version of Watchtower is iconic. Here are two of my personal favorites:
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Them
I want you – Sophie B. Hawkins
** I read an interview of Dylan by Robert Hilburn, many years ago and came to a significant conclusion: Dylan is far more conservative than his image or most of his audience. He has hidden this from the public, in part not wanting to lose his fan base.
**Best Album – Blood On the Tracks (A bitter breakup catharsis album. Listen to Idiot Wind with that in mind)
** Personal favorite song – Tangled Up in Blue (Had a job in the great North woods, workin as cook for spell, but I never did like it all that much and one day the ax just fell).
** I am troubled with the numerous reports of his plagiarism
** Speaking of plagiarism: Dylan sued Rod Stewart over the song “Forever Young”. The suit was reportedly settled when Stewart agreed to donate the royalties to charity. (side note: The car in the video is a 1961 Chrysler Windsor My dad had one from '63 to about '72). Forever Young – Bob Dylan
** I saw Dylan in concert with Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, Dylan and Morrison were excellent. Mitchel was crap. I walked out on her.
I see what you did there.
You gave a nice summary there. One could also say: People like Dylan and people don’t like Mitchell.
I guess you missed his Christian album when he found Christ,..
One trick pony, I dont think so.
His slow train coming song about being abandoned by his “friends” for his faith was my favorite.
According to a musician I was friends with that played & shot up with him, he was still shooting in the 90s. Don’t know about after that.
once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic - same for druggies. One may or may not use after some point, but that does not change the underlying condition. Call it what it is, like it or not.
Again, so what?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.