Bob Dylan corner

[B. Clugston]

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Aren't they all dead now?

Tim Bogert died, but the rest are still around. They were a fun band.

[JSngry]

Good!

I like that album. Of course it's a lot of bullshit, but it's funny as hell today.

Never to go to war again...Never to go to war again...Never to go to war again...Never to go to war again...Never to go to war again...

ROTFLMFAO just thinking about it!

[mjzee]

I'm looking forward to reading this; release date June 10:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1399416308/

 

[Brad]

On 9/17/2023 at 4:22 PM, dicky said:

You have a point. I should have expounded. And for that I apologize.  

I once shared your perspective, borne out of mostly only listening to his post Desire albums in passing, if at all. My ears heard a voice that increasingly sounded like a bad impession of Dylan. How come Bob couldn't/ wouldn't sound the same?!

Then one night a friend played the entire Tell Tale Signs Bootleg Series release for me. I was stunned, and slowly began catching up with all I had previously wrote off.

For starters, Street Legal, Love & Theft, and Modern Times stand on equal footing with the JWH and prior recordings we both admire. I could make a case for others but whatever one's preference, there are sublime tracks on (nearly) every release. Add to the mix unreleased tracks from the Bootleg Series and elsewhere, and it's apparent Bob has been a vibrant artist through every phase of his career. Giants walk amongst us, and he is most certainly one. 

He addresses subjects in a manner that, when not overt, may elude a secular listener or at least a listener unprepared to listen to Dylan through a biblical lense. If one is unwilling to engage Dylan from that angle you simply will miss out on much of what animates him.
 
Musically, with passing years, he's employing more sophisticated changes. His vocal delivery and vocal timbre has undergone multiple iterations (like any singer) due to artistic choice and necessity of age. He's no longer mimicing Ralph Stanley, for example, but he never, ever lost his artistic instinct for delivery - amongst his greatest musical contributions - despite his diminishing instrument.

Like Lon, I tend to listen to "latter day" Dylan these days but like Ellington's canon I wouldn't want to be without any of it. Each part of their respective careers enriches the whole.... warts and all. 

This sums up what I feel about Dylan. Just like the rest of us, he is no longer what he was in his 20s or 30s, his voice has changed and he’s just a different person. I enjoy his post 1975 material but that Dylan is different than the Dylan before, just as mid 60s Dylan is different than the early 70s version. 

[danasgoodstuff]

FWIW, I think Murder Most Foul is a steaming pile in pretty much every imaginable way - even if it was an exercise to see if he could write a song like that and he doesn't buy into any of the nonsense he's spouting there.  And I think he fully deserved that Nobel, for the early work alone.  Bob's an enigma, and it's way too much work to figure out if it's on purpose.  JWH might be Charlie McCoy's best album, at least as a bassist, it's certainly not bob's despite a few high points.  Maybe Skyline was just bob paying back those Nashville cats for all their fine work on Blonde on Blonde?  And the best thing he ever said about other people's music is something he didn't actually say (about Smokey Robinson being America's greatest living poet).  IMHO The Band by the band The Band is a better album than anything he ever did, and he did some darn good ones.  And it's a toss up whether Street Legal was the most disappointing album of the '70s by someone I cared about or Lennon's Rock 'n Roll is.  Shelf Portrait doesn't count because I'm convinced it's bad on purpose, I sure hope so.  Am I done?  For now.

[jazzbo]

We're all different. I feel very differently than you do, but that's what's great about the world of art. I'm also done for now.

[danasgoodstuff]

Like they say, YMMV.  Which might make a good theme for a song.  You could even do it in a bob-like style.

[JSngry]

No, what's great about the world of art is how is all the people who want to throw praise and/ or money your way if you play your cards right.

[jazzbo]

No, I don't feel that is what's great.

[Brad]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

We're all different. I feel very differently than you do, but that's what's great about the world of art. I'm also done for now.

Make that plus one. 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

No, I don't feel that is what's great.

I don't mean the art itself, I mean the "art world". Totally different things.

[jazzbo]

Still feel the same way. If anything that is what is NOT great in the art world. IMO.

Edited Friday at 11:23 PM by jazzbo

[JSngry]

The art world is no different than the rest of the world 

If you want to believe something, there will be somebody to give it to you.

And there will likely also be people to see to it that you find that somebody.

And then everybody gets what they want.

It is, after all, the world.

This one, anyway.

[jazzbo]

I don't think that way, not in agreement, at least in thinking it's great that it works that way. 'S alright. You be you.

Edited yesterday at 01:38 AM by jazzbo

[JSngry]

Could it be any greater?