I was saddened by the second half of the documentary on Dylan. He was so far ahead of his time; the people, the equipment, and even the theatres couldn't handle what he was offering. I had to laugh at myself because I know if I had been there I wouldn't have gottin it either.
I think what the whole story was saying is that we (as individuals or as groups) try to put labels on things so we can understand them, and that's fine, but it doesn't really make sense to label the person bringing the insights to us in the same way. The folk music people were only the first group to feel betrayed by what he was doing; rock followed when he began to sing about spirituality, and with his latest move to sing for ladies lingerie, and sell music in starbucks, music fans of all kinds are crying foul.
But what is he really doing here? He is taking our feelings of self-importance and turning them upside-down. He took the "folks" out of folk music and said, look inside yourself, you are also a hypocrite, you are also capable of great harm, beware of feeling too important. When he wrote spiritual songs the rock world reeled because they (rock music) are about pointing out the problems, not finding answers. Now, many are calling this latest move purely motivated by money, but do they know if he actually cares about the money? Maybe he just cares about the exposure, maybe he just wants to reach us where we live because honestly, who in the world doesn't like lingerie and a good cup of coffee!!!
What I see in him is an artist first. And an artist lives to touch people. But an artist has to have people to touch. What I saw in his eyes, as I watched the interviews with him, was an artist who was just looking for ways to do that all his life.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Bob Dylan is THE performer of our Time
I had been looking forward to the documentary on PBS about Bob Dylan for over a month; I even had it marked on my calendar. I watched and taped it last night and tonight there will be second part! I'm so excited!
Some great lines from the first half:
Dylan was taking about a certain old timer singer/songwriter in one of the cafes getting really drunk one night and saying to him, "Remember, stay away from fear, envy, and don't be mean." Dylan said he thought that was good advice.
Joan Baez was talking about reading one of his songs and how she never understood what they were about, so she sat down with it and tried to write out what she though all the lines were saying. When she gave it to him he laughed and said, "It doesn't mean anything! Years from now all these ass****s are going to try to figure this shit out and make stuff up about what this means and think they know but they don't F***ing know!"
Dylan stole about twenty records from someone back in Minnesota where he was enrolled in university (never went to classes though). When the guy found him he talked his way out of getting beat up. (These were records by the great folk artists of our time which Dylan said were as hard to come by as hen's teeth.) He explained the theft by saying he was at that time on a "musical expedition."
About his early song writing, Dylan says he wrote the songs because he needed to sing them. In other words he needed to sing a certain kind of song, and since these songs didn't exist yet he had to write them.
My opinion: I've often though about him as a great song writer first, since so many of his songs went on to become hits by other artists. But I see now that he was a performer of the highest rate. The clips from his performances proved that to me. Here is my favorite comment by Dylan about the days of singing in coffee houses, "There were plenty of good singers there, many of them were talented and could sing, but I could see that they didn't know how to get inside the people's head, they didn't reach them. You have to be able to reach at least one person while you are up there."
Some great lines from the first half:
Dylan was taking about a certain old timer singer/songwriter in one of the cafes getting really drunk one night and saying to him, "Remember, stay away from fear, envy, and don't be mean." Dylan said he thought that was good advice.
Joan Baez was talking about reading one of his songs and how she never understood what they were about, so she sat down with it and tried to write out what she though all the lines were saying. When she gave it to him he laughed and said, "It doesn't mean anything! Years from now all these ass****s are going to try to figure this shit out and make stuff up about what this means and think they know but they don't F***ing know!"
Dylan stole about twenty records from someone back in Minnesota where he was enrolled in university (never went to classes though). When the guy found him he talked his way out of getting beat up. (These were records by the great folk artists of our time which Dylan said were as hard to come by as hen's teeth.) He explained the theft by saying he was at that time on a "musical expedition."
About his early song writing, Dylan says he wrote the songs because he needed to sing them. In other words he needed to sing a certain kind of song, and since these songs didn't exist yet he had to write them.
My opinion: I've often though about him as a great song writer first, since so many of his songs went on to become hits by other artists. But I see now that he was a performer of the highest rate. The clips from his performances proved that to me. Here is my favorite comment by Dylan about the days of singing in coffee houses, "There were plenty of good singers there, many of them were talented and could sing, but I could see that they didn't know how to get inside the people's head, they didn't reach them. You have to be able to reach at least one person while you are up there."
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