Bob Dylan is an Artist First

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.