I think it might be blasphemy to admit this, especially for a music writer, but I have never given even a fraction of a crap about Bob Dylan. I'm aware of his legendary status in the history of American music, but as a listener, I just don't care. So it was with utter indifference that I learned of Dylan's upcoming gig on Nov. 7 at the Kitchener Auditorium.
Fans reportedly lined up at the Aud this morning to snag tickets to the show -- Dylan's first Kitchener gig since 1981. I know a bunch of people who have seen Dylan live, and about half have dejectedly reported that Dylan's performance was preposterously bad.
Perhaps I just don't "get" Dylan. Perhaps I've never really given him a fair shake. Or perhaps I'm correct in my belief that the best Dylan song is actually Weird Al's palindromic spoof....
I suspect seeing Dylan 40 years ago would have been something special.
Seeing him now would not be special at all.
Why people want to see performers after they are washed up is beyond me.
Posted by: genxmike | October 02, 2009 at 06:16 PM
I like his songs, 'Everybody Must Get Stoned' and 'American Pie' -- but that's about it.
Posted by: Mantaur | October 06, 2009 at 07:26 AM
(@Mantaur: American Pie was by Don McLean.)
I like a lot of Dylan's stuff, though I'm no fanatic. I suspect Lightfoot's songs, for one example, will stand out more in a hundred years. And the many stories of Dylan's crap shows would prevent me from risking money to see him myself.
That said, if you approach some of his songs more as poetry and less as pop music, there's some powerful stuff. Give a listen to Visions of Johanna (best version is the live acoustic from Biograph, to me!), or Highway 61 Revisited, and there's a compelling magic to the words that is inescapable.
But the reason Dylan 'matters' most, I think, is that he represented a bridge between the tradition of American folk music and modern pop/rock. Peter, Paul and Mary may have been sweeter, for example, but Dylan almost singlehandedly kept the door open for popular music to be about something more than just toe-tapping entertainment. While others were drawing more heavily on blues, Dylan was equally or more inspired by guys like Woody Guthrie (I know he wasn't the only folkie, but he captured more of the raw danger, power and poetic sensibility that got lost in songs like Puff the Magic Dragon.)
Music as political statement, music as oral history of the people, music as something more than gold records and destroying hotel rooms (he spent a long time getting booed after he went electric, let's not forget): all of these were something Dylan didn't invent, but sure as heck helped paved the way for.
Posted by: Sean Stokholm | October 06, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Thanks for the correction. I got it confused with Dylan's anthem, American Woman.
Posted by: Mantaur | October 07, 2009 at 10:33 AM