My 72-hour introduction to Bob Dylan was punishing. I listened over a couple days of 14-hour shifts at Seafair, setting up and taking down tents and stages. It was grueling, monotonous work that involved hauling hundreds of tables and chairs and packing away pieces of Astroturf soaked by rainwater and Coors Light.
Exhausted, dirty, and usually listening in a depressive atmosphere of public buses or shitty trucks, the listening was a trial. I was in no state for musical exploration. I felt lost in songs like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” that left me wondering what was musical gibberish and what simply went unappreciated because of a lack of historical context. Who was Johnny in the basement? What medicine was he cooking? And this soot-faced Maggie? Was she some renowned ’60s chimney sweep?
Only in rare moments did I savor, almost masochistically, the music, wallowing in Dylan’s grating melancholic voice and abandoning any attempt at understanding. Those rare moments tended to come while relaxing at home: frying potatoes for dinner with rain falling, listening to “Percy’s Song” for the second time, enveloped by its sense of weariness and powerlessness.
I didn’t linger a moment past 72 hours, reentering the wide musical world with Raekwon’s refreshingly superficial “House of Flying Daggers.” A Dylan marathon is a draining thing, and I was not grateful to be engrossed in fairly complicated lyrics when hungering for the visceral emotional relief music can provide.
RELEVANCE TO MY LIFE: 2
Bob Dylan captured a period of political turmoil in the United States, when the country was embroiled in an apparently unwinnable war in a foreign country. But really, any connection I tried to draw to my life and today’s world—hey, we’re spending lots of money on warplanes now, too!—felt superficial and forced.
THE QUALITY OF HIS VOICE: 10
Why is it that when a voice grates in a certain way (think Lil Wayne or Leonard Cohen), it suddenly becomes the absolutely best thing to listen to?
DEGREE TO WHICH MY PARENTS THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 8
My dad said he has three CDs that he still listens to these days. One of them is The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. My mom called herself a great admirer of Bob Dylan and even went to one of his concerts “or maybe two,” she said. “But definitely at least one.” I can tell those were good times.
DEGREE TO WHICH I THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 3
I think I’m being pretty generous to the guy. He’s got some great songs, but these days, whatever he’s doing, not very many people seem to be hearing about it.
Listening solely to Bob Dylan over the course of three 90-degree days while packing for college is something like being in solitary confinement next door to a rambling lunatic with a guitar. Some of the strumming is painful, some achieves sentiment, and SOME comes close to sounding like music. In the sweaty confines of my bedroom, disc one of Biograph was, bluntly, torture.
I imagine that the majority of Bobby D’s songs hit home only if you’re around a campfire in North Dakota at three in the morning. Or when you’re stoned. Hearing endless harmonica and stream-of-consciousness cacophonies is like having restless legs syndrome in your brain. This annoyance coupled with my own inability to pack resulted in utter frustration. However, by day three, now lackadaisical and coming to terms with moving across the country, I inexplicably started to dig it. For a few twilight hours of apathy, tunes like “I Want You” sounded good. But come morning, love was fleeting and his ambling lilt was just funny (“Your dancing child with his Chinese SUITTTT/He spoke to me, I took his FLUTEEEE”). My journey with this dude went from pure loathing to convulsions of laughter, with brief affection sandwiched in between.
RELEVANCE TO MY LIFE: 4
Some songs about war, change, and love can transcend generations, but unlike work by other paragons of the ’60s like Janis Joplin and John Lennon, Dylan is too indulgent. His lack of variation (congratulations, you can play the harmonica!) doesn’t inspire me to keep listening. But you’ve got to hand it to him for enduring when his work clearly lacks the substance of other hippie-era musicians.
THE QUALITY OF HIS VOICE: 3
Dylan is a storyteller, not a musician, and this is as evident in his lack of vocal strength as in his aversion to basic composing techniques. He musters flat wails and whispers with casual effort. On his more unassuming and stripped-down tracks, dude can handle a tune, but the midrange in which most of his songs rest is strained and erratic. His stylings can grow on you, but only if you accept his abilities for what they are.
DEGREE TO WHICH MY PARENTS THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 2
When asked her opinion, my mom shrugged and said, “I could roll any which way with Bob Dylan.” Ah, sweet apathy. “In terms of people I wanted you to know, like the Beatles and Barbra Streisand… let’s just say he wasn’t on the list.” Whodathunk, my mom has good taste. Granted, she hasn’t listened to much of his work—only the New Morning album, and only because “the cover picture looked like my brother.”
DEGREE TO WHICH I THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 4
The majority of Bob Dylan’s songs remind me of a run-on sentence by Jack Kerouac set to music. There is something compelling about the fame he’s achieved, given his apparent free-falling style where song structure is an afterthought and it’s nearly impossible to find a strain that will stick in your head overnight. I don’t know that he deserves celebrity based on his discography. It seems that his reputation rests on Bob Dylan the anomaly more than on Bob Dylan the musical artist. He’s not golden. He’s just another singer-songwriter.
Seventy-two hours of straight-up Bob Dylan. Complete and total immersion into the oeuvre of an artist revered by musicologists, professionals, and amateurs alike. An artist I was only familiar with by name and association. I really didn’t know what to expect, but an open mind is what this little experiment called for, and boy let me tell you, that’s exactly what I gave it.
By the end of day one, I didn’t hate it. It’s multifaceted. Dylan’s songs fluctuate from short and twangy with a bit of that sweet harmonica to layered and bluesy with super-clean electric-guitar riffs—from simple-yet-profound to convoluted-yet-captivating.
By day two, after going through the three-disc set at least twice, I caught myself singing along with “Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” changing my Facebook status accordingly.
Day three brought about some deeper analysis and reflection. Do I like Bob Dylan’s music because I somehow owe it to him, as being some sort of revolutionary singer-songwriter? Or do I genuinely dig it for reasons less shallow?
I’m into it. For real, though.
I took a late-night Rollerblade excursion around Green Lake (“Just Like a Woman” played while I looked at an awesome view of the lake and the moon), went to the sunny Ballard Locks, drove around, read, took naps, showered, researched, and socialized to Bob Dylan. I gotta say, he’s a good fit for all sorts of circumstances.
Though I thought he was a novelty to begin with, and I still do, Dylan is a talented dude. You can tell from the fiftysomething songs on his three-disc set, he’s got a knack for writing catchy tunes. And I’m all about catchy tunes.
RELEVANCE TO MY LIFE: 3
Not very relevant. Like I said, he has catchy tunes, but they don’t really relate to my life. More often than not, I wasn’t even listening to the lyrics, just the melody and the instruments.
THE QUALITY OF HIS VOICE: 9
Oh, I’m a big fan. I love the way he manipulates his voice to give him that bluesy, beatnik vibe. It’s as if that voice and that presence is Bob Dylan, while the behind-the-scenes self is more like Robert Zimmerman. A mask, if you will. He sounded a bit like Robin Williams doing an impression in “I Want You.” Just putting that out there.
DEGREE TO WHICH MY PARENTS THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 0
My parents have about as much experience with Bob Dylan as I did before this project, if not less. You know, being foreign and all. They’re from Karachi, Pakistan, where I was born.
DEGREE TO WHICH I THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 6.5
I think he’s super-talented, and there’s really no doubt about that. He’s an artist, and luckily for him, he is recognized for it and appreciated for it. I think that his name will go down in history, because it already has, but that doesn’t mean I think he’s supremely important.
When I first began my journey into Bob Dylan’s subconscious, I was afraid. Many people had told me that what awaited me was some of the most brilliant songwriting of our generation. As I put the first disc of Biograph into my CD player, I expected to adore and revere this man upon the first note of his voice or wail of his guitar. Instead, I experienced utter confusion.
What came out of the speakers was what appeared to be a middle-aged man who wailed and moaned like a witch on steroids, while trying to ramble on about something or other that happened to his wife or friend or someone. Nothing about his work impressed me; his guitar playing was oddly timed and played, his vocals were extremely lacking, and he used the harmonica like rock bands used the cowbell in the ’80s. The songs that I liked (at least in comparison to the others) were all the songs that other bands, including Jimi Hendrix, later covered and which in my opinion sound much better than the originals. Even his rhyme schemes and lyrics can be underwhelming after he uses the same base structure for lines multiple times in 10 seconds.
Despite all this, I can at least understand where some people’s love for this man’s career comes from. During the entire time that I listened, I couldn’t help but imagine an old frontier man riding on a wagon train, singing and playing just to pass the time, all the while complaining about his journey west. He wears a cowboy hat and overalls, constantly accompanied by a troupe of young boys who play harmonicas and giggle in glee at every word made by Dylan. It’s these boys who eventually grow up and spread their love of the old kindly man who sang them songs. As a result, this man experiences untold popularity after a few years and never stops his songwriting, ever. And all the while, he insists that the sun is not yellow, it’s chicken.
RELEVANCE TO MY LIFE: 5
I can only relate to his more popular hits and a few odd songs that I personally felt a connection to. Those songs were “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Masters of War,” “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” I like the structure and chorus on “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the overall mood on “Masters of War,” and the subject matter and pure sorrow in “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is just overall a good song and probably his best mainstream hit based off of what was on this compilation. Problem is, then I hear songs like “Million Dollar Bash” and I want to bash my head in.
THE QUALITY OF HIS VOICE: 2
There were times listening to this compilation that I thought he sang well, and there were other times when I cringed a little. Dylan’s voice can never surpass his whiny, moaning, complaining tone that he has made for himself. He is by no means a great vocalist or even a competent one, but he is able to tell stories.
DEGREE TO WHICH MY PARENTS THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 3
My parents do not believe him to be the troubadour of their generation, because they are only 39. Neither of them likes the vocal style very much or necessarily his music, but they can appreciate and respect him because of his influence on the music they grew up with. Both agreed that covers of Bob Dylan songs are generally better than his originals.
DEGREE TO WHICH I THINK HE’S IMPORTANT: 7
I personally think that Bob Dylan’s presence and influence in music will be felt for a long time to come. He popularized the idea that singers do not have to be talented in the traditional sense in order to be appreciated. Considering that Bob Dylan has been around since the 1960s, I believe it’s safe to say his music has some staying power with the population. But do I wish for his music to remain? I can’t say that I really care. I am of the opinion that even though he did so much, we need to move on. 
Eh, I’m young and grew up in an East Coast city where 60s folk music was as popular with hipsters as garage and soul is to Seattle hipsters. There were hipster bars with only 60 folk in their jukeboxes. I pretty much only listened to the stuff, and yet Dylan never did anything for me.
It doesn’t surprise me that these teens don’t like him. He’s like Joanna Newsome in that some people can’t get past the strange voice. Beyond that, while he might have been a great songwriter for his time, since then there have been so many equally great, poetic songwriters who are more relevant to my generation.
He’s like Shakespeare. While you can admire his skill, you might not neccessarily ever want to read him again. His themes have all been done many times over since his day and done in ways that are arguably more appealing.
Plus, sorry, but he was a sexist prick. Ask Joan Baez.
@13 hahahahahahhahhaah! an occasion that has probably happened for many i’m sure!
@31 Spot on, spot on. case closed.
I used to hate Dylan, and much like one of the writers I preferred covers of his songs to the original. But in my mid-20s something changed, and I really started to like him. Maybe these kids will grow to appreciate him more someday. Either way, I dug the article.
Too funny!!
I commend you young author-listeners for not only being willing to undergo this experiment, but also for the quality of your writing.
I’ve got a few years on you guys, but even for me, Dylan was an acquired taste. To really appreciate him you need a good grasp of the times when he arose – what he did at the Newport Folk Festival and the repercussions of that event – some understanding of the beats (i.e. beatniks) and folk music and how that whole scene gave rise to the hippies and their anti-war stance… etc etc…
And yeah, once you come to terms with his unique vocals, and you begin to cue into those outstanding lyrics, you just may ‘get it’.. and once you do, it’s a whole new world for you..
God bless you, the Stranger. I wasn’t born in the 90’s (I’m 41) but I’ve never understood the boomers obsession with this Bob Dylan character. Sure, he’s written one or two decent songs – but the rest are absolute crap. I’m fairly certain a monkey with a guitar, an unlimited supply of weed and lsd could, over the course of 40 years, do the same.
haha – I knew when I saw the title to this article everyone would have an opinion to state…
The Dylan of today has very, VERY little relevance to the lives of those caught up in the throes of Rihanna and Jay-Z. He is not for everybody–he never was.
‘He’s not golden. He’s just another singer-songwriter.’ That says it all–the depth of their analysis can be gauged accordingly. The perfect Dylan song (I think) is ‘Chimes of Freedom’ and his ultimate performance of it at the newport festival in 64 or 65. Chilling.
A century from now, Dylan will be discussed as a poet, artist, and prophet. Cypress Hill who??
I like Dylan and will see the show this weekend, but I loved this article. The 20-year old Dylan would have given a similar review to most musicians of a previous era, no matter how popular. I’m 47 and was 6 in 1969, so I never cared for the “relevance” of Dylan’s music to what was going on historically. I don’t care why people older than me love his music so much, and the lyrics…most of them are just wacky bits of words that sometimes rhyme but often don’t, and usually don’t make sense. Which is why I like him.
Wow. That was some seriously bad writing. Good enough for the UW Daily, though.
Not all boomers revere the guy, either. I agree with a couple of the points others have made – most of the covers of his songs are miles better than the originals (listen to Warren Zevon doing Knocking on Heaven’s Door, made when he was dying of terminal cancer – if you don’t get teary, you’re not human), and Dylan works best in the context of an album (but only some of his albums work, either). I love Blood on the Tracks, but you can keep most of the others.
I do, however, love Things Have Changed from The Wonder Boys soundtrack.
People find their way to Dylan-fandom (if they do at all) by strange routes. (I became a fan when I was 9 years old, reading the liner notes to Highway 61.) But he’s definitely a rare and acquired taste. His son’s band’s first CD sold more copies than all of Dylan’s work had over his entire career by then (mid-90s).
The Beatles and every other important artist of the last 50 years were and are in AWE of Bob Dylan. What is the point of asking four kids who grew up on a limited palate of music expression what they think? Other than to have them embarrass themselves? Unless that was the point, then well done The Stranger.
It is not hard for me to understand the parents and young people’s reaction to Dylan’s music. It would be unfair to assume they are idiots, but more likely are habituated to a particular sound and way of listening to music. Most music made in the last 20-30 years has been heavily manipulated and digitally cleaned-up so that very little of the organic subtleties remain. Vocals are pitch enhanced to remove the subtle veering in pitch that occurs naturally in the human voice. To hear something so utterly real has got to be alarming when one has only known sterile, corporate manufactured sound and image. There should be a Bob Dylan, and music-that-inspired Bob, immersion course to rescue these poor victims of consumer culture. They also need to be read aloud to–from Wordsworth to Verlaine–so they may recover that wonderful human capacity to be profoundly moved and creatively and spiritually inspired by poetic imagery.
I hated Dylan when I first listened to him, also around 18. Similar to T. Waits, there are a few prerequisites to appreciating the music: A bad break-up, a little poverty, a touch of crime, many bad decisions, some retching drunks, waking in jail doesn’t hurt.
At 18, most people probably don’t have the life experience to get into music like this.
This is an interesting gimmick, but no more than that. Try listening to nothing but the 170 CDs of the complete works of Mozart and you will pull your hair out at some point, too; I write from experience. But that’s not how musicians, artists, or cooks for that matter expect anyone to approach their work. As for the inter-generational backstabbing — boomers polluted the earth; naughts don’ know nuttin’, have no soul, spirituality blather blather blather — give it a rest. Likewise, predicting who will be listened to, read or imitated a century from now is a fool’s errand. The comments by Galen Weber, Emma Kelley, Ashraf Hasham and Cage McKinsey were actually pretty good. As one old enough to be their parent, I can say their apparent intelligence is cause for optimism.
Issac Brock was into Dylan. Obviously.
Some of the comments here are so condescending and judgmental. You’d be surprised by what young people actually listen to. I live on Capitol Hill, and you go into any vintage store, bar, or record store in the neighborhood and hear bands like Can, Love, Os Mutantes, 60s French pop, as well as old motown, soul & R&B being played by people in their 20s.
I’m not “young” (in my early 30s), but when I was in junior high I was listening to Melanie. In college, it was all Grateful Dead, Pete Seeger, both the Guthries, Pentangle, Ritchie Havens, etc…and I never liked Dylan. Neither did my parents, who are of his generation.
Assuming people don’t like an artist because they have bad taste or can’t appreciate what real, untreated voices sound like is ridiculous. I record music and hear untreated voices daily that are beautiful and moving without any treatment. Dylan’s is not one.
@70: Wow, Capitol Hill is such a thriving oasis of music. You can hear everything from pop to rock to R&B to soul to rock to jam rock to soul to rock to pop…whew! My head is spinning! What variety!
This was wonderful to read, though I agree that three days straight of almost any artist would be torture. People like Dylan are really best enjoyed in far smaller doses.
What’s really funny to me is that, as a 46 year old who really digs Dylan’s music, I could totally agree with everything said here about him, no matter how harsh. The guy can’t sing, can’t play the guitar and can’t write a song…and he blows me away time after time.
It’s nice to see that at least one person looks set to be a lifelong fan. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the others found themselves with some unexpected enjoyment the next time they hear a Dylan tune.
Great concept for a story, everyone–thanks!
I was using Cap Hill as one example of people in their 20s obviously listening to 60s music since I live there. I’m from Providence and could have just as easily used that city.
Besides, we’re talking about Bob Dylan, one of the best known folk singers, not some obscure musician only music snobs like yourself know about. But continue to be a grumpy, jaded fuck. Everyone loves that shit.
In a snide-sound-byte-sorta-way #5 sums it up. #7 underscores a case of arrested development. Too bad, at about that age, three decades into life, I was coming around past all the cultural baggage (can one?) to truly appreciate old Bobby. He had a great grasp on the social history of poetics and a sharp enough mind to play with it all gloriously. May it be the dominion of the young mind to be dismissive of what they don’t “get”. Perhaps later, when they’re older, they’ll come back around to Dr. Suess: “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.”
As Rich Jensen suggests, do it again, but give them “Don’t Look Back” instead of “Biograph”
It’s not only the age. I loved Bob Dylan just as much when I was 18 as I do now. It isn’t hard to understand why Dylan is great and stands next to Satchmo as one of American music’s most important musical figures. If these new adults don’t love him yet, they might when their frontal lobe fully develops in a few years.
“Bob isn’t a musician to be a fan of; He’s a planet to be explored.” . . . or something like that. ~~~paraphrased from George Harrison. This has been true for me. Hey, you either get Bob or you don’t. Forget about trying to figure out why.
I’m 40, and think these kids are being too kind….. I never liked Dylan, and will hopefully never be so old that I do.
Biograph was a bad choice, as any compilation would be for an album guy like Dylan. He wrote complete musical works, not singles. Should have given them Blood on the Tracks, or Highway 61 Revisited, or even Love and Theft. A masochistic exercise to be sure. Now lock a couple 55 year olds up for 72 hours and let them listen to the complete recordings of Lady Gaga which means they’d repeat one hour of music 72 times.
I don’t get. How does the perspective of a 19-year-old differ that much from the late 20ers/early 30ers that comprise most of this newspaper’s staff and readership? “hmmm…I have so much cosmic insight…hmmm….time to update my Twitter.”
What a surprise, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen year olds think they know everything and everyone who came before them is irrelevant and passe.
Dylan is a love him or hate him kind of guy. I happen to love him, but I know he’s not to everyone’s taste. My guess is, when these kiddos actually have some life experience, they’ll start to like music with a message a little more (whether Bob Dylan, in particular, ever becomes their taste or not).
Similar to the fact that when I was in high school in the 90s, I got mocked and ostracized for liking The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Who, etc, and now, 15 years later, all the former grungeheads are friending me on social networking sites and going “hey, man, have you heard that Hey Jude song? It’s awesome. And there’s this rock opera thing? Tommy, I think it’s called? You should totally see it.”
…. yes, yes, believe it or not, I have. They’re not *quite* new, see. But welcome to the party.
I’m 28, and I love Dylan. Dylan is not just a Baby Boomer artist. He is still very popular among young people who curious, intelligent and have good taste. And yes–people still care about him. He had a number one hit on the Billboard charts a couple of years ago for God’s sake. His albums still sell consistently well. This is just the opinion of a handful of kids. They don’t speak for their generation.
These kids are admittedly articulate, but most of them are not nearly as intelligent as they think they are. Dylan’s lyrics actually make a whole lot of sense, and you don’t have to be stoned or living in the Sixties to understand them. They make more sense than the majority of songs being written today– or in the Sixties for that matter. Like a previous poster wrote, a lot of kids think Shakespeare is nonsense too! (Honest, I taught them!) He doesn’t traffic in light entertainment. You have to bring a little bit more to his music.
Bob Dylan has never been as accessible as The Beatles, but to call him “just another singer-songwriter” is absurd. And ignorant. Our modern conception of singer-songwriters wouldn’t exist without Dylan!
@20 I got into Dylan in my 20’s via Don’t Look Back, as well.
In my 30’s I got a Dylan box set and listened to the same album daily for a month until I made my way through the box. That shit grows on you.
Listening to one compilation once is not a sufficient introduction/indoctrination to his genius.
That said, since my Dylan box set binge, I have not deliberately put on Dylan once.
I LOVE Lady GAGA and I LOVE Bob Dylan too! SO FUCK OFF!!!
This has to be the funniest discussion I have ever read. You may like Dylan or you may not (both is completely fine), but that is about all you can do about it. Questioning his skills as a lyricist or songwriter is absurd. You may not like Rembrandt, so you woud say he couldn’t paint? The article is interesting, the discussion just sad.
I am 30, and love Dylan. Dad introduced me with Mr. Tamborine man when I was 19, and at first his voice was something I tolerated to listen to the words. Then one day, as I listened more and more, I loved his voice, and I have never looked back. I did a musical journey from his first album till the latest, reading the wikipedia page for each as went along… it was so nice to not have to wait as long for the next album, as people did when they were made.
Considering the fact that he is an amazing song writer, few have successfully sang his songs. There are a few covers worth listening to, but more often than not I end up missing the feeling that he always sings with and the sense of humor he brings to so many songs. I love his voice.
I was surprised to read the participants saying there was little relevance, as for me, especially during the Bush years, it was painfully clear that not much had changed. It also pained me to see how most of us have given up on trying to change anything, and instead are resigned to the rat race.
Anyways, I am lucky enough to be with the girl of my dreams. She is 24, beautiful, random, intelligent, funny, and loves Dylan too!
Bob Dylan is still alive ?
Bob Dylan music is like the movie Pulp Fiction. Either you love it or you hate it. I am 39 and my father incessantly played Dylan throughout my childhood. I thought it was torture until my early 20s when I got past his voice. Now, I really love his voice…and I absolutely adore his lyrics.
People who don’t get him, well, they just don’t get him. I don’t get the appeal of most rap music, but it doesn’t invalidate its importance in the world of music. Bob Dylan’s music is not all geared toward protest of the Vietnam War. But even many of those songs could be applied to these times. I particularly enjoyed “Masters of War” while Bush was president and starting the Iraq War. Then there are songs like “Mr. Tambourine Man” which was about addiction and “Girl From the North Country” about sorrow and lost love.
People who box him into a certain time period have only heard a few hits. I am with many of the commenters. The best way to experience Dylan for the first time is not 72 hours of a “best of” compilation. It is by listening to albums like “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” (my personal favorite) or “Highway 61 Revisited.” It also helps to have a little life experience and empathy to relate to the characters in his songs. Oh, and 20 years to get used to his voice doesn’t hurt.
Biograph is a terrible introduction to Dylan.
@66: Thank you!!!
And yes, “Biograph” was a stupid choice.
Bob Dylan is living History.
58 “he’s written one or two good songs but the rest are absolute crap”
Am just curious what some songs are (by others, obviously) that you think are great.
I wonder how different these reviews would have been if they had listened to a 3-disc made up by a panel of dylan fans? Because it would not have included ANY of the sheer, mind-numbing awfulness of his career post-blood on the tracks.
If I had to listen to any of his three ‘jesus albums’ (slow train coming, anyone?), I would hate Dylan, too.
PS
18yo’s opinions ARE bunk.
These people are dumb.
— Bob Dylan has tons of songs that are super-rockin’ and literal; surely you can understand “Hurrican” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol” without being reminded of a rambling lunatic.
— Attn “Emmy”: ***It’s supposed to be funny!*** If a song is driving you to “convulsions of laughter,” that’s a good thing… music is supposed to express a personality and create emotions, that’s not really a downside.
If I had to keep looking at that scary mug, I’d go bonkers. I know its Dylan, but really…
Couldn’t the cameraman get him to stop glowering?
My first thought was, Huh?
What is Vincent Price doing with John Waters’ pencil mustache?
When I moved into my dorm room beginning in college, my roommate proved to be the most boring person on the face of the earth. No personality whatsoever. What clued me in to what was going to be this ongoing pattern was that she elaborately apologized/boasted that she loved Bob Dylan. A lot. Really. All I could think was, “This is your identity? Everyone in the universe loves Bob Dylan. That’s like saying ‘I like air’ or ‘cookies are great.'” But I’m a couple years older than these kids. And I was raised right. By which I mean, raised by a freak poet who never traded in the 60’s for a white collar.
93: Word. “Biograph” wasn’t the best choice, but these kids just don’t like music. They’re not alone among their contemporaries–music is just “content” to this generation. They’ll never get it.
96: you’re too invested in Dylan to be objective. He’s all you have to hang your hat on when you’re out of little blue pills.
And ferchrissakes, when you revert to a “these kids” argument, know it as your cue to book a Carnival Cruise and STFU.
@66 anyone busking on a street corner can “save” the unwashed far better than a digitally-remastered-to-capture-the-shittiness Dylan CD.
@96 I’m 19 and I love the Bob. “Kids these days” are too fucking dull and uninspired to understand what Dylan’s all about. It may sound cliche, but it’s true. There’s no place for intelligent music that requires an attention span in today’s dumbass culture. Old people are damn lucky that they have peers to enjoy Dylan with, because I’m surrounded by these half-witted fuckheads who’d rather pump Bieber and GaGa. But do I really give a shit? Bah!
Witch on steroids– ahahaahahhaaa!! I love many BD songs but that’s the best description of his voice I’ve ever read.
I’ve been a Dylan listener for more than 40 years. I found this article (and the ensuing comments) profoundly interesting.
First, I thought the young reviewers wrote thoughtful and even insightful pieces, even though I disagreed with most of their observations.
Second, I was surprised that (as far as I could tell) not one comment mentioned that Bob Dylan is still writing new and highly relevant music. The music on Biograph is 30 years old. Perhaps music written during the lifetimes of the reviewers would have more relevance.
I’ve been a Dylan listener for more than 40 years. I found this article (and the ensuing comments) profoundly interesting.
First, I thought the young reviewers wrote thoughtful and even insightful pieces, even though I disagreed with most of their observations.
Second, I was surprised that (as far as I could tell) not one comment mentioned that Bob Dylan is still writing new and highly relevant music. The music on Biograph is 30 years old. Perhaps music written during the lifetimes of the reviewers would have more relevance.
I’m 24, and I fucking hate Bob Dylan. I mean, I recognize that he had an important message and was standing up to the man, standing up for what he believed in..but I cannot stand his music.
By the way, this does not mean I like/listen to Lil John/Rhianna/Britney, or the shit of modern music. This does not mean I do not have appreciation for musical composition (my mother is an opera singer, and my uncle is on broadway). This does not mean that I find his era of music irrelevant (love The Beatles, Hendrix, Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughn) It’s just hard to get into the groove of meaning and lyrics and sound when the producer of all this is an incompetent singer and composer, and whose lyrics are either stream of consciousness or pathetic excuses at rhyming.
His voice is annoying. His harmonica is annoying. His simplistic rhyming scheme is annoying. Bob Dylan is an Emperor in new clothes. Young people who can separate the music from the legend tend to see it for what it is. Just because people don’t agree with your musical preferences doesn’t make them wrong or immature. What’s immature is calling people names who disagree with you for good reasons.