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Happy 80th Birthday...

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 Andy Clarke 24 May 2021

...Bob Dylan. For those who grew up with vinyl, if there's a better Side One than Blood on the Tracks or a better Side Two than Highway 61 Revisited I don't know what they are. And like all the great hard core troubadours, still going strong.

1
 PaulW 24 May 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

That's todays listening sorted out. But just one day might not be long enough

 Boomer Doomer 24 May 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I saw him a few years ago at a festival in France. A strange gig... he came on... did his stuff... and went off... never said a word for the entire set, except for singing. Still, it was a great experience though it took me half of the song to realise he was doing All Along The Watchtower. BTW, you're right, Blood on the Tracks is a fantastic album.

 Bob Kemp 24 May 2021
In reply to Boomer Doomer:

Basically at a personal level he seems to be just an @rse. I was reading this earlier - says the same thing in rather more detail:

https://unherd.com/2021/05/bob-dylan-doesnt-like-you/

The misanthrope's misanthrope.

2
 Iamgregp 24 May 2021
In reply to Boomer Doomer:

Reminds me of the old joke....

Crowd: “play subterranean homesick blues”

Dylan: “I am”

 mountainbagger 24 May 2021
In reply to Bob Kemp:

> Basically at a personal level he seems to be just an @rse. I was reading this earlier - says the same thing in rather more detail:

> The misanthrope's misanthrope.

Thanks for that link, very interesting. I've never liked his music and now I feel vindicated, in the sense that I can now go around smugly thinking the reason I never liked his music is that I could always feel his @rseness coming through in it!

4
Removed User 24 May 2021
In reply to Boomer Doomer:

I saw him like that in 1992. I was right at the front (not hard at a Dylan gig, not like there's stage diving) and he was working hard. I have no idea what most songs were, he barely even looked up.

But hey it's Dylan. He does what he does and the world makes up stuff to explain it.

My favorite quote of his is, when asked what his songs were about - "About four minutes, sometimes five".

 Timmd 24 May 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I think my take on Bob Dylan is that he can be a genius and 'a scratchy' person at the same time. I remember playing this song from the Bootleg collection when I was about 12 or 14, and seemed to absorb it as a man telling 'a fundamental truth' and later on saw that it's just a song by Bob Dylan.

youtube.com/watch?v=10kazhzJbUY&

I guess that's a sign of a good artist, being able to bring that feeling to a song.

Post edited at 23:55
 John Ww 24 May 2021
In reply to Boomer Doomer:

He was my teenage hero, prophet and musical idol all rolled into one superhuman being. I thought I'd never ever get to see him play live, and couldn't believe it when I finally got to see in London (Earl's Court if I remember correctly). It was, without question,  the worst gig I've ever been to, and his lordship proved himself be a complete wanker, who never spoke a word, and who spent 90% of the time with his back to the audience. Thanks for costing me an extortionate amount of my teenage pocket money to watch your arse, you arse!

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Removed User 25 May 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Yeah, seems to me there's never been any shortage of the guy shrugging off popular adulation, everything you hear about him from the 60's involves his ambivalence or even disdain for being adored, and yet the massive cult built around despite it and there's been a million imitators.

When I saw him he was already a dinosaur by about two decades, icon not iconoclast, and the crowd were mostly balding old hippies in waistcoats, no one was there for the music, they were there for the man, and he was every bit as aloof and workaman as I expected. The folksy singalong thing I think was a product of flower power radio, I tend to see him as more protopunk (but then I see everything as that....).

Something interesting is his iron work. I saw some maybe 10 years ago, huge wrought gates. Apparently that's his real passion, coming from the Rust Belt and all, and he has a studio full of blacksmithing and welding stuff. Odd to imagine, but with a step back the connection is there.

 Timmd 25 May 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I saw him in Sheffield in the late noughties, and he seemed to be having fun, it might have been Sheffield Arena but I forget exactly, and he was moving about to the music behind the keyboard he was playing, though he was one of many figures on the stage. Maybe it was a random good day for him. A brother noticed it too, how he was getting into the music.

Post edited at 00:48
Removed User 25 May 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Yes, he's engaging on his radio show. I guess when you do 100 shows a year plus whatever else it's work. Very few of his peers still standing.

In reply to Bob Kemp:

> Basically at a personal level he seems to be just an @rse. I was reading this earlier - says the same thing in rather more detail:

> The misanthrope's misanthrope.

I agree, and I don't much care for his music either, which I suppose puts me in the minority and I rather accept he wouldn't give a shit.

OP Andy Clarke 25 May 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

> Yes, he's engaging on his radio show. I guess when you do 100 shows a year plus whatever else it's work. Very few of his peers still standing.

And not just his peers of course: plenty of subsequent generations of teenage rebels watching daytime TV in the royalty retirement home while the Never Ending Tour rock n' rolls on. Having seen him a few times, I look forward to the reinterpretations of the classics - some bands seem to turn into their own tribute bands, endlessly recreating the hits. I wouldn't be surprised if he dies on the road, like Hank.

 Blue Straggler 25 May 2021
In reply to John Ww:

I saw him perform at Glastonbury 1995. I was no fan but I knew that deliberately missing the opportunity, would be stupid. 

And....he behaved! OK there wasn't exactly a "hey Glastonbury, great to see you, hope you're all having a good time" but he played facing the audience, and he played Blowin in the Wind, and it was all boring to me at that time but he wasn't crap and he wasn't rude iirc. 

Sorry to hear of your opposite experience. 

 neilh 25 May 2021
In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Sums it up well for me, never been a fan.

Removed User 25 May 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> And not just his peers of course: plenty of subsequent generations of teenage rebels watching daytime TV in the royalty retirement home while the Never Ending Tour rock n' rolls on. Having seen him a few times, I look forward to the reinterpretations of the classics - some bands seem to turn into their own tribute bands, endlessly recreating the hits. I wouldn't be surprised if he dies on the road, like Hank.

I think all good points.

I think too many want the 1966 greatest hits version despite his never having done any of that. He's always been divisive, abrasive, aloof, disgruntled - I've always thought that's the whole point and surely what made him famous. He calls himself just a song and dance man, but really, do people either sing along or dance to him? My experience of having heard his stuff literally from when I was born is that it's all just anecdotes in modern life - i'd no sooner expect a sing a long from him that I would the Sex Pistols. Surely people who drank the kool aid on the beatnik troubadour stuff noticed behind it was a guy from the rust belt, turning out the latest ways of commenting on life as Ford turns out new models. 

 Offwidth 26 May 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

The sex pistols were a commercial managed pop art project and the singalong and pogo was very enthusiastic from the start (John grew after that phase, much to his credit). It's all a long way from Bob.

Removed User 26 May 2021
In reply to Offwidth:

Ok pick any other abrasive band. Point was Dylan never seemed to sell himself as easy listening.

 Blue Straggler 02 Jun 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I saw him at Glastonbury 1998 and he respected that he was at a festival and played a straight version of Blowin in the Wind. His other material I didn’t really know at that time but at least he didn’t play with his back to the crowd etc (didn’t exactly whoop and holler “hey Glastonbury how ya doing?!” but who wants THAT? 😃) 

 Blue Straggler 02 Jun 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

didn’t he call himself the next generation Woody Guthrie? 

 mike123 02 Jun 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke: As above , I’ve seen him three times , he was in order ....just about ok , crap , utterly crap. I still however love much of his music and at any one time would place any or all three of :blood on the tracks , highway 61 revisited and desire in my all time top 10 . I saw Lou Reed once and he was beyond utterly crap . ( edit and I still like the velvets betterer than the doors )   
Edit : Chrissy hind was on rad Mac on the weekend saying that if there was just a couple of people in the room he was good company .

Post edited at 23:18
OP Andy Clarke 03 Jun 2021
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> didn’t he call himself the next generation Woody Guthrie? 

When Dylan was starting out on the life of a troubadour in New York, he made some visits to his idol, Woody, who was dying. At one of these he played him one of the first things he ever wrote, Song to Woody. Apparently (or apocryphally?) the great man's response went something along the lines of, "Kid, you got no problem writing songs, but you need to work on your singing..."


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