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Non-Bob Dylan fans

okay, so you've never got him. you hate him.

but listen to this. what does it make you feel? i'd be interested, genuienly.

just give it a chance...needs speakers



I love Bob Dylan, but I'm not keen on this one.

It was the first self-titled album and Highway 61 Revisited that first grabbed me.

This is the first Dylan I ever listened to - I was immediately hooked:

 
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incredible that we've made it to 2022 and some people still think singers all have to be able to hold a tune.
It's not about whether he can hold a tune. It's whether I like his voice or not. I love Animal from Anti-Nowhere League's voice and no-one would accuse him of being a talented singer. There's loads of music I dodge because I don't like the vocals, with far more talented singers and far more going on with the music.

This song is some interesting guitar/mandolin plucking and Dylan parping through his harmonica before singing like Dylan. As I don't like his voice and what he does with it there's not much else to hold onto.
 
I'm not a fan, but his voice/singing is great. A lot of folk singers sound very sincere, very direct. With Dylan there's a casual biting distance and consequent understated emotional complexity. Paul Simon for example was seriously jealous of his voice. I totally get why he was revolutionary in his time.
 
I like bits of Dylan but (like many others) think others do his songs much better. I have a friend with whom I argue about Dylan. He says “Listen to the lyrics!” and I reply “But where are the tunes?”. This is the complaint I have with a lot of country music and what comes under the banner of “Americana” - supposedly great lyrics set to dull and predictable chords. (Springsteen is esp. boring in this regard)
 
Not a track for me.

I like this though...



I saw him in Finsbury park thanks to belboid a few years ago and he was shite, the sound was all over the place and he just didn't look like he was in it for the gig. Belboid had a lovely voice though :D

To be fair I think The Waterboys were better than Bob that day.
 
Not a track for me.

I like this though...



I saw him in Finsbury park thanks to belboid a few years ago and he was shite, the sound was all over the place and he just didn't look like he was in it for the gig. Belboid had a lovely voice though :D

To be fair I think The Waterboys were better than Bob that day.


Stories of Bob doing terrible gigs seem to be par for the course. I’d be wary about going to see him for that reason.
 
Stories of Bob doing terrible gigs seem to be par for the course. I’d be wary about going to see him for that reason.
To be fair thanks to Belby we got spun in for nowt due to some blag he put us on to and got to see the Cranberries who were surprisingly good that day. I also had a piss behind an ice cream van with Tony Robinson from time-team where I asked him if he'd ever seen "a Roman pot hadle as long as this". Probably one of the highlights of the day. Thanks Tony, you didn't have to look that closely x
 
I'm not a fan, but his voice/singing is great. A lot of folk singers sound very sincere, very direct. With Dylan there's a casual biting distance and consequent understated emotional complexity. Paul Simon for example was seriously jealous of his voice. I totally get why he was revolutionary in his time.
here's my theory. he's not really a "singer" but an actor. he is never quite himself in his song, not like a say Damon Alburn is, or a Thom Yorke. There's never really a sense of "oh this is dylan singing about dylan's life". There's always an element of distance between Dylan and teh actual "person" in teh song. But rather than an actor, he sort of embodies this new person flawlessy so you don't get the sense of Dylan>acting>person in teh song. he just presents the new formation (and that song is a great example of that). that's why a lot of people say he is a ventrilloqist. He is so insincere that he is sincere. Maybe because his voice is "shit" on any objective measure, means he has to overcompensate by putting on an act. His talent is so strong thought that the "acted" is seemlessly real.

now send that off to pseuds corner for christs sake. but that's my theory after decades of on and off spell bound listening. there's something utterly weird about the bloke.
 



In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment, I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
And the sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey, I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintery light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, at times it's only me
I'm hanging in the balance of a perfect finished plan
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand
 
Definitely not London, or it would have been a load of nonsense and I would never agreed with them.

(Actually, I think it was everywhere generally, but it is Manchester that is remembered for the "Judas" heckle.)

If you are a Dylan fan you would know that it was the Albert Hall, not the Free Trade hall Manchester as erroneously believed. This is documented of one of the Bootleg series covers.
 
If you are a Dylan fan you would know that it was the Albert Hall, not the Free Trade hall Manchester as erroneously believed. This is documented of one of the Bootleg series covers.
I'm not Dylan fan, but I invite you to Google it.
 
If you are a Dylan fan you would know that it was the Albert Hall, not the Free Trade hall Manchester as erroneously believed. This is documented of one of the Bootleg series covers.
 
Don't hate him, have listened to the classic albums & enjoyed them but never got massively into him. Saw him at the Fleadh in Finsbury Park in the 90s, listened to a few songs , he was shite. Headed for the Timeout tent , forgot who was playing , tent was packed , as plenty of folk had escaped from Dylan.

Lindisfarne fucking nailed it that day.
 
Just reminds me how truly revolutionary and brilliant the Beatles were
I lived through the emergence of the Beatles, but didn't really come to appreciate them until much later. Extant between 1962 and 1970, and 52 years later, so much of their music is still played.
 
Not sure if I'm allowed to post on this thread because I've always been a huge Dylan fan. Seen him perform three times, all very different but the best was at Brixton Academy. One particular highlight that evening was when he played London Calling.

I enjoy his early acoustic folk stuff but it's the later stuff with The Band that I really love. Proper Dylan fans will know the relevance of Ronnie Hawkins death the other day, non-Dylan fans probably won't care!

Anyway, I reckon he is/was one of the greatest poets of the Twentieth Century. The songs (and his "singing") is merely a vehicle for his poetry, imo.

I listened to this the other day, it's only short but it was quaintly interesting:

 
Don't hate him, have listened to the classic albums & enjoyed them but never got massively into him. Saw him at the Fleadh in Finsbury Park in the 90s, listened to a few songs , he was shite. Headed for the Timeout tent , forgot who was playing , tent was packed , as plenty of folk had escaped from Dylan.

Lindisfarne fucking nailed it that day.

I've no doubt told this before.

I went to see Lindisfarne in the Prince's Hall in Aldershot. It wasn't a terribly well attended event (1988, so well past their fame days).

They had a new album out, and the first five songs they played were from that. The audience became more and more restive, and actually ended up booing.

The band stopped mid song, went into a huddle, and erupted into 'Clear white Light'.

The rest of the show was a 'greatest hits' resume, and was absolutely fantastic. One of the best concerts ever for me.
 
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