What do you think of Bob Dylan
- Thread starter BigMoaner
- Start date
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
but both were prompted by the film coming out this weekend. One to avoid for the likes of me, and for the purists who think biopics should stick to the facts and refrain from using artistic license - the ‘Judas!’ occurrence happens at Newport rather Manchester and Pete Seeger literally uses an axe to cut him off.I mean coincidentally with your post
Jammy smears
Pickle your knees in cheese
I listen to some Bob every day, there is so much of it, it's impossible to tire of him and I go through phases of listening to the same song or album on repeat as I cannot get enough of it. I love his voice, the intonation, the delivery, the phrasing, the words, the whole package really.
There are very few covers of his songs that I can get through, I hated The Byrds especially for turning great songs into wishy washy plinky plonk tunes. Most of the artists who try just cannot compete with his delivery PJ Harvey's cover of Highway 61 revisited is probably one of the most bearable cover, obviously it's not a patch on Bob's version but she gives it a good go.
Kudos to Jenny Lewis as I love her version of standing in the doorway but that's a later song and easier to cover than his earlier stuff I would imagine.
I wish I'd been around in the 60s to have seen him live. I saw him 2008ish and it was cack really, me and the other half were kind of playing name that tune and Bob was usually half way through a song before we could work out what it was.
There are very few covers of his songs that I can get through, I hated The Byrds especially for turning great songs into wishy washy plinky plonk tunes. Most of the artists who try just cannot compete with his delivery PJ Harvey's cover of Highway 61 revisited is probably one of the most bearable cover, obviously it's not a patch on Bob's version but she gives it a good go.
Kudos to Jenny Lewis as I love her version of standing in the doorway but that's a later song and easier to cover than his earlier stuff I would imagine.
I wish I'd been around in the 60s to have seen him live. I saw him 2008ish and it was cack really, me and the other half were kind of playing name that tune and Bob was usually half way through a song before we could work out what it was.
PTK
Paul Kegan
Bob Dylan was cack when I saw him perform at Wembley Stadium in 1984. Yet most of the people there seemed to think he was great. I suppose that is what it must be like to be at a political rally in North Korea.
PTK
Paul Kegan
There was a series on the career of Bob Dylan on Radio 4 a few years ago, and no mention at all was made of this song, in which he explicitly announces that he was no longer committed to left-wing politics and protest songs. "Going electric" was described as being seen as a betrayal. There was no mention of the fact that "going electric" was not just "going electric" but was a repudiation of protest songs.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Apocryphal according to Wikipediaand Pete Seeger literally uses an axe to cut him off.
breadandcircuse
"The time is always right to do what is right"
The First Cut is the Deepest too I think. Great song.Cat Stevens wrote some stunners. Father and son. Where do the children play. Matthew and Son. My lady D'arbanville. Wild world. Oh Caritas. Und viel anderen.
Speak for yourself re 'some tunes you recognise'. This was the music of my youth. (Dismounts high horse.)
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
yes, that's why I said it's one to avoid for the truth purists. He wasn't in Newport when an audience member yelled Judas at him either - he wasn't even in the same country!
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Can't really answer the poll because I hold the boringly common opinion that while he may be one of the 20th century's greatest songwriters, he's a terrible singer. So he's not irredeemably excellent or poor. As probably a dozen people have already said, I love his songs when other people sing them.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Oh OK - but in the film Seager doesn't chop the wires with an axe - he is just tempted to and his wife stops him.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Ah ok, i misunderstood a review then.
PTK
Paul Kegan
Well, that he did not use the axe - that is the original story.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
Here's my grand and pretentious Dylan theory. Very few of his songs actually contain "him" - i.e. he never really sings from his own perspective. He is in this sense an actor. Each one of his songs, a very few, are confessionals, stories, narratives of others. Which would in many cases then scream "inauthentic" and why the hell is he trying to embody anyone other than himself ? - but here is the crux of his genius: he becomes the character in the sense of total immersion and personification. And this is where the "voice" comes into it - he does it as a voice actor would, he uses phrasing, timing, pauses, tension. And whether he's singing about the auction block in slave times, or a business man travelling through missippi, the creepy thing is that he truly sounds real, the character sounds real. I mean take this example, does this sound like a true wild west inhabitant recounting Billy, or a closeted middle class boy from a normal background (whcih Dylan was). It's personification and it's even a bit weird if you ask me. all of that is not even starting on the lyrics.
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