Assholes Who Don't Like Dylan's Voice

The BBQ Pit
61

Alright . . . Who ARE you and what have you done with our humorous, cuddly teddy-bear Ukulele Ike, he of the mature and well-thought-out arguments and opinions?

Could this be—gasp!—Bizarro Ike, come here to disrupt the Board by posting asinine, ill-tempered and intellectually insulting tirades under our beloved Ike’s name? Yeah, that’s gotta be it.

P.S. Love Bob Dylan’s songs. Hate his voice. I also happen not to care for Coleman Hawkins, Frank Sinatra or Beethoven. Getcher panties out of that bunch about it, boy-o.

62

[hijack]
I want to see someone make a movie in which Matt Dillon plays a character named James R. Ness (Eliot’s brother).
[/hijack]

63

**

I completely agree with you there, Ike. I still don’t like Bob Dylan. If I decide to try once again to like him, though, it won’t be because I worry I won’t be a real grown up unless I do.

I know that Bob Dylan is a great folk singer, very highly respected and appreciated by smashing folks such as yourself. He’s just not my dram of Lagavulin.

64

I have always found it significant that I am tone deaf and I can’t stand to listen to the sound of Bob Dylan’s voice. I’m not sure what it signifies, but it might be something.

Now kindly pass me some of that Chateau Lafitte-Rothschild, thank you very much. Do I have to use a glass, or can I chug-a-lug it right from the bottle?

65

Hmph. This from the woman who releases banshee wails each time it becomes obvious that 90% of our little on-line community doesn’t watch pre-1970 movies?

C’mon. You’re as bad an Elitist as any of us. Worse. C’mon. You know you are. C’mon. C’mon. Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle…

66

Now, that’s quality entertainment!

FTR, I think the entire music and entertainment industry would serve us better if y’all stopped arguing about the relative talents of old posers like Dylan/Springsteen/Petty etc and started discussing musicians with some relevance to today. Hell, I’m in my mid-thirties but I can still find and dig:

Jill Sobule
Michelle Shocked
Eddie From Ohio
Mary Prankster
Emmit Swimming
Cowboy Mouth

and a multitude of other struggling, worthy musicians.

So get off your anal-rententive, stuck in the 70s asses and look around!

  • Jonathan “listening to ‘Dustbowl Ballads’ from Woody Guthrie right now” Chance
67

Of course I’m an elitist—a bigger elitist than YOU are, I’ll bet. But I do try not to froth at the mouth and call people assholes if they suggest that, say, Rudolph Valentino, couldn’t act.

. . . And stop tickling. That’s for after work tonight. Room 405 at the Algonquin, right? You have the “Will Geer Bad-Girl Stick?”

68

I love Bob Dylan, Would have named my son Dylan but that would have made him Dylan Thomas---- and that’s just cruel.

Bob’s voice is undescribable and at times undecipherable but is always unforgettable. I think as a songwriter he is a genius. Just listen to his original Mr. Tamborine Man.

“and we’ll dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the trees,circled by the circus sand
with all memory and fate, driven deep beneath the waves
let us forget about today until tommorow”

I love Bob Dylan 'nuff said

69

Tom Petty did not start out as a Dylan wannabe. When Petty first started it was southerfried rock. Nothing like what he turned into over the years. Go back and listen to some of his earlier stuff. It is so far away from what he is doing now.
And “The Boss” sucks ass. Hey, let’s get in front of a mic and scream out some tunes in a hoarse voice. That’s okay, women only like me for my tight jeans.

Damn it you guys I was so trying to stay civil here. I can respect that people like different music. Hell, there is only a handful of music that my husband and I can agree on. Let alone trying to agree with half the world.
In the words of the Beatles, “Let it Be”.

70

I agree with Ike, here. It’s not the fact that you might not like Bob Dylan’s voice that is a problem. It’s the claim that his voice is bad, or that he lacks talent, as a singer. The first is a matter of taste, and you are welcome to your wonderbread. I like rye.

I once had a few bottles of Chateau Lafitte-Rothschild, (a seventy six, for those with enough savvy to be jealous, and yes, it was just what they say.) I had a few friends over, and poured two glasses of dark red wine for each of them. One the premiere vintage of the second half of the century, the other, Gallo Mellow Red, of the current month. (The screw top, not the bag, there are limits, after all.)

My friends preferred the Gallo, thank you very much. Not a problem, really. They like sweeter tastes. But the fact that the Rothschild lost five to nothing in the test does not make it bad. It was good. Really good. But it was not sweet.

Dylan is not sweet, nor is he mellifluous. He does not croon. But he has a great voice. His voice is not pretty, but it is great. It puts forth his passion, and does so with an emotional precision seldom heard in popular music. He rocks, he raves, he cries, and he scornfully declaims himself.

You might not like Bob Dylan, and you might not like Chateau Lafitte-Rothschild. But that does not make Dylan a hack singer, and it does not make the wine swill. It does say your palette is unsophisticated. Sophistication is not better, but it is different.

71

“Roughness, toughness and grit” are fine in a singer’s voice. Whining and sneering are something else.

Dylan is just an acquired taste.

Sort of like self-mutilation.

72

Liking or disliking Dylan’s ‘voice’ does not speak of a lack or a possession of sophistication. Some of us would rather listen to Nina Simone and Billie Holiday than some nasal, atonal whining multi-millionaire.

And just because some people don’t care for Nina’s voice doesn’t mean I have to insult them and tell them they have no taste. The value isn’t in the pretentiousness of the bottle, the value is in the taste and the body.

73

Sigh. I’ll just sit over here in the corner, tangled up in blue…

74

Who mentioned Dennis Rodman?

75

It is not the like for Holiday, nor even the dislike for Dylan that speaks to a lack of sophistication. It is the need to despise that which you do not appreciate. I prefer Simone to Holiday by a great margin, however I don’t find it necessary to belittle Holiday as a justification for my taste. Whining and atonal are inaccurate, and millionaire inapplicable to the question. You don’t like Dylan. Your loss. But it does not make his talent less. It does show your lack of sophistication that you cannot see that.

Tris

76

As arrogant as ever I see.

Taste is subjective. So is the concept that Dylan ‘sings.’

It does not speak of a lack of sophistication. It speaks of a different taste.

I can share a taste without forcing it on others. You and Ike have to make others believe the same things otherwise there is something wrong with them. Whatever.

77

Ok, let me see if I am following your argument.

I say that denigrating the inherent quality of one artistic endeavor is unsophisticated, although simply disliking it is a matter of taste.

You say that what Dylan does isn’t even singing.

That makes me arrogant.

And you, of course, are the sophisticated champion of individuality, right?

:wally

Tris

78

Still reading into a post whatever you want to it supports your narrow and somewhat clueless view I see.

One can have an opinion that differs from yours, including that Bob Dylan is an abyssmal singer, and it can just be an opinion, you incredible dickhead.

I never claimed to be a sophisticated champion of individuality… but I’ll take the accolade anyway.
At least I can have a point of view about something as subjective as art and not expect everyone to agree with me.

So, be a conformist and demand everyone else conform. Your requirement that everyone recognize Dylan is no different than your annoying habit of everyone having to recognize your deity.

Fuck you, Tris.

79

We’re getting married Sunday, baby. Before the honeymoon, do you mind tatooing “So easy to look at, so hard to define” on your ass? (Obviously, I love that song. Not as much as “Tangled Up In Blue” or “4th Time Around,” but I still love it.)

I would like to insert here that both Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen are two of my favorite singers. “Born to Run” is my most favorite rock song ever. Every time “Dancing in the Dark” plays at work, I do a boogie-woogie for the customers. And “Thunder Road” - an epic. Truly an epic. Springsteen is a poet, though not on the same level as Dylan. And I also love Billie Holliday and Nina Simone. “I Want A Little Sugar in my Bowl” is my theme song. “These Foolish Things” will play at my wedding (to Alessen. Sunday. Ya’ll are invited.)

I can absolutely understand why Ike is all pissed here. I love to read. It’s in my blood. And I want to cry when people say that Shakespeare, Dickens, Faulkner, or Joyce are poor writers. Yes, they are hard to read. Yes, they are complicated and difficult, but in the end, reading “The Rape of Lucrece” or “Great Expectations” is as rewarding an experiance as I can possibly imagine. It’s art; it’s beauty, it will be loved and cherished long after we die, and Britney et.al. are playing a fool’s game in trying to compete.

Yes, it all boils down to personal opinion. It’s not being arrogant to say that it’s your loss to not love Bob Dylan. Every time I hear “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” I am left breathless. It makes me sad that other people cannot get past his unique voice. And it’s terribly childish say that he sucks because you don’t like him.

80

I don’t care for his vocals (I think they sound aweful), I have a certain respect for him though. So anyway, my palette is unsophisticated? When did appriciation for Dylan’s voice merit a sophisticated individual? Please explain.