I agree with your rant. The only exception that I would make would be The Band. Music From the Big Pink is essentially an album co-written by Dylan with a lot of songs that Dylan himself would perform live. I would say that if you want an introduction to Dylan that isn’t acutally Dylan get Music From the Big Pinkand then The Basement Tapes. Sort of ease your way in that way.
Then, once you feel like you might be able to get into his voice get Blood on the Tracks. It’s shorter than other classics like Blonde on Blonde and is, I think, a little bit more accessable to people who might be but off by the “Dylaniness” of his other stuff like say Highway 61 Revisited.
Then go out and get Biograph. I can’t think of a better intro to Dylan than that set. But you are going to want to be sure you can handle it before you dive into a retrospective of any sort.
Good point. Big Pink-era Band is sort of “honorary Dylan.” I don’t even mind all the studio outtakes they stuck onto The Basement Tapes. False advertising, maybe, but the results are nonetheless wonderful.
I don’t see these two things as comparable? Aretha’s gotta set of pipes on her that are amazing and formidable. She can sing and emote and convert your religion in the space of a bar of music.
I think I’m probably too old to get into Dylan, but I appreciate all who have shared their appreciation here. I said I’d go away and now I really am.
I think Beetles fans are worse than any Dylan fans. The Beetles fans present a unified church where as The Church of Dylan has two branches, The electric Dylan denomination and the Acoustic Dylan Choir.
I kind of prefer the Dylan versions of most of those songs to the ones on Big Pink. Perhaps the love for them comes from the fact that it came out when Dylan was incommunicado. The one song I think the Band does better is When I Paint My Masterpiece.
On the other hand, check out Blind Willie McTell on Bootleg 3 and on the Band’s Jericho. I realize that by this point they really weren’t the band anymore, but Dylan’s singing on that song is some of his best ever, and about 100 x better than the Band. There is real emotion in his version.
Thanks! I agree with you that many of his sentiments do come across as banal - though, as I said, he did come up with some good stuff as well. And Paul Simon was a good example to bring up of someone who’s a better lyricist than Dylan (IMO, of course). I don’t remember Paul doing anything as bathetic as “Joey” or “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”, at least.
Really? Bathetic? I always heard that as more an indifferent/sarcastic kiss-off (which is another type of song Dylan was fond of). But I admit I don’t care much for that one and haven’t listened to it for probably decades.
Interestingly enough, I saw a recent exhibition of many of Dylan’s notes. It was obvious that his lyrics, that seem to just flow so naturally, are in fact the product of a lot of hard work. There were many revisions, word changes, and multiple drafts of some of his most famous songs.
But I don’t remember this specific one from the exhibition.
Well it wouldn’t be. In contrast with the well-worked-out songs you saw at the exhibition, “See You Later Allen Ginsberg” was just an off-the-cuff improvisation.
Most Dylan fans will proudly claim that their man produced some of the very finest popular music ever made – and some of the very worst as well. Dylan’s oeuvre contains both dizzying genius and utter drivel, along with some stuff that isn’t much of anything. He embodies both extremes of quality, and a lot of the middle ground in between.
I’m not a Paul Simon expert, but I never regarded him as being in Dylan’s league. Simon’s writing in the 60s comes off as the work of a precocious guy who never did anything but read books, and his lyrics are earnest, literary poses lacking in any real passion. (I do think he improved with age.)
Fenris, I do intend to respond to your post (if anyone is still paying attention to this thread), but I need to carve out the time to do it properly.
There’s no accounting for taste, and when it comes to art, who’s to say? But “49th Street Bridge Song” and “Bookends” and “The Sounds of Silence” and “April Come She Will” and “Homeward Bound” lack passion? Not in my book.
There is no better poetry in the English language. Some as good, but MTM is wonderful. And the music is good too. I like a lot of Dylan’s lyrics a lot. His music is not so groundbreaking, but I was a wee tot when he went electric.
