Me And Bobby

[poliphilo]

Scorsese's documentary about Dylan's youth has taken me back to my own "bliss was it in that dawn to be alive" moment. It's 1968, there are mountains outside the window and me and Graham Leader and Marc de May are going to change the world tomorrow, but today, in preparation, we're about to lean back, shut our eyes and listen to John Wesley Hardin just one more time...

Mind you, I didn't get it. Still don't. John Wesley Harding, I mean.

I have a rocky relationship with Dylan. I've always wanted to like him more than I actually do. I think the early stuff is dated and the "poetry" often facile- and yet scattered throughout his career, right up to the present, are songs I love. My very favourite is a thing called Dark Eyes which comes off a mid-80s album which many of the critics rate as his worst ever....

The second part of Scorsese's film is showing tonight. I'll be there.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But maybe you'll concede that even though you hate him, he's kinda interesting.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

????

I don't hate him. But I don't find him interesting. Sample dialog with guitar teacher:

GT: Didn't you practice this week?
Me: Well, I tried, but the tune just doesn't *speak* to me. I can't seem to concentrate on it.
GT: But it's a Bob Dylan song...
Me: Oh. That explains it.

And his voice has always grated on me like chalk on a blackboard.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like the voice.

But then I like medieval music too- crumhorns and other nasal, whiny instruments.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Crumhorns are nasal. Dylan is whiny. In my opinion, of course.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I won't quarrel with that.

But I like the whininess. It's individual.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Yep - I can't stand the voice, either, and have never found him all that exciting. It's nice to see I'm not alone!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I've also read that he was a real user of the generous Big Names in the early 60s Greenwich Village folk music scene. That and changing his name from Zimmerman to Dylan would have been enough to sour me on someone whose music was more to my taste.