Last Thoughts On Bob Dylan (Part 2)

Continued from last post



Probably the most glowing and unexpected praise comes from Christopher Ricks who is the Professor of Poetry at Oxford and Professor of the Humanities at Boston University. In 2004 Ricks wrote a book called "Dylan’s Visions of Sin" which compared him favorably with classic poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson and T.S. Eliot.

In a 2004 New York Times article called "Dylan, Master Poet? Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
written by Charles McGrath. Ricks is quoted as saying ''A day doesn't go by when I don't listen to Dylan or at least think about him and his art,'' Mr. Ricks said in a recent interview -- on the afternoon, as it happened, of Mr. Dylan's 63rd birthday. ''I just think we're terrifically lucky to be alive at a time20when he is.''


How true, how true. But also, what the fuck are you talking about? You teach at Oxford and you can’t tell the difference between a poem someone wrote and someone scribbling down the first shit that comes into his head?

Bob Dylan is not a great poet. He’s not even a good poet. He wrote a number of great lines and a sea of garbage. He wont be regarded "with the awe reserved for Blake [William Blake], Whitman, Picasso and the like". He is a once great rock singer who said fuck you to a stupid audience. And that's all, and let that be enough. But i guess that's not enough.


Here’s some lines from his song Chimes of Freedom

"Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations"


"Disrobed
faceless
forms
of
no
position"- Bob Dylan



Here's some more, These are from his song Gates of Eden


With a time-rusted compass bladeAladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh
All except inside the Gates of Eden

So true. And never better said.

I’m deliberately picking lines here and someone could legitimately say that you can do that with any writer to try and make them look a certain way. True, true. All I can say is that there’s a lot more lines I could have picked but I don’t feel like writing an article that long.


Inconsistent and apathetic, he's the spark of something that never developed. Unable to tell the difference between the good parts of his songs and the bad, a long time ago he stopped caring which was which. And what's worse, and what has fostered his decline are the critics who can't tell the difference either. But there's too much invested in their God at this point to admit their mistake.



His greatest skill was his heartlessness. His greatest asset was his taste in music. His greatest line, and all he's left till the end of time, "play fucking loud".

Last Thoughts On Bob Dylan (Part 1)

“You're not going to use the real story, Mr. Scott?”
“No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

What is he? He wrote some great lines amid a ton of nonsense. The greatest live album of all time is the 1966 “Royal Albert Hall Concert” where the audience boos him for playing rock music, supposedly feeling that was a form of selling out. Before they play their last song someone in the audience yells out “Judas”. 2000 years ago Judas hung himself on a tree, 1966 years later he drives the fucking nails in himself. He was never as good again, no matter how many critics pretend that his last couple albums are as good as anything he’s ever done. They’re not. They’re blues songs people have been playing for 60 years. You’ve heard “‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Someday Baby” before. They’re not “new takes” on old ideas. They’re not “saying anything”. If it turns you on to listen to the same fucking blues song you’ve heard 8 billion times before then Modern Times is for you.


How much can someone be blamed for the legend that grows up around them? Clearly he’s partly to blame, but much of the way he’s perceived is out of his control. Bob Dylan wrote some great rock lyrics, adapted some great folk songs, and played the greatest rock concerts ever throughout 1966. And that’s all, and that’s enough. So when your constantly told that he’s the greatest genius, and the greatest artist, and the greatest poet, it gets boring, and it gets old. and it gets old. and it gets old. and it gets old.

In a 2001 article in Rolling Stone written by Mark Jacobson he writes, “Someday, no doubt, when the keepers of the tower officially allow that Bob was one of the two or three greatest American artists of the second half of the twentieth century, Dylanology will be boiled down to a standard three credits, a dry bonepile of jewels and binoculars to squeeze in between the Yeatsology and Whitmanology.”



Why only the “second half of the twentieth century”? Why not the entire twentieth century? Actually, who was better then Bob Dylan in the last 5000 years?


And here’s another article from Rolling Stone in their “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” issue in 2004. (Dylan’s number two on the list). It’s written by one of the greatest guitarists ever, Robbie Robertson, who played with Dylan during his greatest period in the mid 60's.

“But Bob is a great barometer for young singers and songwriters. As soon as they think they've written something good -- "I'm pushing the envelope here, I've made a breakthrough" -- they should listen to one of his songs. He will always stand as the one to measure good work by.”


Which song Robbie? By “one song” do you mean one in particular or could I pick any one? (The hack move here would be to pick his shittiest song and say “how about this one?” but I won’t do that. I could have though.)

To be continued