[lbo-talk] Why are we still turning to Dylan forthesoundtracktoour demonstrations?

[Marta Russell]

Yes Louis, agreed.  Dylan produced some masterpieces.  "Pawn in their  
Game" about Medgar Evers murder.  He showed up in Mississippi to sing  
that at a gathering of some civil rights movement people after Evers  
was dead. "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" about the shit we have been  
experiencing since well he wrote this song.  The line, "I'll know my  
song well before I start singing"  I think is genius.  So that period  
of his work I admire.  Later works, less so mostly because I think he  
retreated into the personal and those just simply do not appeal to me  
as much.  The melody of Mr. Tambourine Man is lovely.  Dylan  
criticized the Byrd's rendition of it calling it POP or something to  
that effect.  He never wanted to be a social movement persona but he  
did go through a phase where he deeply admired Woody Guthrie's work.   
Then he went for himself.  He loves women.  That is what he cares  
about, his personal relations, not politics.  True his fortune has  
made  him be capable of forgetting about politics... I think he is  
completely apolitical now.  Sorry if some of this is a repeat of what  
has already been stated.  I did not read all the threads.

Marta

On Nov 16, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Louis Kontos wrote:


> 'This' is not a fair criticism of any amount of Dylan's work. If  
> Carl or
> anybody thinks that a particular Dylan song is incomprehensible and  
> that its
> incomprehensibility is worthy of discussion, then tell the rest of  
> us which
> and why. There's not only too much venom on this list regarding  
> Dylan (who
> no is forced to listen to) but also a lack of humility. John Adams
> understands 'some' of Dylan. So what? Carl Remick couldn't imagine the
> possibility of understanding any Dylan song even after listening to  
> it a
> million times. So what? Should anybody care about what John Adams  
> or Carl
> Remick have trouble understanding? Why? Carl refers to Dylan as 'just
> another multimillionaire showbiz airhead'. But any idiot can tell  
> you that
> Dylan has produced a bunch of masterpieces (not just good music). snip
>