On May 28, 2006, at 2:08 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> In my right-wing days, we thought that
>> Dylan's "My Back
>>> Pages" was a great conservative song
>> <http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/
>>> backpages.html>:
>
> Of course it is really more of an anti-political song
I'm always amazed and amused by how Dylan fans - including my father- in-law - don't want to admit to the right-wing content of the song. The way he spits out "equality in school" is not apolitical - it's from someone who hates the very idea. "Liberty" is a very right-wing word. The contempt for professors and abstractions is right out of American right-wing populism.
National Review isn't entirely wrong about this. There's a deep streak of American individualism in rock and roll, and it's not just Ted Nugent. I love the Kinks (does anyone listen to them anymore?), but their politics are often pretty right wing. The anti-disco moment of punk was full of racism and homophobia. Not in every case, for sure, but it's there.
Doug