[lbo-talk] MoDo on Dylan

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Sun Apr 10 09:24:46 PDT 2011


On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:50 AM, Max Sawicky wrote:


> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>
> I don't usually read her but the headline caught me.
> Summary: Dylan sells out by playing a pre-approved
> set list in the PRC.
>
> Funniest line, attributed to Dylan:
> "Folk music is a bunch of fat people."
>
> (For the sake of concise, I ignore the irony of MoDo accusing
> someone else of selling out.)
>
> By MoDo, Dylan has always opportunistically embraced
> whatever access he was afforded to make it professionally,
> first folk music, then activism, not believing in a bit of it.
>
> As someone deeply involved in his music since forever,
> I don't quite believe this.

How many great artists cannot be justly accused of opportunism? Bach and Mozart were always sucking up to Kings and Electors. Beethoven wrote that piece of reactionary musical crap, the "Battle Symphony." Wagner made himself the favorite of an insane Wittlebach kinglet. Mahler and Mendelssohn "converted" to Christianity. Prokofiev wrote "On Guard for Peace" and Shostakovich "Song of the Forests." etc., etc. Shane Mage

"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on a apporté."

Bardo Thodol



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