@consequence Bob Dylan reflects on his friendship with former president Jimmy Carter. #bobdylan #jimmycarter ♬ original sound - consequence
December 31, 2024
"He's a kindred spirit to me of a rare kind — the kind of man you don't meet every day and that you're lucky to meet if you ever do."
Said Bob Dylan, about Jimmy Carter.
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Bob Dylan is wordy and succinct at the same time. You don't see that every day. You're lucky if you ever see that. It's not just rare. It's of a rare kind.
Hey nice, he likes to be with his friends and hang out and talk about how to change the world. Lots of people do that - great! Now please stop hiring your friends to run things. That bullshit you shovel over beers is hurting everyone…
That bonus Willie is interesting. For a long time Willie was a dysfunctional drunk propped up by enablers a la Prince or Michael Jackson. Those enablers put Willie on the hook with the IRS and he spent a good chunk of his life climbing out of that hole. Jimmy and I…basically come from the same spot. Yes. Yes you do…
Nothing better than bonus Willie.
We were lucky that Carter was followed by Ronald Reagan as president.
I wonder what Dylan meant by that.
I dont know what to make of that. Dylan seems to have liked Carter because he truly appreciated his songs and didn't "talk down" to him. I guess Dylan hadn't dealt with many good politicans up to that point. They're the masters of making you think you're their special friend.
But on 2nd thought, I think Carter love of Dylan's music was genuine. He really was an "average guy" in many ways. Certainly, he never wanted to be on Martha's Vinyard yapping with Punch Sulzberger and Henry Kissinger over champagne and smoked salmon.
Too bad he didn't follow the Johnny Cash, Kris Kristoferson model and pick up a guitar and start writing songs and becoming a professional musician.
That in another life, Bob was a peanut farmer.
Does this mean that Dylan jacked up mortgage rates to 20%?
"He's a kindred spirit to me of a rare kind" Kindred in the sense of being an arrogant sanctimonious narcissist? Say it ain't so, Bob!
Carter was an awful President and an awful man. But he liked Bob Dylan, so he had one thing going for him.
I can’t think of any reply to this, except: “Huh? Really?”
Poor Jimmy carter. He was an honest liberal, and didn't get the message that human rights and liberal internationalism doesn't apply to Israel. They can make agreements, like Camp David Accords, and break them and we're all supposed to ignore that.
I was really taken aback by all the neo-con and conservative hate directed at poor ol' Jimmy, who probably the best Democrat POTUS since JFK. But then I realized that it all has to do with Israel.
You know who else loved Jimmy Carter? Hunter S. Thompson. Carter seems to have attracted a large number of admirers as well as critics.
My go-to is "....And..?"
"I dont know what to make of that. Dylan seems to have liked Carter because he truly appreciated his songs and didn't "talk down" to him...."
Since I don't believe anyone talks down to Bob Dylan, I had to interpret this as some kind of joke. It's just a question of why it's funny. But, personally, I happen to think that nearly everything he says is funny. Certainly, all the interviews are funny. The songs are funny too. For example, take one that seems like it can't be funny, say "Hurricane," and look at it and you can find plenty of jokes.
Carter was still a loyal Soviet-Democratic to the bitter end.
Jimmy Carter said:
“I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,”
(Strange - there isn't any evidence that happened at all)
That's some major Democrat-Soviet MSNBC+ Maddow+Hillary+ corrupt FBI koolaide. Election denying Koolaid. Never forgive - never forget.
Waiting patiently for HIllary Clinton to croak. w/something miserable to match her miserable lie-filled behavior.
I have always liked Dylan, for a complicated human he seemed to always just rely on his desires, instincts and talent and not the spotlight. He just did what he did…and we loved it. And I could always understand the words to his songs. The meanings. Well they are apparently my own to chew on. I liked that he gives us that latitude.
Carter was more like one of those funky, backcountry Americana figures that Dylan loves than other recent American presidents. Bill Clinton was too much a part of the television era. Carter came out of the more "authentic" era of 78 records and hootenannies.
Carter's quote about a country being busy being born, rather than busy dying, did a lot to put Dylan's name in the newspapers where the older generation of the day could read it. It seems like in Carter's day and still more in our own, the country has been much busier dying than being born.
From the same song:
"Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked"
I went to see what was funny in the song "Hurricane," and when I came back, I thought I was seeing comments about Ruben Carter (as opposed to Jimmy Carter).
Anyway, just briefly, here are some things in a song that is ostensibly full of harsh critique and anger:
1. Patty Valentine sees one dead man and cries out “they killed them all.”
2. "I didn’t do it… I was only robbin’ the register."
3. “The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye/Says, “Wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!”
4. “Don’t forget that you are white”
5. There is humor in the rhyming: "We want to put his ass in stir/We want to pin this triple murder on him” (rhyming “in stir” with “murder”); the ludicrously easy rhyming of “trigger” with the famous racial slur; “he was the one who did the deed/And the all-white jury agreed”
X - Cynical Publius says:
"I promised to myself that I would not comment further on Jimmy Carter’s death, but it bothers me to see so many otherwise sensible conservatives spouting the “Bad President, good man” line that the Democrat/Media Complex has been spinning for 40+ years. Thus, I feel the need to drop some truth bombs, propriety at time of death notwithstanding.
Yes, he hammered a few nails on some houses for poor people. But that alone does not make one a “good man,” when the rest of the track record is so awful.
After Carter lost in spectacular fashion in 1980, he did not do what every other President before him did and retire to a quiet, private life. He could have farmed peanuts in Plains with Rosalynn. Instead, he bitterly engaged in active and public efforts to undermine the policies of the elected Republicans who came after him. He INVENTED the jealous, manipulative ex-President model that Obama put on steroids in 2016.
Jimmy Carter flew around the world for decades, un-asked by America, on self-appointed missions of national importance, almost always involving gleefully interacting with raging antisemitic terrorist and/or Communist leaders, always working against the official policies of the ACTUALLY ELECTED Presidents. Carter’s hatred of Israel bordered on pathological, and reeked of a sort of cloaked antisemitism that has become quite fashionable today. Somehow Jimmy Carter convinced himself that he was such an important and historic figure that he stood outside and above the U.S. systems of election and governance, even though no one other than the Yassar Arafats and Hugo Chavezs of the world asked him to do so."
more..
"immy Carter was a bitter, angry narcissist who cloaked his lifelong, seething rage at the indignity of being body-slammed by Ronald Reagan (someone he considered lesser than himself in every regard) with that genteel "Southern gentleman" accent, vague scripture references and the occasional hammered nail. He purposely and vengefully wreaked havoc on America’s official foreign policy for decades and he INVENTED the concept of a meddling ex-President poisoning American political discourse. (In that regard, Obama has been Carter v.2.0—we have Carter to thank for that.)
Literally every aspect of the man’s self-serving public life was harmful to America, he knew that, and he did it all anyway because narcissists always operate like that—they cannot help it, and they can never admit fault. Carter's "good man" image was a carefully constructed and nurtured illusion, one that he gladly worked with the corrupt media to maintain.
So please consider these factors before pronouncing “Bad President, good man.” Sometimes truth needs to be said even when some find that truth untimely."
Link
Thank Elon for free speech on X.
Otherwise Twitter would still be Soviet-Democratic.
I saw Dylan's "kindred spirit" remark and immediately thought of Joan Baez' remark to (movie) Dylan; "you're kind of a jerk, aren't you?"
Is Dylan worship the ultimate in female hypergamy?
He was. But then he put his boots on and it was time for his boot heels to be wanderin’.
"Is Dylan worship the ultimate in female hypergamy?"
He doesn't seem at all marriageable. He seems like someone you wouldn't want in your house. It's about the art. The man is a distant mystery that I'm not even interested in solving.
"I saw Dylan's "kindred spirit" remark and immediately thought of Joan Baez' remark to (movie) Dylan; "you're kind of a jerk, aren't you?""
Exactly, and that's my point in my previous comment. He behaves and speaks in a way that seems designed to repel or at least distance. We all received the message long ago to listen to the songs, and that's what we've done.
The targets of female hypergamy are, by definition, men who don’t marry their pursuers. Because every woman is pursuing them.
I hated that song and that Rolling Thunder period of Dylan’s performances. The maudlin violin and “gypsies on the road” bullshit. Pull the other one…
Maybe that’s why Dylan had Norm come and stay with him that time. The closest thing to poetry is comedy. Two sides of the same coin maybe?
Jimmy Carter has gotten a bad rap. Unlike Joe Biden he wasn't a criminal. Unlike Barack Obama he did not foster racial division. Jimmy Carter was an honest man who wanted to do good. He believed that the United States should be more humble, be one nation among other equally sovereign nations. He believed that the Palestinians had a right to exist. I didn’t agree with him about those things at the time, but I do now. however incompetent a President he may have been, and I'm not at all sure he was incompetent, after George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Joe Biden he is looking pretty good.
This is the funniest Dylan song, IMHO.
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/ballad-thin-man/
If one of the most powerful movers of a society is an idea whose time has come, then one of the lamest and saddest are the good men whose time is passed. Jimmy Carter and Woodrow Wilson both have that in common. Wilson's internationalist views in 1919 and Carter's plea to reject an ''inordinate fear of Communism" in 1977 are perfect examples. The time wasn't right for either one. Their vision for America's future didn't square with the actual conditions of the day and so it fell on deaf ears. They were men and were presidents out of sync with their day.
Singer or savior, it was his to choose
Which of us knows what was his to lose
Because idols are best when they're made of stone
A savior's a nuisance to live with at home - Winds of the Old Days - Joan Baez
And yet he created the Taliban with a stroke of the pen in 1979 to provoke a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I know that there are posters here who think that prosecuting their Old World blood feud with Russia was worth the 3,000 lives, and follow on wars, but I don't. Peace would have been better. The Soviet Union would have collapsed on its own. It was untenable. Afghanistan might have ended up a civilized country, like other former communist states in the region.
On balance, I tend to think Hurricane Carter did participate in those murders.
From Hurricane Carter to Jimmy Carter.
Not sure Bob is the best judge of character.
@ST
Negging is so 10 years ago.
".... the ludicrously easy rhyming of “trigger” with the famous racial slur"
That ryhme had been used a couple years before in National Lampoon's Lemmings, which I saw it in the Village Gate as a teenager.
I was about 16 and for me, at that time, it was one of the greatest things I had ever seen. An unkown John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker imitation, Chevy Chase as the MC for the parody Woodstock, Christopoher Guest doing Dylan brilliantly (he was able to switch seemlessly between Folk Bob and Country Bob) and a woman I forgot doing a funny Joan Baez parody promoting Black Radicals which was titled: "Pull the trigger, N...."
They were both disrupters. One revolutionized the music scene. The other destroyed the American middle class.
I think of Dylan, I think of that comment Lazlo made a few years back in one of his sketches he used to post here: "This is one of those moments where I am either going to have to be a jerk, or regret it for a long time." Those were not his exact words, but that was the sentiment.
It is refreshing to hear someone honestly think out loud instead of making statements that only sound good but are born hollow.
Dylan is inspirational because he's not out to inspire, he's not teaching anyone how to live, just trying to be on contact with who he is and what he feels.
What comes through to me is Dylan does not take credit so much as he gives it, imparting a kind of spirituality. His reverence for his songs seems born of humility, not pride.
Jimmy Carter was good at precisely one thing: fooling people into thinking he was a good man. Fooled you, too, jnseward.
I agree. I think Dylan was left with some egg on his face after all of it.
Never liked Dylan.
Never liked Carter.
Two awful people.
Dylan shouldn’t go to hell.
Hope Carter is there.
I wonder: did they have a love, a love you don't find every day?
I was certainly repelled by Bob Dylan's "acting" in Pat Garrett and Billy the kid, so at least in that case I can say: Mission accomplished.
If you'd told me in 1981, that I'd be sitting somewhere 43 years later talking about Bob Dylan right after Jimmy Carter died, I'd have called you crazy.
First time you said that?
"Carter was an awful President and an awful man."
What president have we had in the last 60 years who was not, in varying degrees, an awful President and an awful man?
As for Carter, here is a fairly brutal survey of his presidency. What's appalling is that Carter was not the worst president of the last half-century.
"Unlike Barack Obama he did not foster racial division."
That's kind of an unfair accusation to make against him, as it was merely the fact of his being a black man that aroused hatred and turmoil among the many Americans who are racists.
As a president, he was weak tea, a middle-of-the-road conservative Dem who would have been welcome in the Republican Party of not so long ago.
Dylan's energetic longevity seems like further proof of the life-prolonging effects of red wine.
As a long time fan of Dylan it pains me to have to say this but BD has a real blind spot when it comes to the people he lionizes. For example John Wesley Harding the serial murdering gunslinger of the Old West , Joey Gallo the New York City mobster and assassin, or Rubin "Hurricane" Carter who was convicted more than once of murder & robbery , but got off on appeals (cf. OJ Simpson), and now, Jimmy Carter. As BD himself would likely admit there's no accounting for taste, especially in BD's case. And that's one of the drawbacks of being a Dylan fan too by the way.
That's kind of an unfair accusation to make against him, as it was merely the fact of his being a black man that aroused hatred and turmoil among the many Americans who are racists.
The cops acted stupidly.
If I had a son.
Hands up, don't shoot.
The list goes on.
That fucker never missed an opportunity to run his mouth about things he knew nothing about. And it was all to stoke racial divisions.
Don't forget "George Jackson" (1971):
Prison guards, they cursed him
As they watched him from above
But they were frightened of his power
They were scared of his love
Lord, Lord
So they cut George Jackson down
Lord, Lord
They laid him in the ground.
I remember similar said about Andy Griffith meanness ??!!
Here's a great old photo of Bob when he was young in 1957. Was on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/therealphotorocks/posts/pfbid0aeXTPF1HFDveZrS7QMaRvr6X9HjppKMshtAik8qoczn1VWHyXM1vuK5o68NtVDRYl
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