April 11, 2011

"I can hardly wait for The Althouse Woman to tear Maureen Dowd a new one today on MD's put down of Bob Dylan performing in China."

Meade reads me that comment from AllenS at the Crocus Café just as the last track of the vinyl record "New Morning" ends. We're playing "New Morning" — an album I've had since it came out when I was a college sophomore — because Meade cooked rainbow trout last night and he's been singing bits of "Sign on the Window" ever since...
Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me “Pa”
That must be what it’s all about
That is what's it's all about. Except we're in Madison, Wisconsin, not Utah. We're too old to have kids together. The house is too big to call a cabin. And we bought the rainbow trout at Whole Foods.

I started writing this post because I wanted to say, AllenS, I'm not going to do it. I'm not interested in what Maureen Dowd says about Bob Dylan. I started reading her column yesterday, and I got sick of it at the second paragraph:
The idea that the raspy troubadour of ’60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout — even worse than Beyoncé, Mariah and Usher collecting millions to croon to Qaddafi’s family, or Elton John raking in a fortune to serenade gay-bashers at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding.
Her Bob Dylan is "the raspy troubadour of ’60s freedom anthems." I've listened to Bob Dylan singing in 5 different decades, and Dowd has him stuck in the 60s, and the early 60s at that. She's seeing him as the instrument of the American political left, when he broke away from them almost a half century ago.

It's true that Dylan still frequently plays “The Times They Are a-Changin,’ ” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” — the 2 songs Dowd thinks Dylan could have sung to upset Chinese government officials. (To play a concert in Beijing, Dylan submitted his playlist for government approval. Here's my April 6th blog post on the subject: "What's the big deal about Dylan's 'protest' songs in China anyway? They're almost entirely aimed at the United States.")

Now that I am writing about Dowd's column, I realized I had to read the whole thing and not just get tripped up at the stereotype of the early 60s Dylan (and the disgusting lie about Rush Limbaugh). And I see she does get around to something like the point I was going to make. She taps David Hajdu's book “Positively 4th Street” for something closer to the real Bob:
“I never saw myself as a folksinger,” he said. “They called me that if they wanted to. I didn’t care. I latched on, when I got to New York City, because I saw (what) a huge audience there was. I knew I wasn’t going to stay there. I knew it wasn’t my thing. ... I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.”

“Folk music,” he concluded, “is a bunch of fat people.”

He can’t really betray the spirit of the ’60s because he never had it. 
I imagine Dowd had written the column she wanted to write, then called up David Hajdu, who gave her material that forced her to backtrack and reformulate her attack. But the reformulation is lame. The lefty folky politicos were the true 60s?! If there is some true spirit of the 60s, it would be more accurate to say it is whatever Bob Dylan was. It was complicated. Politically and personally.
“I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of,” he said.

He wrote that he wanted to have a house with a white picket fence and pink roses in back, live in East Hampton with his wife and pack of kids, eat Cheerios and go to the Rainbow Room and see Frank Sinatra Jr. perform.
A pack of kids... who call me “Pa”... That must be what it’s all about....

Real personal life, with the beauty of love and family, enhanced by the comforts of material affluence. A cabin. Fresh food. That's a more subversive message to the Chinese than what Dowd calls "[i]conic songs of revolution like 'The Times They Are a-Changin'' and 'Blowin’ in the Wind.'"

The day began with memories of rainbow trout, and I began writing this post meaning to end with rainbow. Looking up the "Sign in the Window" lyrics at bobdylan.com with my search term "rainbow" — I was looking for the rainbow — I saw all Dylan's "rainbow"s, including a second one in "Father of Night" — which is the aforementioned last track on the album "New Morning":
Father of night, Father of day
Father, who taketh the darkness away
Father, who teacheth the bird to fly
Builder of rainbows up in the sky...
Is that subversive in China?

There are 3 other Bob Dylan songs with rainbows:

1. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." This is a song full of everything bad Dylan could think of to throw at us, and yet: "I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow..."

2. "Desolation Row." He's singing about "Ophelia," who's "already... an old maid" at the age of 22. She "wears an iron vest" and has "her profession" as "her religion." Her sin is "lifelessness." She does, however, have "her eyes ... fixed upon Noah’s great rainbow." See? She doesn't belong in the city! She needs God, a husband, a bunch of kids, and a cabin in Utah. (Ah! This makes me think about how I went to New York City, instead of out into some western landscape, after all those listens-through of "New Morning" in college.)

3. "Beyond the Horizon." "Beyond the horizon, behind the sun/At the end of the rainbow life has only begun... The bells of St. Mary, how sweetly they chime/Beyond the horizon I found you just in time." Note, at the link to the lyrics at Bob Dylan's own website — scroll down — there's a YouTube embed of Guy Lombardo playing "Red Sails in the Sunset."

Think about what that means! "We marry tomorrow/And she goes sailing no more." They marry... and they go to the Rainbow Room! Or they catch rainbow trout. Or they eat rainbow trout that they bought at Whole Foods in Madison and play their old Bob Dylan records.

103 comments:

Unknown said...

Very lovely song. I hope Dylan finds that someone at the end of a rainbow.

David said...

So this post sent me to YouTube to find Dylan singing "Watchtower." But when I clicked on the link, I got the message that "this video can only be streamed within mainland China."

Unknown said...

For a lot of people, the Dylan of the early 60s is the only one they know, his having been sidelined most of the late 60s due to an accident (you can fill in particulars), so that's what they base the viewpoint on.

As Meade noted in the last post, I remember him coming out for Goldwater in '64 (this, of course, is technically pre-"the 60s"), but how much that reflected his later politics, I never knew. I do remember a blurb in the notes for a Gordon Lightfoot retrospective CD set that, at the Newport Folk Fest (forget the year), he did a number ("It's All Over, Baby Blue"(?), you guys know it?) wearing a Carnaby street shirt and backed by an electric guitar, which was seen as a "pointed kiss off to the folk purists", thus the line on using folk as only a vehicle. So your view is probably a bit more on point, you being the experts.

In any case, taking Modo's word for anything is asking for it, I've found.

WV "stain" St Ain - Patron saint of blue dresses.

Unknown said...

Bob Dylan lives to annoy people like Dowd.

Anonymous said...

When Dylan isn't sufficiently pure, you know that Les Enragés of the left are well in the Reign of Terror phase of the movement.

gerry said...

The left has hated Dylan ever since he coverted to Christianity.

Palladian said...

No rainbow without the sun.

Henry said...

Did he sing "You Ain't Going Nowhere?" Is Genghis Kahn approved in China?

David said...

So, would Down turn down an interview with any high Chinese official on moral grounds? Would she refuse to lecture in China is offered an appropriate sum? Doubtful.

I'm Full of Soup said...

So you have now given the blogger's seal of approval to address you as the "Althouse woman"? And evilbloggerlady is still under consideration?

Scott M said...

What's worse? Being a lib only to grow up and gradually realize that just about everything you believed is misguided at best...

or,

Being in your 60's, still holding on with a death grip to those same ideals from college, only to be godsmacked by one of your icons who's basically said your memes are bullshit?

I'd venture the latter, if for no other reason than stubbornness as we age seems to be written into the DNA.

Alex said...

Dowd is just a bitter old maid.

Ipso Fatso said...

Remember MODO never got married and her picture the NYTs uses is about 15 years past its due date.

ricpic said...

Rainbow trout is out of reach for 90 plus percent of Chinamen. And so is a pretty as a picture cabin in the country. And so is a passel of kids. But it's Amerika that has to be fundamentally changed.

Trooper York said...

Sometimes members of the "Overrated Hall of Fame" hate each other.

It's the same as the way Ty Cobb hated Nap Lajoie.

Trooper York said...

I am not much of an outdoorsman so I have to ask some of you outdoorsy guys.

Is a rainbow trout gay? Just sayn'

Alex said...

Remember MODO never got married and her picture the NYTs uses is about 15 years past its due date.

Saw her on an interview panel recently and she's aged badly.

Alex said...

Glamour shot of Maureen Dowd

Meh.

rhhardin said...

Dowd is funny and self-deprecating on Imus, in contrast to her unreadable columns.

It must be tailored to whoever the NYT market is today.

The important thing is that Dylan has sold out, to this audience.

Scott M said...

Is a rainbow trout gay?

Not necessarily, but they are fabulous.

Anonymous said...

I recently did a gig with an all Dylan/The Band revival act.

I like The Band tunes better because they have some interesting chords and they are orchestrated for a band.

Dylan never really did get out of the folkie chordal things. And his 6 and 7 minute songs are a nightmare to play. I was sitting there thinking: "When in the hell is this going to be over."

A few of his songs are fun to play, particularly "Tonight I'll be Staying," which has a nice transition from major to minor in the chorus.

Still wouldn't want to play that stuff very often. Thankfully, it was a one time gig.

traditionalguy said...

IMO Bob Zimmerman once loved a woman too much, and his soul is still remembering her as if she is with him. Maureen Dowd wonders why no one ever loved her that way, and she is bitter. The Times They Are A Running Out for MoDo.

MadisonMan said...

Something about a discussion of Dylan mixed in with a purchase of Trout from Whole Foods makes me laugh.

Trooper York said...

MadisonMan said...
Something about a discussion of Dylan mixed in with a purchase of Trout from Whole Foods makes me laugh.

Add in a purchase of a six pack of Activia and you have an aging boomer trifecta.

Lucius said...

Ann wasn't going to rise to the bait but . . . there, wasn't that easy?

There are times when a powerful mind just has to lay back and let it happen-- let the hobbyhorse rock-- and this essay is one of those occasions. Reading it is like staring into the west and watching the storm come in, stand there and feel the gathering electricity prickle the skin, the rain beat down and--at the end-- the rainbow appear.

Very enjoyable essay.

Ann Althouse said...

"For a lot of people, the Dylan of the early 60s is the only one they know, his having been sidelined most of the late 60s due to an accident (you can fill in particulars), so that's what they base the viewpoint on."

That's really wrong. The mid-60s Dylan is "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Blonde on Blonde." This is the very best of Dylan. I started listening to Dylan when "Bringing It All Back Home" came out. I had to go back to pick up the early stuff. And "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" were eagerly grabbed and obsessively listened through on a daily basis throughout the 60s, much more than the early 60s stuff. It's not like Dylan was out of the picture in the time before we finally got "John Wesley Harding," which, along with "Nashville Skyline" were all in the 60s.

People my age, Baby Boomers, were much more involved in those 3 mid60s albums than the earlier protest music, which is kept iconic by people with more of a political orientation.

As for the sequence of years in the 60s and Bob Dylan albums that go with them, it hardly even looks like there's a gap. 1964-1966 are so rich that it might seem like a real slowdown. But the double album "Blonde on Blonde" is 1966 and "John Wesley Harding" -- the after the "accident" album -- is 1967. Where is the gap?!

The consistent outpouring of songs from Bob Dylan over 5 decades is more than I can deal with, actually. But I'm just so tired of the effort to hold Dylan to a few songs that he did in his first 2 years of recording. Half the stuff on "Freewheelin'" is about love and personal things. And "Another Side," which is 1964 is all personal stuff.

The last line of Dowd's column, using the line from "Masters of War" is just despicable. Dylan belongs in hell because he's not a political ideologue to the core? Like that's hypocrisy? He was never a political ideologue.

Meade said...

Buy me a camera in 'sconsin
Marry me a blogger, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of commenters who call me “Meade”
That must be what it’s all about

David Hajdu said...

Bingo. Beautifully done.
D. Hajdu

Chennaul said...

This is the thing about Beatle and Dylan fans-they are always arguing about what it means.

Those fans are always trying in vain to attribute bigger meaning to Bob Dylan and/or the Beatles.

It's this group cult where they have to herd each other to the same meaning even though supposedly they were all about being "free" while wearing the same hippie bell bottoms.

It's been the worst most self indulgent generation ever-and they've taken the country down with them with their it's all about-Me! philosophy.

They don't believe in anything larger then themselves and they've diminished and ridiculed everything around them.

I think the only "group" of fans from near that generation I can take are Parrotheads because they don't take themselves so seriously.

Of course they are still arguing Bob Dylan as if it really means that much.

Because they've found themselves and they realize they haven't found that much-they're still search of the larger meaning they've ridiculed all their lives.

They're left with the Beatles and Bob Dylan-who's having the last laugh?

It's actually quite pathetic.

Ann Althouse said...

Hi, David! Thanks!

Ann Althouse said...

Hi, Meade. Thanks... for the trout... and everything.

Chennaul said...

A lot of them could have really been something if they could have simply gotten over themselves-Maureen Dowd even.

Instead she wasted her talent on being petulant.

Known Unknown said...

Nap Lajoie.

Overrated? Nonsense.

Dude had a team named after him.

Known Unknown said...

Can't wait until my generation is all over the blogs and the internets debating whether or not U2 is the greatest Christian rock band of all time.

Roger J. said...

The 60s seem to have past me by--was in the army to germany and then to Viet Nam--

The 60s might have been important to some people--not to me. If this is some MODO-Dylan thing, I will go with dylan.

And Allen S remains one of my favorite commenters--This guy says a lot in a few words and agree or disagree they are are always on point. Thanks Professor for considering his comment and referencing him.

john bord said...

Over the rainbow, live off the land, sharing for all and sharing alike, the mantra of the drugged drop outs of the 60's. Dylan captured this feeling of a beat generation that wanted to live an ideal life. Yet this idyllic life of the share and share alike of marxism failed and all the other attempts at all are equal have failed. The ivory tower purveyors of marxism do not look at why things fail, instead they have the arrogant attitude that they can use their bully pulpit and make it work, government mandates.

so why is Marxism a failure....?

J said...

He was never a political ideologue.

Debatable. Either way, I doubt Dylan has joined the TP or GOP. IIRC he sang "Masters of War" a few times during the BushCo years.

...the highway is for gamblers-- you better use your sense

Scott M said...

so why is Marxism a failure....?

Simple. Logically, it seems ridiculous that every single house in a suburban neighborhood needs it's own lawn mower and weed-eater, yet that's the reality we live in. Why is it so, when you spend about three hours a week actually using those tools. How much more efficient would it be to have one mower and weed-eater for, say seven houses and just rotate it around?

Why? Human nature is why. Not everyone cares for their equipment with the same zeal and/or expertise. Plus, when something isn't owned by the person using it, they're far more likely to take less care of it than if it were theirs. Secondly, someone has to manage that rotation. Inevitably, you're going to get someone running it that will tinker with the schedule to make things easier on themselves.

Etc, etc.

LarryK said...

When will the left recognize that Dylan deliberately left all those "freedom anthems" behind in 1964, when he wrote "My Back Pages"?

Great post, especially the links to the three 'rainbow' references in Dylan's songs. There may be even more, but one of the best 'rainbow' songs comes from Dylan's old bandmate, Robbie Robertson, from his Storyville album. If you've never heard "Sign of the Rainbow" it's a simple and beautiful song. You can listen for free at this link, just scroll down to song #44 and click

http://www.rhapsody.com/robbie-robertson/tracks.html

Diamondhead said...

"But the double album "Blonde on Blonde" is 1966 and "John Wesley Harding" -- the after the "accident" album -- is 1967. Where is the gap?!"

For most casual Dylan fans (or just music fans), the gap is between Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. They may know a few songs (All Along the Watchtower, Knockin; on Heaven's Door, maybe Lay Lady Lay) but for most people Dylan didn't do anything between the fade out on Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands and the first chords of Tangled Up in Blue. And for those people, he never did anything after Hurricane.

J said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gerry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J said...

Another attempt by the A-house yokels to turn something which was originally slightly subversive--ie Dylan's music--into conservative product.

Dylan's later music may seem more "spiritual" or apolitical but it's not lacking a certain...anti-war and anti-totalitarian message, at least at times.

ten thousand men dressed in oxford blue
Drummin’ in the morning, in the evening they’ll be coming for you


So, like yr wrong, as usual. He may be opportunistic (as with many an old freak) but he hasn't joined the party of Nixon, foo's

William said...

Back in the sixties, Mao was in fine form. There has never been and probably never will be a dictator with a higher body count, and he was at his peak during those years. There was absolutely no condemnation of the The Great Proleterian Cultural Revolution by anyone on the left. "Well, their way is not our way" is about as stringent as it got. In our time, Marxism and third world nationalism have killed more peasants than napalm and Exxon profits. Don't hold your breath waiting for a protest song. If Dylan had appeared before Mao back then, he would have been celebrated and not condemned. Bridge building, you make peace with your enemies, etc. Nowadays, the Chinese government is no longer starving millions. However, they are committed to a system where some of them are getting rich and--the horror--the wealth is not equitably distributed.....You can certainly knock Dylan for submitting a play list to the authorities. But such hypocrisy is dwarved by the left's tolerance for famines and repugnance for wealth.

Anonymous said...

"Why? Human nature is why. Not everyone cares for their equipment with the same zeal and/or expertise. Plus, when something isn't owned by the person using it, they're far more likely to take less care of it than if it were theirs. "

Which is why Christ's set of personal behavior standards and characteristics is key to creating the society that can share everything.

"Don't get mad at your neighbor when he messes up the mower."

"If your neighbor asks to use the mower on your time, offer the edger too."

"Having an affair with your neighbor's spouse will really mess with the property sharing."

(Being in a gay hissy fit about your cute gay neighbor spurning you after a sex-capade is obviously included in the above.)

This is the part of Christ that the atheist Marxists never get - that one's personal strength and characteristics are precursor to sustainable, efficient peace and property sharing.

The government-edict method is neither efficient nor sustainable.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

People my age, Baby Boomers, were much more involved in those 3 mid60s albums than the earlier protest music, which is kept iconic by people with more of a political orientation.

This is true. I also own all of those albums mentioned from the mid 60's and the early folky ones too(in the old vinyl format). The encapulation of his entire career by Dowd and others into just a few songs from his very early period because THEY hold those few songs to be somehow iconic of THEIR own political ideology is just unfair to Dylan. I suspect he probaby doesn't care much one way or the other what pissants like Dowd think of him.

I never cared much for listenening to Dylan play his songs since I really don't consider him much of very accomplished musican and his voice is really not very good.

However, Dylan is a really great poet and song writer! His performances of the songs are more like a recitation of his poetry.

I also liked the John Wesley Harding album (which I also own) because it was different and showed yet another aspect of his talent.

I'll Be Your Baby Tonight was covered by so many other artists. From the Hollies to Robert Palmer to Norah Jones. Myself included (not that I'm calling myself an artist)...it was one of the songs on my list.

The sign of a great songwriter is that many people want to cover your songs and can interpret them in their own way without losing the original intention of the writer.

Bob Dylan is so much more than a few protest songs. The 60's were so much more than the Hippie movement or the Anti Vietnam era.

Wince said...

"the raspy troubadour of ’60s freedom anthems."

I would have gone with "nasally," especially live, but Dylan has become more raspy over the years.

Carol said...

"It's been the worst most self indulgent generation ever"

What's more, they never even knew much about what they think they remember of the 60s. They're totally incurious. What Ann writes is common knowledge to anyone who actually listened to Dylan's lyrics, or read one of several bios out there. Geez, the public library has this stuff.. My fellow old boomer farts have had their heads up their asses for 40 years now.

I blame pot.

J said...

Dylan's a bit too deep for A-housers, really (including Queen Ayn).

Stick to like Pat Boone medleys kiddos

AllenS said...

I'm not going to do it.

Well, you dang near did.

Richard Dolan said...

This seems odd: "Real personal life, with the beauty of love and family, enhanced by the comforts of material affluence. A cabin. Fresh food. That's a more subversive message to the Chinese than what Dowd calls "[i]conic songs of revolution like 'The Times They Are a-Changin'' and 'Blowin’ in the Wind.'"

"Real personal life," love, family, a "cabin" and "fresh food" are all to be found in China in abundance. An increase in the "comforts of material affluence" is what the Chinese gov't claims to offer its populace, and has delivered over the last 30 years. That's the justification for one-party rule, and the glue providing whatever degree of political cohesion the society still has. If the population ever concludes that the Chinese gov't is incapable of delivering increasing "comforts of material affluence", it's doubtful whether general appeals to patriotism or even the strength of the military and security apparatus would be enough to avoid a Soviet-style fracturing of the country.

How is any of that a "subversive message"?

The Crack Emcee said...

We're in Madison, Wisconsin, not Utah. We're too old to have kids together. The house is too big to call a cabin. And we bought the rainbow trout at Whole Foods.

Fucking hilarious.

I've listened to Bob Dylan singing in 5 different decades, and Dowd has him stuck in the 60s, and the early 60s at that. She's seeing him as the instrument of the American political left, when he broke away from them almost a half century ago.

Awww - is she using the wrong frame of reference? Like judging Soul Music through the eyes of a 12-year old girl? Awww. Whatever:

Dylan always specialized in "anguished bellyaching" anyway.

KCFleming said...

Dowd syndrome: A genetic disorder characterized by some impairment of cognitive ability and psychic growth, and a particular set of farcical characteristics when writing.

Individuals with Dowd syndrome tend to have a lower-than-average writing ability, and often work for declining newspapers.

J said...

11:45.

Wrong again, Dust gal.

Dylan's not with Ayn RandCo, or the TeePee, or Limbaugh.

Try re-listening to Masters of War a few dozen times--which he still performs. Then like imagine GOP defense contractors (and yes, some Demo) ,like instantiated, for....the "masters". Deep, but maybe yll get it. Maybe not. Pot might help....or somethin' somethin.


Pat Boone medleys for the A-house, yall

Anonymous said...

Another attempt by the A-house yokels to turn something which was originally slightly subversive--ie Dylan's music--into conservative product.
....
So, like yr wrong, as usual. He may be opportunistic (as with many an old freak) but he hasn't joined the party of Nixon, foo's


I think what the A-house foo's are saying, dude, is that the left has become the very thing that Dylan wrote about - the fascist, drum-beat-following, control freak, MAN.

And with Lybia and Afghanistan, you can add the war thing to the left's current Dylan .

So, we're not the ones bending Dylan. You're the one ignoring and bending what the left has become and is.

Or in other words, he didn't leave you, you left him.

Foo.

Ann Althouse said...

Hi, Crack. Thanks for your continuing appreciation of my ability to make a powerful phrase. "Anguished bellyaching" really got to you. Was it the sheer power of putting words together... or the element of truth?

J said...

11:56: no, fuck you satanist.



That's all ye need to know about Dylan musick's .

Stick to like Dick Cheney's favorite patriotic JP Sousa marches.

The Crack Emcee said...

I just went back and read this post and, boy, it's so important to Ann that we get this Dylan-thing right! She can make up the rules as she sees fit for Soul Music, but good god, don't you dare get the history of Dylan wrong because Ann's been listening to him for 5 decades! And listening to music beats merely been playing music my whole life - even if Bob Dylan's god son is my bass player.

Ann knows better, and she'll let you know it because (gulp) she's listened!!!!

Hey, Ann, will the words "hypocrite" or "hubris" ever ring a bell in your head?

The Crack Emcee said...

And good morning!

ricpic said...

J is like deep and existential, man, judging by his avatar. Shmendrik.

J said...

Yr wrong, Miss Aynnhouse.

AS usual.

Dylan's not sympatico with RushCo.

J said...

Time for some bad irony, eh schmendreck.

Stick to the Mike Hucklebilly medley, trash

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann,

Was it the sheer power of putting words together... or the element of truth?

Jesus, you don't even listen - too busy trying to pat yourself on the back:

It's your being wrong that gets to me.

Now, with this post, you're emulating the very thing I was doing to you yesterday - which you denigrated as well. I get it - as long as you never say you're wrong, you win - but it still doesn't add up to "Ann Althouse is a nice person".

Like I said on the other thread, all it adds up to is why violence is committed (many times against women) because your type will allow nothing else to get you to behave decently.

Lincolntf said...

Oh cripes, J is back?.
Punkass chump, how many times have you stamped your widdle feeties and stormed off? Dozens?
Next time you go waaaa-aaaay off your meds I want you to punch yourself in the face rather than logging onto the Internet. It'll help with your recovery in the long run.

Lgbpop said...

Dylan's always been a libertarian and contrarian at heart. You also gotta remember - or in your case, young man, learn - that in the mid-60s the men in suits were Democrats who were escalating the Vietnam mess. Goldwater was against it. Nixon was pro-intervention as Vice President, but came to see that Ho Chi Minh wasn't a communist masquerading as a nationalist but the other way around. By 1967 he was against going further in Nam as well, and after being elected did wind down the American involvement.

Far from being a "liberal," Dylan fit right in with the Republicans of the day.

Alex said...

Hey J - I'm a rock-ribbed conservative yet I enjoy Woody Guthrie's "Dust Bowl Ballads". Don't waste your time trying to figure us out. You can't.

PaulV said...

I had prof who meet Bob Dylan in NYC before he was Bob Dylan. He wore a letter jacket in middle of the summer.

Trooper York said...

Crack what makes you think the evil blogger lady is a nice person.

She ain't.

You ain't.

I ain't.

Thats what we all have in common.

Trooper York said...

Bob Dylan appeared on Pawn Stars and Chumley got him to sign an album.

You saw a totally moronic inarticulate moron on display.

Oh and Chumley looked stupid too!

The Crack Emcee said...

Thanks, Troop, I get that:

But the difference is, at least, you and I are honest.

The Crack Emcee said...

And, yeah, that's why I'm glad to be a man. Say what you want but, unless a guy's got a mental problem, we try - and, if a guy's got a mental problem, we'll try to straighten him out.

The mean girls just keep it up and protect each other.

MamaM said...

your type will allow nothing else to get you to behave decently.

How does the Exalted One
determine which type is witch?

And from where do standards for decent behavior arise?

PaulV said...

FWIW, Woody's son Arlo big supporter of Ron Paul. Libertarians hate big government.

Trooper York said...

You misunderstood EM.

Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But they hated each other even more than MoDO hates Bob even though they are both in the overrated Hall of Fame.

Ty hated Nap because he was the first gay guy in the Hall. Ty had a problem with the gays.

The Crack Emcee said...

How does the Exalted One determine which type is witch?

ROTFLMAO!!!

J said...

Mike Hucklebilly medley time on the Grand Ol A-house


play Free Bird! For the Teabuggers, lovers of phreedom...

The Crack Emcee said...

BTW, Mama M, I think that falls under keeping it up and protecting each other.

Thanks for making my point.

J said...

12: 11

Put yr addy up here--or send a note-- Lincoln grrl and find out, punkbyatch.

POP

KCFleming said...

Dowd: "Iconic songs of revolution ...wouldn’t have been an appropriate soundtrack for the 2,000 Chinese apparatchiks in the audience taking a relaxing break from repression.

Is Dowd so stupid as to be unaware that the revolution she's craving in China already happened under Mao? Does she forget that, or that 60s hippies carried Mao's Little Red Book in honor of their hero, and preached his words?

To claim that China needs the left's revolution is either mendacious or mongoloid.

If both, it's Dowd Syndrome.

MamaM said...

BTW, Mama M, I think that falls under keeping it up and protecting each other.

When one holds a dualistic viewpoint, everything either proves the point or doesn't.

But R'ingOTFLone'sAO is good for the soul if the L comes from the belly.

If not, the term serves as another form of sarcasm, the hidden anger behind which right/wrong thinkers hide denied emotions.

Ann Althouse said...

When did I ever claim to be a "nice person"? Your assumption that I do is most likely a sex stereotype.

Check out my niceness tag.

I don't get trapped there. You should know that by now.

mockmook said...

The reminds me that "60 Minutes" had a "breaking" news story this weekend about someone murdered in the 60's.

Time stands still in leftville.

Phil 314 said...

What's with the continued fascination/obsession for Dowd and Dylan?

Palladian said...

"What's with the continued fascination/obsession for Dowd and Dylan?"

As for Dylan, it's because he's a great artist. As for Dowd, there is no continued fascination or obsession for her. She's just a conspicuous target with a once-big megaphone.

And what's up with allowing "J" to physically threaten commenters? His disintegrating mental state and word-salad writing still don't conceal his threats.

Scott M said...

His disintegrating mental state and word-salad writing still don't conceal his threats.

A point of order, sir. "Disintigrating" would insinuate a previously higher level of ability.

Palladian said...

"A point of order, sir. "Disintegrating" would insinuate a previously higher level of ability."

He/she used to be nominally coherent, save for the bad Spanish insults thrown in to lend that earthy/subversive Maria Juanita air.

Peano said...

Stand by your man.

Kirk Parker said...

gerry,

"... since he coverted..."

Awesome typo!

Adjoran said...

Remember the huge backlash at Dylan when he first dared to use electronic amplification on a recording and in concert? All the Pete Seeger lefty crowd was crying "Betrayal!" They were beside themselves in agitation, sputtering and fuming.

Good times, good times.

roesch-voltaire said...

Actually with this quote, “an old-school touring pro” Dowd does turn out a fair assessment of Dylan in China, just another along with the many business and academics etc who want to feast on the China market. And no one mentions the latest crack down on the Christian home churches, artist and lawyers, and of curse the usual Falun Dafa folks. Should we expect more from somebody who continually reinvents himself and who is touched by a creative gift that knows so well the times are a changing?

Trooper York said...

Well from the way he writes I think J is Bob Dylan.

Almost Ali said...

It was complicated. Politically and personally. - Althouse

Music is not complicated, even when it's complex. Dylan is not complicated, he's simply making a living. Even when he free-wheels to China.

Nuance, the bane of (blank):

My Jewish ex-wife used to say, "They're laughing in temple again," meaning, generally, that the Gentiles were off on pointless tangent again.

Ralph L said...

Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding.

Yes, and how many aisles has Mo walked down?
The answer, my friend, is passing in the wind.

Bill Quick said...

Since my addiction to Dylan spans his entire career (I started listening in 1963, and am still listening today, yea, even through the Christmas Album, which I love hopelessly), I have to point out some else wonderful about him:

One can make a case that the closest he's come to matching Highway, Home, and Blonde is the trilogy he did starting with Time out of Mind, continuing with Love and Theft, and finishing with the magisterial Modern Times.

What amazing about all that is that thirty years separate those two sets.

What a career that is!

William said...

Those goddammed Chinese don't know the meaning of copywright law. The only way you can make a buck out of their thieving hides is by concerts and personal appearances. You've not only got to go where the money is, you've got to package the merchandise in a salable way. Dylan knows how to move the merchandise. A lot of his abrupt stylistic changes were in fact sales campaigns. The scruffy folk singer market was tapped out, so he bought an electric guitar. Rock music was where the big bucks were, and he went there. If big bands had a renaissance, he would have picked up a trombone. He has the soul of an appliance store salesman trapped in the body of a poet, or maybe vice versa. I don't mean this as a knock. Commercialism suffuses every aspect of American life. Why shouldn't it suffuse the souls of our poets?.....I think the contours of Dylan's personal life more nearly match those of Rod Stewart or Gene Simmons than those of Woody Guthrie or Dylan Thomas. If you want to travel by private jet and stay in the luxury suites, you can't be carrying on like Leonard Cohen. His tawdry heart beats in rhthymn with the tackiness of America.

William said...

Great. I've got a doppelganger who loves Dylan uncritically.

Trooper York said...

He is Will-I-Am-Not that fond of Dylan.

Phil 314 said...

He/she used to be nominally coherent, save for the bad Spanish insults thrown in to lend that earthy/subversive Maria Juanita air.

tiger blood

cassandra lite said...

Like a lot of people who came of age in the '60s and decided what their politics would be, Dowd thinks the times stopped changing when The Times They Are A-Changin'was released. I haven't yet met a sadly aging (hard to call them) liberal clinging bitterly still to Blowin' in the Wind who wasn't surprised to hear that the times are always, always changing.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann,

When did I ever claim to be a "nice person"? Your assumption that I do is most likely a sex stereotype.

Good Lord, every word out of your mouth should come with a feminist warning sticker:

WARNING: CRAZY WOMAN.

Here, let me clarify: you're not a "good" person.

Is that sexist as well?

SukieTawdry said...

Ann's right. I was at Newport in '65, the year Dylan went electric. That, along with the release of Bringing It All Back Home earlier in the year marked the point at which his music began to get interesting. He did his best work in the latter half of that decade, I think. When driving long stretches by myself, my music of choice is hard, driving rock and I always bring Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. I.

A note to RowdyDowdy: I'll bet there wasn't one person at Rush Limbaugh's wedding who could reasonably be labeled a gay basher.

Ralph L said...

Here, let me clarify: you're not a "good" person.
Well, d'uh, she's a lawyer.

cassandra lite said...

David makes a good point. Remember when MoDo was a guest of the Saudis, covered her head, and agreed to be driven everywhere?