Althouse: The Bob Dylan mural in Minneapolis "will include Dylan lyrics from his infamous tune, 'The Times, They Are A-Changin.'"

As the Minneapolis Sun Times puts it.

I'm one Dylan fan who's beyond tired of seeing that song — of all Dylan songs — dragged to the forefront again and again, but still... infamous?

The only reason for singling that song out for a mural is that a mural a painted wall and it's one of the Bob Dylan songs that refers to a wall. "There’s a battle outside" that will "soon shake your windows and rattle your walls," but I wouldn't want that on a wall in my city. Not post-9/11.

"Infamous" means — according to the unlinkable OED — "Of ill fame or repute; famed or notorious for badness of any kind; notoriously evil, wicked, or vile; held in infamy or public disgrace," and "Deserving of infamy; of shameful badness, vileness, or abominableness; of a character or quality deserving utter reprobation. (One of the strongest adjectives of detestation.)"

One of the strongest adjectives of detestation!

Are there any songs that deserve this adjective? I'm thinking "The Horst Wessel Song." "For the last time, the call to arms is sounded!/For the fight, we all stand prepared!" It's a fight song, like "The Times, They Are A-Changin," and like "The Times, They Are A-Changin," it's the younger generation singing triumphantly about how it is about to win.

But still... infamous?!

Dylan did say "please": "Please get out of the new [road] if you can’t lend your hand...."

32 comments:

Quaestor said...: No, not infamous. How about trivial?; 8/26/15, 1:38 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I often joke with my wife that the only thing the 1960s got right was the health food and the music.

So, while I have little doubt that the mural will be atrocious (looking at the Brazilian artist's past work), I must concede that Dylan stands among the giants and deservedly so. I think my favorite is "Mr. Jones." (Ballad of a Thin Man). Can I describe it as a haunting ballad or is that trite?

To his credit and his intelligence, Dylan moved away from the Hippie Left, and tip-toed into the waters of religion and Christianity.

From Wiki: In a 2009 interview with Bill Flanagan promoting Dylan's Christmas LP, Christmas in the Heart, Flanagan commented on the "heroic performance" Dylan gave of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and that he "delivered the song like a true believer". Dylan replied: "Well, I am a true believer."; 8/26/15, 1:44 PM
mikee said...: I for one prefer the Dylan version of "This Old Man" as played on the Disney Pediatric AIDS benefit album in the early 1980s.

It goes well with McCartney's "Mary Had a Little Lamb," on the same album.; 8/26/15, 2:07 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: "Infamous" is clearly wrong but I'm guessing it's just a bug in their controversy generator.

A work order and a software tweak ought to set things right.; 8/26/15, 2:18 PM
lgv said...: There is nothing infamous about that song. Now, the better question for this thread is, what song deserves the title "most infamous"?; 8/26/15, 2:19 PM
Jaq said...: I like that song. I played it on the piano a lot of times when the Republicans took over Congress in 1994. And it was true. Before that nobody hated Republicans on account of they were happy to lose and knew their place.

Now of course, that they win elections, they are the party of haters.; 8/26/15, 2:25 PM
Jaq said...: "most infamous": Diary by Bread. Notoriously douchy.; 8/26/15, 2:26 PM
dustbunny said...: Love Bob, recently saw him in a kick ass concert in Córdoba, Spain,but I could go without hearing that song maybe ever again; 8/26/15, 2:45 PM
Big Mike said...: Trump and Dylan. You have some strange obsessions ma'am. You may be beyond tired of "that song," but in the post-Obama America you really had better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone.; 8/26/15, 2:45 PM
Beldar said...: I bow to no one in my utter disdain for Bob Dylan as a singer, and my indifference to him as a poet/songwriter. But I wouldn't say his songs are "infamous." I just put my fingers in my ears or change the channel.; 8/26/15, 3:09 PM
Beldar said...: For "most famously infamous song in a movie," I suppose I'd nominate "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from "Cabaret." I must have watched this scene 50 times.; 8/26/15, 3:12 PM
Mr. D said...: I've lived in the Twin Cities for over 20 years and this is the first I've ever heard of the Minneapolis Sun Times. It appears to be an affiliate of the Chicago Sun-Times.

If you want an infamous Dylan song, I'd go with "Man Gave Names to All the Animals."

Next animal that he did meet
Had wool on his back and hooves on his feet
Eating grass on a mountainside so steep
“Ah, think I’ll call it a sheep”; 8/26/15, 3:12 PM
Beldar said...: By the way, I'm wearing cargo shorts as I mock Bob Dylan.; 8/26/15, 3:16 PM
khematite@aol.com said...: In recent years I've noticed that increasing numbers of media people have a rather tenuous grasp of the English language. It's like the old college joke that communications majors are just English majors who can't read or write. I'd bet anything that the writer of the Sun-Times article thinks that "infamous" just means "very famous."; 8/26/15, 3:20 PM
Who Am Us Anyway? said...: "Kobra wants the design to remain a surprise, but he invites anyone to watch the process unfold.

"He envisions a triptych of Dylan, with three pensive images in black and white mirroring the singer’s longevity. Two capture his younger years while a third shows a more seasoned Dylan brazenly wrinkled and wearing his iconic white hat."

Dylan wrote the song in '63 when he was 22 years old, but I'm sure his critics were all much better writers when they were 22.; 8/26/15, 3:28 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: Beatles - "Run for Your Life" the album closer on Rubber Soul.; 8/26/15, 3:28 PM
traditionalguy said...: The words they are a changing.; 8/26/15, 3:35 PM
FullMoon said...: Bob Dylan, the most underrated vocalist of all time.; 8/26/15, 4:15 PM
madAsHell said...: A Brazilian is painting a Minneapolis building because Bob Dylan was born in Hibbing, and Goldman-Sachs owns the building?; 8/26/15, 4:27 PM
The Godfather said...: There's an excellent Blue Grass band called the "Infamous Stringdusters". I have no idea why they included "Infamous" in their name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iWzr4PCV0o; 8/26/15, 4:34 PM
Big Mike said...: @Beldar, I know what you mean. Every time I see that scene in "Cabaret" I have an unbelievably strong urge to break out in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."; 8/26/15, 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: The Times They are a' Changing is a classic song off a classic album with Dylan as full a bore civil rights activist/folk singer. The song itself is lyrically flawless and it was accurately prophetic of what was to follow in the tumultuous 1960's. If ever an artist created something that brought everything (culture, politics, art..) together for one shining moment, here it is. (If you are not familiar with this great recording, then treat yourself.) So it is totally impertinent to refer to this great song as 'infamous'. Stupid and ignorant in the extreme.

Its true that Dylan's next album Another Side of Bob Dylan marked an almost complete departure from writing specifically political/protest songs, presumedly because he had taken those types of songs as far as they could go and they can be an artistic dead end (he did said at one point that protest songs were (just)'finger pointing songs').; 8/26/15, 4:59 PM
Earnest Prole said...: infamous, douchey: why can't we get our adjectives right when we talk about songs?; 8/26/15, 5:05 PM
Mike said...: I am shocked that we are discussing the misuse of "infamous" and no one has mentioned "The Three Amigos."; 8/26/15, 6:34 PM
Mike said...: Here's a link. http://youtu.be/GIGtHhAfe8w; 8/26/15, 6:39 PM
William said...: That song about Hurricane Carter was irritating, but it doesn't get played enough to be infamous.; 8/26/15, 6:44 PM
sinz52 said...: Bay Area Guy sez:
" I often joke with my wife that the only thing the 1960s got right was the health food and the music."

So you think that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake?

BTW: Just about all the white segregationists were Christians.; 8/26/15, 7:42 PM
sinz52 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/26/15, 7:42 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/26/15, 7:45 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/26/15, 7:48 PM
Diamondhead said...: While Dylan probably reached his artistic pinnacle in the 70s, my personal favorite decade is his is the 80s. You could make five city blocks of murals out of Brownsville Girl.; 8/26/15, 8:59 PM
Quaestor said...: I am shocked that we are discussing the misuse of "infamous" and no one has mentioned "The Three Amigos."

Infamous is not misused when applied to "The Three Amigos."

Actually "The Three Amigos" was an important experimental film. It proved that comedy is a wave function. It also proved Μ, K, and Σ waves in the same medium are permanently out of phase with each other. Another famous experiment, "Ishtar" proved that the amplitude of the warren Beatty wave never exceeds 0; 8/26/15, 11:23 PM