१७ जून, २०२०

"Unlike many artists who reacted to the pandemic with a kind of dutiful tenderness—'Let me help with my song!'—Dylan has decided not to offer comfort, nor to hint at some vague solidarity."

"Lyrically, he’s either cracking weird jokes ('I’ll take the "Scarface" Pacino and the "Godfather" Brando / Mix ’em up in a tank and get a robot commando') or operating in a cold, disdainful, it-ain’t-me-babe mode.... Dylan is a voracious student of United States history—he can, and often does, itemize the various atrocities that have been committed in service to country—and 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' could be understood as a glib summation of America’s outlaw origins, and of the confused, dangerous, and often haphazard way that we preserve democracy. He seems to understand instinctively that American history is not a series of fixed points but an unmoored and constantly evolving idea that needs to be reëstablished each day—things don’t happen once and then stop happening. In this sense, linear time becomes an invention; every moment is this moment.... [F]or me, Dylan’s vast and intersectional understanding of the American mythos feels so plainly and uniquely relevant to the grimness and magnitude of these past few months. As the country attempts to metabolize the murder of George Floyd, it is also attempting to reckon with every crooked, brutal, odious, or unjust murder of a black person—to understand a cycle that began centuries ago and somehow continues apace. What is American racism? It’s everything, Dylan insists. Indiana Jones and J.F.K. and Elvis Presley and Jimmy Reed—nothing exists without the rest of it. None of us are absolved, and none of us are spared."

You can tell by the diaeresis in "reëstablished" that it's The New Yorker. Amanda Petrusich reviews Bob Dylan's new album, "Rough and Rowdy Ways," which will be released on Friday.

Petrusich sure is putting a lot of her own clunky words into Bob Dylan's mouth. She's insisting that he's insisting — insisting that everything is American racism. Why would you go and assume that what he's saying is what you're fired up to think everybody is supposed to be saying right now?

She did say "for me." You can listen to whatever you want any way you want.

३९ टिप्पण्या:

Carol म्हणाले...

I'd *like* to think that Dylan is more circumspect, more philosophical than these fools, who know nothing but flap their lips anyway. But what do I know.

Please, let there be someone out there with some perspective.

buwaya म्हणाले...

American racism?
What complete, blinkered, parochial rot.
It is the natural consequence of the European conquest of the world. For a very long time the actual people that mattered were white, and real power struggles were among white peoples.
The natives could get difficult sometimes, but they were rather easily squashed. It was only very recently that some non-European peoples got in the game.
Your current argument is not there, yet, as it is a struggle, as usual, between white people, with everyone else being make-weight or a propaganda talking point.

buwaya म्हणाले...

You will know when non-whites have real power - when they take off their pants.

eddie willers म्हणाले...

t is also attempting to reckon with every crooked, brutal, odious, or unjust murder of a black person—to understand a cycle that began centuries ago and somehow continues apace.

How about the video of the 90+ year old woman with a walker coldcocked out of nowhere. Do we pity the young male?

rcocean म्हणाले...

Dylan is a voracious student of United States history—he can, and often does, itemize the various atrocities that have been committed in service to country

Yeah, funny how many liberal/Leftists know all about the "atrocities" of American history and can repeat it back to you - endlessly. Do they ever repeat back the good things? Not that I'm aware of. They "voraciously read American History" like a Chicom or a Nazi used to, to find the flaws and the chinks in the American armor.

Personally, I've never been impressed by Dylan as a poet, thinker, or student of American History. But then I don't give out Nobel Prizes.

rcocean म्हणाले...

How old is Dylan now? 80? People over that 80 should just shut up and retire. And that includes Senators, Movie makers, singers, Congressmen, and SCOTUS judges. You've been on the public stage long enough. Let someone else have the spotlight.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

it is also attempting to reckon with every crooked, brutal, odious, or unjust murder of a black person

Attempt to reckon with black people! Because they commit at least 95% of the crooked, brutal, odious, or unjust murders of black persons!

What is American racism? It’s everything, Dylan insists.

If that statement is true, which it probably isn't, Dylan is one sorry dude.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

If Dylan is not totally and completely on board regarding the so-called pandemic and the resurgence of BLM, then he needs to be both boycotted and cancelled.

Bob, the wind is blowing a different way and you better get on board or face the DIRE consequences.

Me? How about just listening to the music and see if I like it?

rehajm म्हणाले...

Maybe that student of history stuff gives him a keen eye for a phony orchestrated political stage production.

Gahrie म्हणाले...

I challenge anyone to cite a nation or civilization that was not racist (or tribal for monocultures) and did not practice slavery.

There is nothing unique or rare in the history of the United States when it comes to racism or slavery, Indeed as evil as it was, slavery was more benign in the United States than in many other places. Black people have done better in the United States than anywhere else in the world.

I'm Full of Soup म्हणाले...

Speaking of Dylan, this one is right up your language alley Professor.

"Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 23, made his first appearance in federal court in Colorado, two days after being arrested in Breckenridge, Colo., as he traveled west along Interstate 70."

He was charged with setting fire to the Minneapolis police station.

Narr म्हणाले...

You say diaeresis, I say diarrhea.

Narr
phone call

Crimso म्हणाले...

"and somehow continues apace."

I see someone is ignorant of either the language or history. Or both.

Andrew म्हणाले...

Indiana Jones?! What did I miss?

He was looting the property of indigenous peoples, I guess. But since when is looting frowned upon?

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"What is American racism? It’s everything."

So it's nothing then.

I'm Not Sure म्हणाले...

"None of us are absolved, and none of us are spared."

So let's burn it all down. Sounds like a plan.

AZ Bob म्हणाले...

(Question to Dylan 55 years ago:) Do you think of yourself primarily as a singer or a poet?

Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y’know.

h म्हणाले...

We need to have an open an honest conversation about race.

Option 1. You say, "I and other white people have always been racist and we owe an apology to black people." I say, "Okay." (and I might say, "so we need reparations, or something like that, but not just lip service. )

Option 2. You say, "white racism exists, but I personally am not racist, nor have I ever been." I say, "You're a racist." (and I might say, "so we need reparations, or something like that, but not just lip service."

Option 3. There is no option 3.

I'm Not Sure म्हणाले...

"What is American racism? It’s everything, Dylan insists."

What about German racism? Or Japanese? Or Nigerian? Surely, they exist. Are they any different? If so, how? If not, aren't we done here?

wildswan म्हणाले...


Bob Dylan
Today, tomorrow, and yesterday, too
The flowers are dyin' like all things do
Follow me close, I'm going to Balian Bali
I'll lose my mind if you don't come with me
I fuss with my hair, and I fight blood feuds
I contain multitudes

Got a tell-tale heart, like Mr. Poe
Got skeletons in the walls of people you know
I'll drink to the truth and the things we said
I'll drink to the man that shares your bed
I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes
I contain multitudes

Red Cadillac and a black mustache
Rings on my fingers that sparkle and flash
Tell me, what's next? What shall we do?
Half my soul, baby, belongs to you
Oh, while I cannot frolic with all the young dudes
I contain multitudes

I'm just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, The Rolling Stones
I go right to the edge, I go right to the end
I go right where all things lost are made good again
I sing the songs of experience like William Blake
I have no apologies to make
Everything's flowing all at the same time
I live on the boulevard of crime
I drive fast cars, and I eat fast foods
I contain multitudes

Pink petal-pushers, red blue jeans
All the pretty maids, and all the old queens
All the old queens from all my past lives
I carry four pistols and two large knives
I'm a man of contradictions, I'm a man of many moods
I contain multitudes

You greedy old wolf, I'll show you my heart
But not all of it, only the hateful part
I'll sell you down the river, I'll put a price on your head
What more can I tell you?
I sleep with life and death in the same bed
Get lost, madame, get up off my knee
Keep your mouth away from me
I'll keep the path open, the path in my mind
I'll see to it that there's no love left behind
I'll play Beethoven's sonatas, and Chopin's preludes
I contain multitudes.

The New Yorker
"Dylan’s interests are so wonderfully obtuse and far-ranging that it’s sometimes hard to discern precisely what he’s referring to:"

Judge for yourself. I'll only say that the article makes it plain that the New Yorker author and editors can't distinguish between "abstruse" and "obtuse" but, as I see it, Dylan is one, they are the other.


Jon Burack म्हणाले...

Everyone wants to own Dylan, and it has been so from the start. Dylan is also a "voracious student" of some other history as well. I wonder if Amanda would swoon so lovingly over his "vast and intersectional understanding" of this particular country, that "Neighborhood Bully" about which few at the New Yorker have much good to say these days.

Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.
. . . .
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

The sample from the review posted by Althouse is gobbledygook.
As Zappa said, “Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.”

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

Speaking of racism (as if that's what all of America does 24/7 now), there's an interesting thing in Nebraska. A very young (I think 24) white female state senator is running for election. She's a Yale grad. You know Yale, the school named after a slave trader. This young woman worked for the Governor and he appointed her to an unexpired term.

So the NE GOP makes an ad and it photoshopped her opponent (a white, female liberal) with the most prominent liberal in the Nebraska Unicameral who served something like 40 years in office.

This Lincoln liberal is Ernie Chambers and he's black. And, frankly, he hates white people and especially state judges.

So, two former governors of NE blast this woman and said her advertisement was racist. One former Governor was Bob Kerry. (Also a US Senator.) And the other one was lifelong office holder and Republican the ineffectual Dave Heinman. They jumped in to virtue signal.

I've always thought of Heinman as a country club establishment Republican and he proved it joining with NYC liberal Bob Kerry in attacking an ally of the current GOP governor. Screw those two. The current governor owns part of the Chicago Cubs.

wildswan म्हणाले...

"We need to have an open an honest conversation about race."

You say "you're a racist because you are white" and I say "I oppose the disproportionate number of black babies being aborted; and I oppose the knockoff education the survivors are getting in the inner city; and I want manufacturing brought back here so that even those 40 % of young black men emerging each year from the schools without a even a knockoff high school degree can climb away from poverty as all the other groups did. BLM encourages people to disregard all these issues by pretending issues which were live in 1920 are live issues now. It wouldn't be easy to go up against the Democrats who have inflicted these policies on American cities and I don't expect to see any followers or allies of BLM to do so but rather to support and vote for these racist abortion policies, and these crippling education policies and these ostrich attitudes on the need for the return of manufacturing."

narciso म्हणाले...

Supposedly based on hiram bingham, ot in woody allens memoir he notes the inspiration for bananas without naming it.

boatbuilder म्हणाले...

Dylan has always said he's "a song and dance man" as per AZ Bob. I give him immense credit for not caving to the easy virtue signal sainthood that the wokies want to confer on him (especially after "Hurricane," which is an anthem to virtue signalling). You be you, Bob.

chickelit म्हणाले...

I was going to buy Dylan's new album until I read this review. If it's really just Dylan's contribution to the 1619 project then no thank you.

Unknown म्हणाले...

Maybe Dylan just didn't feel like adding another narcissistic celebrity contribution. Who knows what to think of a 1960s icon who disapproved of burning draft cards?

Birkel म्हणाले...

Atlanta cops are not on the job.
They have had enough.

I hope the cops in more metropolitan areas do the same.

Diamondhead म्हणाले...

These people have to read this stuff into Dylan because he consistently frustrates them by not saying exactly what they want him to say. He’s been doing (or not doing) that for decades now (“How do you know I’m not, as you say, for the war [in Vietnam]?”). How many good liberal folks read the Brinkley interview hoping for some mention of Trump? As if he was going to come out as some dogmatic partisan and say, boy Trump really screwed up on the virus, huh?

Jon Ericson म्हणाले...

Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done


Hey Zimmy, I can think of somebody else you can write a song about.

stephen cooper म्हणाले...

Actually, Chopin's sonatas are really really good.
The preludes are more famous, but the sonatas are still vintage Chopin.

Also, what wildswan said at 7:58 PM, he said what I wanted to say better than I would have said it.

Every single public person alive today who has supported Planned Parenthood and their disproportionate targeting of young black women for abortions is going to, in much less than a 100 years, just as much - or more - of a persona non grata among the cognoscenti as Hawkeye Pierce.

Sally327 म्हणाले...

I didn't read the article but I did listen to "Blood on the Tracks" while I finished up some work.

I used to live not very far from where Dylan had a house in Malibu. I never picked up any intense emanations coming from there but I put that down to me not him. Or maybe it was both of us. There's probably a song in that if I had the talent to write one.

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

Paraphrased-

Protest man: "When is Bob coming?"

Joan Baez: "Bob never comes to these things."


rhhardin म्हणाले...

European village apartment complex has an umlaut on the initial E, as sort of a style thing.

boatbuilder म्हणाले...

Wildswan-I read your 7:40 and thought--Wow-I've never heard that Dylan song. And I hadn't, because he just issued it.
He can't sing anymore, and never really could. And he's not even pretending-well, he's pretending badly-to do music. But damn, he's one hell of a poet.

William म्हणाले...

He's a true poet, and his words have power. And the power of those words is magnified considerably by the music that accompanies them. After all these years, I still don't know what to make of Dylan...He claimed to be a song and dance man and that, in the end, his works are all just songs. Maybe, maybe not ....I don't think he has anywhere near the melodic gifts of Gershwin or Rodgers, but there's something about his music that involves you in a way that doesn't happen with Gershwin or Rodgers. I'd like to come back in a hundred years and see who was the real McCoy or simply the wurst....I did live long enough to see that the Beach Boys were more substantial than The Doors.

Amexpat म्हणाले...

Dylan wrote these songs before the pandemic and George Floyd, so it can't be about that. There's a long history of critics claiming that Dylan wrote a song/s in response to an event that occurred after the fact. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is often credited as a response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, even though the song was debuted a few months before.

Dylan's songs often function as a Rorschach test. The reviewer here is projecting her political views onto the lyrics. I think a lot of the positive reviews of his new album are colored by the need to make Dylan into a wise old sage who is confirming one's views.

I'll buy and listen to his new album at some point. When I do, I'll keep the present times out of mind when listening to it.

stonethrower म्हणाले...

Is it time yet to take back Dylan's Nobel Peace Prize?