Says Andrew Hickey, answering questions from his supporters at Patreon. If you're a fan of Hickey's "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs," I strongly recommend paying for access to the Patreon extras.
Hickey goes on to say that the details of an artist's life are "intertwined in the creation of the work in ways that mean you *can't* talk about one without the other." And "You can't talk about Dylan's Blood on the Tracks without talking about how he was going through a divorce."
I've been following Bob Dylan since "Bringing It All Back Home" was his newest album — that is, for nearly 60 years. He is, by far, the musical artist I've cared the most about. I'm currently in the middle of listening to a Spotify playlist that puts all his studio albums in chronological order. (That's 453 songs.) I'm very interested in reliving the experience of listening to the albums as albums and in Dylan as he comes across in his own words and sounds, but I don't care about any facts about his life that I'd have to gather from outside sources. The specific facts of most people's life are mostly banal and repetitive. Did they marry? Did they divorce? Did they have children? Did they treat other people well or badly? Did they have health problems? What was the direction of their sexuality?
With Dylan, the one I care about most, I only care about the songs. For example, on the topic of sex, I see that he's only used the word "sex" once:
Old lady judges watch people in pairsLimited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn’t talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony
That's from the album I bought when it was new and I was 14. Oh! That's a detail from my life. What's it to you?
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Sounds like Dylan is voting for Susanna Gibson of Richmond.
I need to figure out if her Richmond suburb is north of the City of Richmond.
This was Bob Dylan, reworking a cover of Muddy Waters, but Bob's lyrics are better, band was is better, and it comforted me, just as I needed, when I needed it:
I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long
I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long
Woke up this mornin', I must have bet my money wrong
I got troubles so hard, I can't stand the strain
I got troubles so hard, I can't stand the strain
Some young lazy slut has charmed away my brains
The landscape is glowin', gleamin' in the golden light of day
The landscape is glowin', gleamin' in the golden light of day
I ain't holding nothin' back now, I ain't standin' in anybody's way
Well, I did all I know just to keep you off my mind
Well, I did all I know just to keep you off my mind
Well, I paid and I paid and my sufferin' heart is always on the line
Well, I get up in the dawn and I go down and lay in the shade
I get up in the dawn and I go down and lay in the shade
I ain't nobody's house boy, I ain't nobody's well trained maid
I'm flat out spent, this woman been drivin' me to tears
I'm flat out spent, this woman been drivin' me to tears
This woman so crazy, I swear I ain't gonna touch on another one for years
Well, the warm weather is comin' and the buds are on the vine
The warm weather is comin' and the buds are on the vine
Ain't nothing so depressing as trying to satisfy this woman of mine
I got up this mornin', saw the rising sun return
Well, I got up this mornin', saw the rising sun return
Sooner or later, you too shall burn
The night's filled with shadows, the years are filled with early doom
The night's filled with shadows, the years are filled with early doom
I've been conjuring up all these long dead souls from their crumblin' tombs
Let's forgive each other darlin', let's go down to the greenwood glen
Let's forgive each other darlin', let's go down to the greenwood glen
Let's put our heads together, let's put old matters to an end
Now I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long
Ah, I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long
I woke up this morning, I think I must be traveling wrong
I can’t listen to his delivery. Got about 35 in and had to quit. Appreciate his work though.
“Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They’re trying to blow it up”
"Out on the wily, windy moors
We'd roll and fall in green
You had a temper like my jealousy
Too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you, I loved you, too"
[Hickey goes on to say that the details of an artist's life are "intertwined in the creation of the work in ways that mean you *can't* talk about one without the other."]
Nothing but a sales pitch.
Funny how this bullshit laden mode of speech trots out whenever an "artist" is discussed. It's point is to segregate the artist from everyone else so as to elevate him/her away to a "lofty" position of being, out of reach of the normie plebe so a sense of awe is generated.
And yeah, it's easy to talk about an artist's work without diving into their live's details. Hell, there are scads of works where the artist's life is virtually unknown but doesn't prevent those (like Hickey) from delving into the work.
I can't think of any particular artist for my musical interest. Hear a good one, look to see if there are others, and move on. Latest, a couple days ago,
Anderson and Roe
followed by a youtube search which turned up
More Anderson and Roe
which featured a piano with a lute stop. I haven't found anything further that's remarkable and moved on.
Melanie had a nice Lay Lady Lay
That was a jarring post to me - starting with an interesting subject to me (the supposed Elinor Roosevelt quote), and half way through, a right angle turn into the history of music, which I personally consider an irrelevancy. Obviously many here disagree with me.
Chyi Yu has a nice Sad Lisa but that's Cat Stevens. I was remembering it as Lay Lady Lay.
I’ve never fully understood the Dylan cult. He has some good songs but all are too repetitive for my blood. He also had some nice lyrics — lyrics are better than the music, imho — but some just seem like beat poetry yanked out of his ass in 15 minutes.
Still, I do like him in small doses.
Hey rhHardin, thanks for link on Anderson and Roe. Very soothing. Very nice. Are they a couple? Married?
Why do I enjoy reading Dylan more than listening to him?
He is a multitasker, a philosopher/writer/musician. I am down with the philosopher and writer but the musical part tastes like soap to this listener, as cilantro does for those with a certain makeup. There's no accounting...
"I can’t listen to his delivery. Got about 35 in and had to quit. Appreciate his work though."
He puts up a full transcript, so you can just read it if you don't like his voice. I really like it.
At first, I thought you were talking about Bob Dylan — "I can’t listen to his delivery." I thought, every damned time I write something about Dylan somebody has to tell me they can't stand his voice.
I've shared Ann's affection for Bob since Freewheelin', in '63, a couple of albums before Bringing It All Back Home. Each new album was devoured hungrily in its entirety on the day of its release...until Planet Waves, in '74, when the lyrics to Dirge ("I hate myself for loving you and the weakness that it showed") too perfectly described the relationship I was in in Paris. ("And every one of them words rang true/And glowed like burning coals," as he put it a year later.) Since then I've admired songs, not albums.
Things Have Changed, for instance, is up there with Desolation Row in my Dylan Pantheon. And in '79 I learned something about him I didn't like knowing then but don't in the least dislike now. ("I was so much older then...")
A man I knew was selling his home on an acre in Malibu. Gorgeous in every way. The guy asked if I wanted to live there for free in exchange for caring for the house and property--barely two hours of work a day. If that.. Notwithstanding the home and surroundings, I said I wasn't sure I wanted to move into a house I might soon have to move out of, even though the real estate market had begun to take a dump and he was firm about his price. "You see that property there?" he said, pointing to the other side of the northern fence. "You know who lives there? Bob Dylan."
Ding, ding, ding. I moved in that day.
A few months later, the home owner, depressed about the lack of offers, showed up to check on the property and for whatever reason confided that he and Dylan had the same lawyer, and that the lawyer had told him he had never seen a client "more concerned about money" than Bob, who was said to be "down to eight million dollars net worth." (Divorces are expensive.)
Why that affected me, I can't say, but it immediately made me reconsider Hurricane (who I thought was almost certainly guilty) and Renaldo and Clara (which I'd hated). The house went into escrow around the time of Gotta Serve Somebody's release, and three months later it closed and I was out of there.
In the year or so I lived there, I saw Bob twice. The first was in concert at, I think, the Universal Amphitheater. The second time was at the common fence between the properties. I just so happened to be sitting on the deck nearest there when I saw him. If I'd been cool and nonchalant, with a gentle wave or head nod, I think he might've stuck around and maybe even exchanged some words. Instead, I looked like I'd seen Jesus, and he disappeared into the eucalyptus grove.
Given the ongoing monetization of his work and brand, it's hard to dispute that he greatly cares about money. (His bourbon, e.g., is good, but nowhere close to worth the price point it's sold at.) But while "Money doesn't talk, it swears" can still be true, I'm now delighted to know he's not just Bob Fucking Dylan; he's also a savvy businessman who knows both the price of something and its value.
"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect."
This is the way Eleanor Roosevelt talked and wrote. The idea she would come up with a pithy saying is absurd. Like FDR if she said anything memorable, its because someone wrote it for her.
Anyway, there are a lot of hours in the day, and Great minds can gossip AND talk about great ideas. Some of us can chew gum and walk at the same time.
One of the most interesting books I have is the medical history of the Jazz Greats. Its fascinating (to me) to read about how they died and what made them sick. In some cases, its increased my admiration for them. Amazing how so-and-so could play some great Jazz with a bad heart, syphillis, and a drug habit.
I tend to think the art should speak for itself, and that what it means to the listener or viewer matters, not what it means to the artist. It's true that the latter can sometimes be enlightening. But I have little interest in that in itself.
Is he still talking about racism (especially American racists, which he says in a distinct tone of voice) every other episode? He has great information, and I listened to 50-100 episodes before I just hung it up.
It is fair to say that you can't tell many entertainment history stories without discussing racism somewhere. But he positively delights in virtue signalling.
I thought there was something urgent and revelatory about his music when I was young, and I heard him the way a young monk hears Bach. He was important. The voice of his generation....I guess he's remained relevant. It's only a matter of time before Taylor Swift gives us her rendition of Farewell Angelina....I won't be around to see, but I wonder how posterity will sort things out. Fitzgerald's star is now brighter than Hemingway's. Maybe Leonard Cohen will be the remembered voice in the next century. Maybe they'll all be forgotten except for Johnny Mercer.
My lifelong fav is David Bowie; Ziggy Stardust came out while I was in middle school, and suddenly I understood it was ok to be a weird, alien kid. Bought everything since as soon as it came out. Bowie famously changed characters like clothes – Ziggy, the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Lazurus…
But here’s the thing-David Bowie was also a character. Iman, his wife of two decades: “I fell in love with David Jones. I did not fall in love with David Bowie. Bowie is just a persona. He's a singer, an entertainer. David Jones is a man I met."
So what was his childhood like? I have no idea. The music moves you, or it doesn’t. I listened to Blackstar the day it was released on his 69th birthday:
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre then stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar)
I thought he was confronting his age. Two days later he died after a long bout of cancer, and I realized he’d written his own eulogy.
Intellectually, I’m most interested in Dylan to see how a genius creates and works his craft. There are very many aspects I have observed but a few good ones are:
- the use of his former wife as a muse for love and relationships - what he writes is inspired by real life but he digs deeper to find hidden meanings
- the use of physical world framing to set the stage for a song - helps the listener “see” what he is conveying
- the ability to see something from more than one perspective, casting doubt on what is real and what one thinks is real - there’s more than one perspective on a real event
- the use of timeless themes and the most important themes in life - love, death, God, Biblical values, eternity
- the lyrical poetry of words - it’s obvious why he is the first musician to win the Nobel for literature
- his ability to write music in numerous musical styles - folk, ballad, blues, country, country rock, modern rock, etc. Even Ancient Greek poetry
- blending the ethereal with the gritty in one song’s lyrics
- the intentional ambiguity of “you” in a song - is is about a woman or God, for example
- his use of various instruments to match the style of the song
As they say, content is king. Dylan’s songs have been covered by dozens of artists from all musical styles. Some covers are better than the Dylan version, or at least more enjoyable to listen to if you like the covering artist’s music. I expect that soon after his death there will be a rediscovering of Dylan’s songs by new artists.
One thing about Dylan's voice that continues from 1961 to the current day : you can understand every word in his recordings.
I bet even Einstein and Kant found juicy gossip interesting.
It is fun trying to figure out which 20th century musical artists will be remembered in the 22nd century. Will any of the ones on the i-charts right now be remembered? Will The Beatles be remembered that far in the future?
'He puts up a full transcript, so you can just read it if you don't like his voice. I really like it.'
Dylan's voice comes up often on this blog as he is a favorite of our hostess.
I used to be in the 'he's a great writer but a terrible singer' camp. But imagine if he were just a songwriter who sold those songs to others. You wouldn't know it at the time, but you'd be hearing what amounts to cover versions.
It's as if the Beatles only wrote and never performed. Can you imagine the horror of a world populated by only The Carpenters rendition of 'She's Leaving Home.'
Or James Taylor's version of 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.' It would be excruciating.
I'm no expert on Dylan discography, but his voice seems exactly right for 'Like a Rolling Stone.'
And not just the voice. I think what makes Dylan even more distinctive is his phrasing. The way he stretches '...your next meyaaaaaaaaaaal, how does it feel?' is pretty fucking perfect.
'Tangled up in Blue' is another...it would be terrible not sung by Dylan.
The man is a professional and can change his voice when needed. When I first heard 'Lay, Lady, Lay' I thought it was Mac Davis. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door' is another that does not sound typically Dylan.
I will admit that I probably only listen to 'the hits,' but I enjoy Dylan more as I get older, with the caveat that if I'd paid big bucks to see him live I'd be pretty disappointed. I've heard some live stuff that he sleepwalks through...pretty awful.
I agree with his assessment--everyone does all three, nobody does just one or even just two, but that doesn't mean the quote is wrong. We have tendencies and preferences.
It's been observed that everyone is cool sometimes and everyone is an asshole sometimes. The difference between cool people and assholes is how much of your time is spent as one or the other. Here too, just because everyone does all three doesn't mean you can't classify people by how much they focus on one or another.
This is a good opportunity to note that Dylan doesn't get nearly enough credit for his melodies, very many of which are exceptional.
I am most interested in ideas... Less interesting, but still important, are events — the things like the social movements which shaped how the music was made...
His forays into "the social movements" are the least interesting portions of his otherwise fine podcast. In part, because they almost never include new information and tend to regurgitate convention wisdom. In part, because he witnessed American social movements from the UK, which usually promotes a thin, mainstream liberal depiction of U.S. events.
I was amazed when I first heard that Orthodox Jews are not allowed to gossip. We were like, But that's literally all we talk about.
It is a quote meant to obfuscate the true nature of the college alumni
Ideals of Retirement. Several college presidents, Mr. Marks says, were discussing what they wanted to do when they retired from college. The ideal of ideals was "I want to be warden of a penitentiary. The alumni never come back to visit." "There are, of course, intelligent college graduates but they are the cream on a vast sea of pale blue milk. If you wish to get microscopic view of the results of a college education, spend a casual evening in any college club. At about five o'clock members begin straggling in. Comments on the state of the stock market are exchanged. As most of the men under thirty are making less than forty dollars a week, their interest is largely pose. Somebody suggests a game of bridge. At last there is life and interest... .a few get in the corner and talk. Nine times! out of ten it is about women. Business, bridge, bootleggers, radio, girls and automobiles there is the complete list of the interests of the unmarried alumni 1
--Alumni Ridiculed by Percy Marks In Recent Harpers Magazine Article Calls Graduates 'Pestiferous' and a Hinderance to College Progress.
Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume L, Number 16, 9 October 1926
"... he and Dylan had the same lawyer, and that the lawyer had told him he had never seen a client "more concerned about money" than Bob, who was said to be "down to eight million dollars net worth." (Divorces are expensive.)"
Very unprofessional for a lawyer to gossip about his client like that and reveal private information. Was he really Bob Dylan's lawyer?
"... it immediately made me reconsider Hurricane (who I thought was almost certainly guilty)..."
He was also unfair to William Zanzinger.
"If I'd been cool and nonchalant, with a gentle wave or head nod, I think he might've stuck around and maybe even exchanged some words. Instead, I looked like I'd seen Jesus, and he disappeared into the eucalyptus grove."
Jesus does the same thing.
@althouse: "Very unprofessional for a lawyer to gossip about his client like that and reveal private information. Was he really Bob Dylan's lawyer?"
Yes, he was; and yes, it was unprofessional and unethical. But the owner of the house was also an entertainment lawyer, and I think the comment might've been uttered casually, over drinks.
And yes, Bob was unfair to William Zanzinger (while that tune, according to something I heard a few years ago on NPR, was apparently, uh, borrowed from an old folk ballad).
"All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame"
That lawyer talking about his client bit brought me up short, too, and IANAL. Actually the story implies two blabbermouth attorneys, if I read it correctly.
Hell, I was a mere librarian and I didn't blab stuff about my patrons and their interests to others (per our Code of Ethics at the time--they may have changed since).
Some years ago my wife returned from her doctor with all kinds of health advice for me, as if I didn't have doctors of my own. Apparently she grilled my wife on MY health status and level of care when she should have been concerned with her patient.
My wife didn't see why it pissed me off, but that may be the gender divide in action.
Oh yeah, Dylan. Great artist, but only a little at a time for me.
"Jesus does the same thing."
Actually, I imagine Jesus would be pretty friendly.
re Pete,
I just wanted to take the time to thank you for your comments- I always try to predict what lyric you will choose on a given post. I haven't gotten one correct yet, but it is always fun.
"Small minds discuss people."
Refutation only needs one counter example, so if you are discussing Von Neuman, who was a person, many large minds discuss him.
So I have presented an example of a discussion of a person where the discussees are of large mind. QED.
Wait, you say, large and small minds can discuss Von Neuman together, so your proof is false.
So, your whole statement is vacuous. Large and small minds can both think about anything. So there is no informative truth in your words.
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