MetaChat - I've been re-writing the Bob Dylan entry at Wikipedia.

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02 December 2005

I've been re-writing the Bob Dylan entry at Wikipedia. So far I have corrected and re-written lots of stuff, just for good writing. I pretty much re-wrote the intoductory paragraph tonight. And most of "The Early Years" is mine. I am going to keep going. Any advice or facts or fiction that I should include?

post by: Cryptical Envelopment at: 00:26 | 26 comments

Poor fucker

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 01:26

"Hey, Misterr Tambourine man, play a song for me...I'm not weary and there is no-one I'm strumming to"

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:05

It's a long road, but someone has to keep an eye out for the truth. That someone appears to be me. Yay me!

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:28

Not as if Dylan cares, but I do.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:29

I redacted (in my mind) many great American song writers: Guthrie, Carmichael, and the guy who wrote Rhapsodie in Blue. Ah, Cole Porter and Charles Mingus. Duke Ellington? No.

George Gershwin was a freak and he knew it.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:34

I'm done. Now y'all go fix the Bob Dylan entry, OK?

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:35

Early Bob Dylan songs such as "Blowin' in The Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" served as rallying cries for many Americans who opposed racism and were working towards and fighting for racial integration as the norm in US society. As the 1960s matured and the US government's involvement in the Vietnam War increased, Dylan's songs such as "Masters of War" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" helped to unite those who opposed the war and their massive popularity solidified Dylan's reputation as "the voice of a generation".

Blowing in the Wind, Hard Rain and Masters of War are off the same album (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan") and so the temporal sequence implied in this paragraph doesn't make sense.

posted by rumple 02 December | 02:49

It's more a national sequence. It took a while for the songs to take hold, no? The freedom songs grabbed quicker than the anti-war songs. Yes, I am fighting with this intro to Bob. Thanks. :-(

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:55

No fun when listening to Joey.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 02:57

I shudder to think where "Tambourine Man" will fit in. Thanks, rumple.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:00

I've tried to draw a line beetween black peole and the the civii rights movement and the Vietnam War in terms of his songs. I'll keep trying to fix it.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:04

I'm going to listen to Blood On The Tracks. Screw you guys, I'm gonna edit. Thanks rumple!

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:07

I've always thought of Blowin in the Wind as an anti-war song. The war in question, at the time, I think I read somewhere, was the Cuban missile crisis, which provoked widespread existentialist angst, reflected in Hard Rain, and anger at the system (Masters of War) and anger at the older generation who brought the world to that state (Times are a-changin). So I don't see the distinction you are making, though I don't know much about Dylan. its well written and clear and makes sense otherwise!

posted by rumple 02 December | 03:16

For me it is enough that he debunks the stupid folks who misinterpreted the stimulus for "Masters Of War". Here is the speech that Dylan himslef claims as the inspiration for that song:

The Military Industrial Complex

I will try to incorporate your thoughts and feelings in the most generous political sense. It is a hell of a feeling to be writing Bob Dylan's history at Wikipedia for what it is worth. And for what it is worth I am more about writing than history.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:28

Bob Dylan had an early career as a cat strangler. He gave it up because he couldn't stand the painful mewing. To this day, the echo's from that first job can be heard in his music.

posted by seanyboy 02 December | 03:35

Tagled up in meeeeew.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:37

Tagled?

posted by seanyboy 02 December | 03:43

No no no. More like this. Damnit.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:51

And I can have a great Garcia performance of "Tangled Up In Blue" here in about a minute or 20. And so I will. FOr my own peace of mind.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:53

Watch this space if you have a minute.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 03:58

In the mean time, this is great music. (Jerry Garcia Band.)

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 04:05

Give it 25 minutes and then some more.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 04:20

You people are less than forgiving. :-( But I guess you are used to that.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 02 December | 04:29

I also understand that Dylan's harmonica playing was influenced by another job he had: he used pump air into a goose with some wheezy old bellows.

posted by dodgygeezer 02 December | 09:37

Very few people are aware of this, but Bob Dylan actually invented the aerating sandal, although his original pair had many more spikes and were actually designed to be used when geisha girls walked on the backs of Indian clerics. He abandoned development after a tragic accident involving a geisha-in-training and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's left testicle.

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by mr_crash_davis 02 December | 09:38

Anything about the allegations of plagiary concerning Love and Theft in the entry?

posted by terrapin 02 December | 11:07

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