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he's a self absorbed whinger is what he is, and his songs are greater than he is. No artist retains control over his art's meaning to the public. Folk music is about covering other people's songs, changing and reinterpreting them.
anyway, the godfather of Dylan's music is Arlo Guthrie, so he's got some red in him. tough shit, Bob.
Folk music is about covering other people's songs, changing and reinterpreting them.
Dylan's no folkie. And he makes no bones about the fact that he's not primarily a protest singer, although he wrote some good protest songs. And while he leans left generally, he's no party-liner, which only increases my respect for the man.
he's a self absorbed whinger is what he is
Of course he is, that's kind of the point. Read Greil Marcus' The Old Weird America, it kind says all there is to say on the subject better than I could.
i was just about to mention 'masters of war', which seems like a pretty unambiguous condemnation of, uhh, war and stuff..
Sadly, that's nowhere near his best song, or even his best political song. (his best protest number would be 'Only A Pawn In Their Game' IMHO).
Oh, sure. The composer of "Masters of War", "Only a Pawn in Their Game", "The Ballad of Hollis Brown", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Talking World War III Blues", "Oxford Town", "With God On Our Side", and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"--big time states-rights advocate who generally was ambivalent about war and advocated tax cuts for the rich.
Yeah, this article's a crock of shit, too. He's no more a conservative than he was a lefty house organ. When somebody is as brilliant as Dylan everybody wants to make him theirs.
Well, and not to mention that the pressure on Dylan to "lead" was so great that it was bound to inspire a backlash. Arguably the most redemtive thing about Dylan is that he didn't want to become a SuperStarSized Pete Seeger.
The talk about him saying "I'll be busy tonight" in response to being asked about attending an anti-war protest is disingenuous at best: he was in town to play a show, that's why he was laughing as he answered. The journalist was too stupid to understand the most basic context in which he was asking his questions.