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Originally posted by Gazza
I've always had a love/hate thing with Dylan though... I remember when I was very young my Dad would be playing stuff like Love In Vain, Like A Rolling Stone or I Want You, but then they'd be followed by the aptly titled Desolation Row.
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“Subterranean Homesick Blues”, like many of Dylan’s early songs, are beat poetry. They’re not trying to say anything clear to us; they’re not something that you can simply interpret and toss away. I believe even Dylan isn’t sure of what the meaning of some of his songs is. It’s just something that flows to him naturally.
I think something like “SHB” or “Desolation Row” is trying to tell us in general how meaningless life is. It’s a set of random images from a fractured mind that’s trying to get a hold of the reality and yet fails to do so. Streams of emotion coming out of nowhere, meeting for a moment and then disappearing into nothingness, that’s what some of his songs are about. And thank God those were captured for posterity.
That’s how I see it anyway. I love it when he can be very vague sometimes yet he still doesn’t come off as if he’s trying to be intentionally incomprehensible. That’s something I get out of Stevie’s lyrics sometimes, and also of Lindsey’s music (and some of the recent lyrics).
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Originally posted by chiliD
It's like being a teenage Beatle fan...sure I can see where you'd like their music, but how can you REALLY be into the Beatles, when you weren't "there" to first hand feel the musical & sociological events as they happened?
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I understand that but I also believe that great art can be timeless. If something survives the changes of the times and still has something to say to us then it’s worthy. If music can’t live outside all the sociological baggage then it isn’t anything but a curiosity to me.
Dylan hasn’t really had a “comeback” period of sorts (except in 1974 with Planet Waves), he’s always kept on making albums. When FM did the Dance they gained a lot of new fans. I think that’s the main reason to why there aren’t as many fanatical young Dylan fans as there are with Fleetwood Mac. Dylan hasn’t needed publicity stunts for a long time.
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Originally posted by strandinthewind
Also, Dylan, like Stevie, is a genius at phrasing and he and she can make seemingly awkward phrases on paper come to life IMO.
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This I agree with completely. Dylan and Stevie have both written great songs. They have written their share of great lyrics (although I think Dylan has been more diverse in that area than SN). They both have great voices that have gone through a lot of changes. (I think they both operate under similar principles; no wonder both can generate such total love/hate reactions from people.)
Yet I don’t think anyone can really be a fan of theirs and thoroughly separate the lyrics and the music from the performance itself. It’s all about the way they sing it, the way they phrase, the way those lyrics are under their complete control. Listen to that seven minute poem “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie” on the Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. It’s completely mesmerizing to listen to even though you can’t decipher all of the lyrics at once.
While there have been good Dylan covers, the originals will always be the definitive for me. Or then there would have to be radical reinventions, like Hendrix’ “All Along The Watchtower”. And the same goes to SN.
Stevie and Bob will always be essential parts of my life.
