Who Else Loves Bob Dylan? Join the Fan Club!

[micromass]

I have to say I'm a really big fan. I'm very glad he finally won the Nobel prize for literature. Very well deserved I'd say.

 

[Borg]

Not a big fan but that really took me by surprise when I saw it today.

 

[StatGuy2000]

I wonder if this is the first instance in history of someone who has won the Nobel Prize in Literature and won Grammy Awards (for Best Music), an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Not to mention that Dylan is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

This is awesome news. Dylan is a legend in music!

 

[PeroK]

I was really amazed and even shocked when I heard, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Especially when you consider the impact of his words and music.

He's certainly unique among modern singer-songwriters in that he must have written 20-30 songs that are lyrically on a different plane from everyone else. "Only a Hobo" or "Blind Willie McTell",for example, were outtakes! They didn't even make it onto their respective albums. For most other songwriters, these would have been lyrically by far the best songs they'd ever written.

That said, he released a lot of poor material in my view. But, if you look at his best work, there's never been another songwriter anywhere near him.

 

[dlgoff]

Makes me proud to be old and have grown up with his tunes.

 

[Dr Transport]

I looked at the calendar to see what day it was, I thought it was April Fools Day. When I actually thought about the lyrics without any music, I figured, not a bad choice, but I had bet $10 on Joyce Carol Oates (yes, I am in a pool for the Nobel prizes and it is growing every year because no one in the group of us ever gets one right).

 

[OmCheeto]

Hurricane.

His was just icky old dude hippy music, before I heard that song.

Bam!

Sometimes, music has to hit you in the chest.

 

[Mark44]

That said, he released a lot of poor material in my view. But, if you look at his best work, there's never been another songwriter anywhere near him.

I've been a fan since his first album back in the early 60s, and still have four or five of those LPs.

Some of his recent songs I don't care for -- I can't get past how awful his singing voice is now (not that he was ever a great singer).

 

[Astronuc]

I can't get past how awful his singing voice is now (not that he was ever a great singer).

His lyrics are great, the tunes are great, but I prefer someone else sing.

Even Dylan concedes that Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" is superior to his own rendition.

 

[Mark44]

His lyrics are great, the tunes are great, but I prefer someone else sing.

Even Dylan concedes that Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" is superior to his own rendition.

One of Hendrix's best, IMO.

Another one like this is the cover by of "You're going to make me lonesome when you go," by Shawn Colvin - http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q="you're+gonna+make+me+lonesome+when+you+go"+cover&view=detail&mid=A4903421FB4810E78AD0A4903421FB4810E78AD0&FORM=VIRE
Beautiful voice and excellent guitar work on top of the amazing Dylan lyrics,

 

[tionis]

''Things have changed'' is the only song I like, but what a song...

 

[mathwonk]

i think it was a calculated move to sing the songs so badly that every other good singer would think they could do better and cover them. joan baez doing daddy you're just on my mind, jimmy doing watchtower, the birds doing mr tambourine man, peter paul and mary doing blowing in the wind, nina simone on just like a woman, judy collins doing masters of war,... brilliant really.

And just my opinion, but his awful singing voice seems a bit of a pose, since on Nashville Skyline he shows he can sound better if he wants to, or at least as good as Johnny Cash, e.g.

 

[DiracPool]

Some of his recent songs I don't care for -- I can't get past how awful his singing voice is now (not that he was ever a great singer).

Yeah, I think he's overstayed his welcome on stage for about the past 20 years but he deserves his honors. They just seem to keep on piling up here in recent years.

Here's one of my favorite performances by him (and George Harrison and Leon Russell):



They used to have the actual live performance on youtube but I can't find it

 

[dlgoff]

His lyrics are great, the tunes are great, but I prefer someone else sing.

IMO it's his voice that makes the tunes great.

 

[micromass]

IMO it's his voice that makes the tunes great.

Exactly! It happens only very rarely that somebody can sing a Dylan song better than Dylan, no matter how perfect his/her voice is!

 

[mathwonk]

actually i have to sort of agree. i think dylan's version of watchtower is much better sung than hendrix's, (jimmy also has a terrible voice), but hendrix does the guitar part so powerfully it makes the experience more throbbing.

 

[micromass]

actually i have to sort of agree. i think dylan's version of watchtower is much better sung than hendrix's, (jimmy also has a terrible voice), but hendrix does the guitar part so powerfully it makes the experience more throbbing.

Actually, all along the watchtower is one of the only songs I prefer the cover version. To make you feel my love by Adele is another really good cover.

 

[mathwonk]

Somehow this is making me feel the need to go back for some extended re-listening. I suspect the whole world will do the same this week. Having given up my entire vinyl, cassette, dvd and cd collection (dating to about 1968) when I moved out of my house in 2014, all my comments here are based purely on auditory memory, some from decades ago. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Planobilly]

I always wished I could write a Dylan style song. The lyrics he has written are incredible. I always play and sing one or two Dylan tunes a week when I practice guitar or piano.

"Johnny in the basement mixing up the medicine I'm on the pavement talking bout the government a man in a trench coat badge out laid off says he's got a bad cough wants to get paid off"
How would you ever come up with a line like that!...lol Even the title to the song is cool...Subterranean Homesick Blues

I think it is hard to be a musician and not be influenced to some degree by Dylan. I wish him the best. I think he is just a little older than I am, so we both grew up at the same time. It's been a good ride so far.

Cheers,

Billy

 

[mathwonk]

and "the pump don't work cause the vandals took the handle". this line sent my roommate into laughing fits.

i always marveled at "he puts his cigar out in your face just for kicks, his bedroom window is made out of bricks, the national guard stands around the door, ahhhww... I ain't going to work on maggie's farm no more."

my more literate buddy was moved by " the evening's empire has returned into sand, vanished from my hand,..."

or (joan baez's version) : " it might be the color of the sun cut flat, or maybe the cross roads I'm standing at, or maybe its the weather or something like that, but daddy you're just on my mind".

I confess I especially like the less meaningful ones, like Country Pie; " strawberry raspberry lemon and lime, what do i care, blueberry cherry apple pumpkin and plum, call me for dinner honey, i'll be there."gee whiz, i know this stuff better than the statement of the grothendieck riemann roch theorem. maybe i should have brought my guitar to class.

 

[1oldman2]

I'm thinking R. Zimmerman's blood on the tracks ain't to bad an album.

 

[Dowland]

My father and his brother are real Dylan freaks so I've been indoctrinated with his music from an early age. He is one of the reasons I learned how to play the guitar and to sing :) He ages like a good wine, too; his raspy voice from his later albums such as "Time Out of Mind" and "Modern Times" sounds heavenly.

 

[phinds]

When my son was in his early teens many years ago I told him about Dylan, saying that with his advent, the very essence of song writing had changed and that he would be remembered for a very long time after his contemporaries had been forgotten.

In his college years my son became a huge Dylan fan and remains so to this day. I had always assumed that that got its start because of what I had said to him but he and I talked recently about Dylan (because of the the Nobel prize) and he told me that he didn't remember our earlier conversation at all and had come to Dylan entirely on his own.

I shouldn't have been surprised. What teenager listens to a parent ?

I'm delighted that he became such a big fan though.

As for Dylan's voice, I really hated it early on, while loving his songs, but it grew on me and grew on me and now I like it and don't much care for covers of his songs except by Joan Baez and PP&M but I love them for other reasons.

I think his Blowin' In the Wind and The Times They are A'Changin' are two of the most brilliant folk songs ever written and are more than just the anthems of a geneation even though only saying that they are that is saying a lot.

 

[Rubidium_71]

Sure, I like Bob Dylan. Shelter From The Storm is one of my favorites.

 

[Borg]

Dylan will not be accepting the award in person. He is sending a speech instead.

Stockholm (AFP) - Music icon Bob Dylan won't be at the Nobel prize ceremony this week to accept his award, but he has sent along a speech to be read aloud, the Nobel foundation said Monday.
"This year's Laureate in Literature, Bob Dylan, will not be participating in the Nobel Week but he has provided a speech which will be read at the banquet," the foundation said in a statement.
Sending along the speech does not exempt the American songwriter from holding a lecture at a place and a type of his choosing, the only requirement by the Nobel foundation.

I think that last statement is wrong since you have to be alive at the time of the October announcement.

 

[dkotschessaa]

My son's name is Dylan. I sing him to sleep with "Mr. Tambourine Man" every night. I think that answers your question!