Bob Dylan theory

[Hipster Duck]

I have been a lifelong fan of Bob Dylan. In fact, he's pretty much the only musician I've consistently enjoyed listening to since I was 18. I have this theory that I inadvertently enjoy Bob Dylan songs the most when I'm the age that Bob Dylan was when he wrote them, give or take. So, basically, when I was 20, I loved songs like "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", a little later on, when I was 24, songs like "Temporary Like Achilles" and, now that I'm approaching my late 20s, I am digging the music from "Nashville Skyline" and "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid". Amazingly, I had access to all of Bob Dylan's music, but I only began to appreciate his later stuff as I got older myself. For example, I used to hate the stuff from "Infidels" and dismissed it as a lost, aging rock star who stayed past his expiry date (and embraced Christianity out of boredom) but I'm increasingly awed by how he has infused religious imagery so subtly and beautifully in his music.

Anyway, basically my theory is that if you love Dylan's music, you make a sort of contract with him where you grow up vicariously through the evolution of his style.

Thoughts?

 

[Urban Shocker]

I think your theory can be successfully applied to the evolving work of any serious artist who isn't a case of arrested development.

 

[interchange42]

I can't wait for Britney's new album this December.

42

 

[Urban Shocker]

I still enjoy some of the pop music I listened to when I was of an age when pop music was the music I listened to more than any other kind of music. Unsubtle, formulaic, and emotionally unsatisfying it doubtless crowds more important things out of my brain - but such is life.

But my pop music years - which ran from about the age of 14 until I was in my mid 30s - waned, and I eventually returned to the music I listened to on BBC radio when I was a small child: the classics. First love always stays with you, especially when it is subtle, and complex, and rewarding, and infinite in its possibilities. And some of it was written by musical geniuses like Mozart and Mendelssohn when they were still in their teens.

 

[interchange42]

US, is that a tacit stamp of approval for Britney Spears?

The Bob Dylan theory is interesting. I'd have to think for a while if I could say the same as Hipster regarding any of my musical heroes. Once my niece gets old enough I'll ask her if the Dylan theory works with Britney with her. If she says yes, I'l tease her mercilessly.

42

 

[Edward Skira]

Dylan is my favourite artist of all time. "Like A Rolling Stone" is my favourite song by far. However I can't subscribe to your theory. I got into him heavily in my early 20's, around the same age that he was putting out those classics (he was 25 when "Like A Rolling Stone" was released). Over the years I've tried to like the rest but just can't. The last good record in my mind was "Blood On The Tracks" and that came out in 1975 when he was 35. I still think "Like A Rolling Stone" is his best song and "Blonde On Blonde" the best record (released in 1966 at age 26). Second best record is "Live At Royal Hall"* recorded in 1966 and officially released 5 or 10 years back (though I had the bootlegs 20 years back). I've had his recent release, "Bootleg Series Vol 8 (unreleased 1989-2006) on my desk for the last week and I still can't get myself to put it on. There's no way it will match the stuff he did in his prime.

* Called "Live At Royal Albert Hall", as in London, though it was actually recorded a few days earlier in Manchester. The bootleggers made a mistake that sticks to this day.

 

[adma]

Dylan my foot

 

[Hipster Duck]

First love always stays with you, especially when it is subtle, and complex, and rewarding, and infinite in its possibilities. And some of it was written by musical geniuses like Mozart and Mendelssohn when they were still in their teens.

That's true. Might I submit that Bob Dylan meets all those qualities for me? His music is subtle, complex and rewarding in its lyrical richness. Maybe if I keep digging I'll eventually find some other singer who can wrap himself around the English language so flawlessly, but Dylan's always been at the top of the heap.

I got into him heavily in my early 20's, around the same age that he was putting out those classics (he was 25 when "Like A Rolling Stone" was released). Over the years I've tried to like the rest but just can't. The last good record in my mind was "Blood On The Tracks" and that came out in 1975 when he was 35. I still think "Like A Rolling Stone" is his best song and "Blonde On Blonde" the best record (released in 1966 at age 26).

Some of that stuff is seriously rockin', Ed, and it's probably the Dylan that I can listen to the most. "Highway 61 Revisited" is still my 'Desert Island' album, what with Like a Rolling Stone and the TS Eliot-like 'Desolation Row'. His motorcycle crash in 1966 seems like the dividing point between what most people like and don't like, but I think it gave his music a sense of mortality to it that was kind of lacking in his more reckless youth. His themes were simpler and his songs were slower, but they cut more deeply, I think.

Okay, I'll admit that the Traveling Wilburys were a disaster, but I haven't reached that point in the Dylan timeline yet.

 

[Hydrogen]

I admire Dylan for making it through all that he did.


But Keith Richards is truly the rock'n roll surviver.