ALBUMS: Biograph (1985 5-record box); Infidels (1983); Slow Train Coming (1979); Blood on the Tracks (1974); Greatest Hits (1967)
MVC Rating: BIograph 5/$$$$$; Infidels 4.5/$$$$; Slow Train Coming $4.5 $$$; Blood on the Tracks 5.0/$$$$;; Greatest Hits 5.0/$$$$.
For a private, quiet person, Dylan is a man of many words.
Before I start this essay on Nobel winner and influential singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, I want to point out, once again we are talking about words. (A favorite topic of mine).
A friend asked me a long time ago if I thought Dylan knew what he was talking about or is he just throwing words up on the wall. From experience I can say, he probably does and doesn’t.
Know what his words mean, I mean.
As with many writers, words are chosen for different things: The sound of the word, the meaning of the word, the secondary meaning of the word, the meaning of the word in context with the other words. Writers make choices about what words to use. Sometimes straight prose is what it says it is, like a recipe for a casserole. Add one cup of grated cheese.
Other times it’s more of an ink blot test and that’s where song lyrics can become part of an artistic presentation that means different things to different people.
Dylan was just better than almost anyone else at that.
By that, I mean the nimble word use that leaves you wondering, visualizing, thinking or letting it seep into your subconscious (for use later by your brain, for a dream perhaps). Of course it means something. It means something just by its very existence on the page. But it may mean nothing much or a whole lot. It may mean different things to different people. It may be Jabberwocky. That was Dylan’s art.
Of the big three: Elvis, the Beatles and Dylan, Minnesota-born Dylan aka Robert Zimmerman, probably did the most to influence the song in pop music, just my opinion.
(And a quick acknowledgement here on race and gender. These ‘Big 3’ —actually six when you add Beatles — white men climbed a foundation laid by many black artists and female artists such,as Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Scott Joplin, Chuck Berry and so on. I picked the ‘Big 3’ based on the type of change and measure of change they brought to modern pop music. Though blessed with talent, the Big 3’s influence was largely circumstantial — or, to paraphrase Dr. John — they were in the right place at the right time.)
Dylan’s influence was greatest yet most subtle. It showed people that rock and pop songs could mean something. ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘A Day in the Life.’ His singing had obvious influences on such artists as Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, and even the Beatles.
But let me anticipate the argument against this pick.
Many casual Dylan fans or non-fans say Dylan could write some good songs but that was about it, he couldn’t sing, he wasn’t a musical game-changer.
But that’s wrong.
I know I’m hypocritically and arbitrarily wiping away your right to your own ink-blot interpretation, but I’m using a writing device to debate or persuade you to my side.
Sure Dylan has a nasal vocal delivery that sounds like he gargled with Liquid Plumber. And then, periodically he would stop his rap and blow into a harmonica making honking, choo choo noises as a proper Woody Guthrie acolyte should.
But those are the pieces, what was the result of the whole. Dylan melded the words of the lyrics into the music’s structure and tied it all up with phrasing.
Dylan made the song reinforce the words. And his voice, my gosh, his voice was that of a dying man’s last words backed by guitar.
One of his best songs was ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ Let’s deconstruct a verse or two:
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you? [Internal rhyming in this 1965 song sound like today’s rappers).
People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about {Yoooo Yooooost toooo — stringing it out for effect]
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud [steps down in lower timbre for a Dylan scold –‘seem to proud,’ he spits.
About having to be scrounging your next meal [How about his dragging the word ‘scrounging’ out just in case I haven’t humiliated you enough.]
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
‘Positively 4th Street’ – 1965
Yes, I wish that for just one time/You could stand inside my shoes/You’d know what a drag it is to see you
Tangled Up in Blue
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ under my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoe
Tangled up in blue
Tangled up in blue (more)
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And everyone of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
From me to you
Tangled up in blue
The Times They are a Changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
The times they are a changin’
Don’t tie no bows
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.
So that’s my take on Dylan. For now. Of my many records listed at the top, I’d recommend Biograph, the 5-record box set. It is a very well done compilation containing everything from his classics to never before published gems. Liner notes in a separate booklet enclosed is by Cameron Crowe and many comments on the songs by the man himself. Any of the other albums I’d recommend highly. The Greatest Hits from his 1960s songs was my first introduction and my hook. Blood on the tracks is just great, and Slow Train Coming and Infidels taken from his sometimes maligned ‘Christian’ conversion period are very good. (Actually Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone founder, called Slow Train Dylan’s finest work.)