Personal fan-stories, life-experiences as related to Bob and his Music/Art:
In the summer of 2011, in honor of Dylan's 70th birthday, my brother
and I decided to travel around the United States following Bob Dylan and his
tour. I am 26 years old and had never
seen too much of the United States. We
started out in Pennsylvania and drove across the country to Santa Barbara,
California. I had seen Dylan five times
before and loved every minute. Sadly, I
did not discover Dylan and his music until 2009 with the movie, The Watchmen. My first concert was also in 2009 with my
brother.
After discovering Bob in 2009, I threw myself into all of his history and music. Needless to say, I am in awe of his work. Without a doubt, Bob Dylan's music tells the story of this country better than any other. I admire his innovative, independent spirit and feel that his performances are the greatest artistic experience that one can have. With that said, spending 24 hours with the coolest guy on the planet this summer was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I was glad that my brother (21 years old) wanted to come along.
By the end of our journey, I saw 12 concerts, starting in Santa Barbara and ending in Philadelphia. My brother was with me for ten of the concerts and my wife accompanied me to the last two back east. Bob really knows how to rock and I absolutely loved every performance. Seeing him walk on the stage gives me the chills every time. Although many complain about his lack of audience contact, I believe his performance speaks for itself. Songs like "Hard Rain," "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking," and "Ballad of a Thin Man" don't need any verbal garnish. They are extremely powerful without any introduction.
In the end, we had a terrific journey despite some car trouble. My brother and I have some great memories and got to "go out in the country where the land meets the sun." We will certainly "die in our footsteps before we go down under the ground." We saw so much history this summer as we drove from town to town. We met tons of interesting people and enjoyed sharing stories with those we met, both young and old. Every time I am down or in need of inspiration, I am reminded of Dylan's last thoughts on Woody Guthrie. I am going to quote part of it to conclude my comments about Bob Dylan:
And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’
Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’
Where do you look for this oil well gushin’
Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You’ll find God in the church of your choice
You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital
And though it’s only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You’ll find them both
In the Grand Canyon
At sundown
You'll also find Bob Dylan in a city somewhere on this earth, pouring out his genius for you to experience.
My brother and I kept a blog for part of our journey.
You are welcome to check it out: http://togetherthroughdylan.wordpress.com/page/2/
Best to you on your research,
Craig
After discovering Bob in 2009, I threw myself into all of his history and music. Needless to say, I am in awe of his work. Without a doubt, Bob Dylan's music tells the story of this country better than any other. I admire his innovative, independent spirit and feel that his performances are the greatest artistic experience that one can have. With that said, spending 24 hours with the coolest guy on the planet this summer was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I was glad that my brother (21 years old) wanted to come along.
By the end of our journey, I saw 12 concerts, starting in Santa Barbara and ending in Philadelphia. My brother was with me for ten of the concerts and my wife accompanied me to the last two back east. Bob really knows how to rock and I absolutely loved every performance. Seeing him walk on the stage gives me the chills every time. Although many complain about his lack of audience contact, I believe his performance speaks for itself. Songs like "Hard Rain," "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking," and "Ballad of a Thin Man" don't need any verbal garnish. They are extremely powerful without any introduction.
In the end, we had a terrific journey despite some car trouble. My brother and I have some great memories and got to "go out in the country where the land meets the sun." We will certainly "die in our footsteps before we go down under the ground." We saw so much history this summer as we drove from town to town. We met tons of interesting people and enjoyed sharing stories with those we met, both young and old. Every time I am down or in need of inspiration, I am reminded of Dylan's last thoughts on Woody Guthrie. I am going to quote part of it to conclude my comments about Bob Dylan:
And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’
Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’
Where do you look for this oil well gushin’
Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You’ll find God in the church of your choice
You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital
And though it’s only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You’ll find them both
In the Grand Canyon
At sundown
You'll also find Bob Dylan in a city somewhere on this earth, pouring out his genius for you to experience.
My brother and I kept a blog for part of our journey.
You are welcome to check it out: http://togetherthroughdylan.wordpress.com/page/2/
Best to you on your research,
Craig
My Bob Dylan story is rather personal: Bob Dylan, like good friends, is there every step of the way.
My relationship with Bob started typically. As a teen my perception of Bob was that of, a has-been rocker, whom you couldn’t understand, however, he seemed different. As I got older his music began to hit me and make more sense and I am not one to abandon curiosity. After seeing a few Dylan concerts I started getting further entrenched in him, buying his albums one by one and not buying the next until that cassette was worn thin. Then, due to the internet in 1996, I discovered that he was touring in my American Midwest. I chose to embark on a 6 shows journey. I was amazed. The shows were of high quality, performed by a legend, yet the small town audiences were thin. The next year Time Out of Mind was released and I thought it was great. The shows continued and I continued attending them. Now, I was meeting like minded people and a buzz surrounding the quality of shows started to escalade. I felt as if Dylan’s recent renaissance coincided with my deep involvement with him. I also began relating Dylan themes into situations in my own life. I started to use them as my life’s road map. Although, soon it would seem that Dylan would use my life as his road map…
On September 10th 2001, I was anticipating Dylan’s next album, Love and Theft. We know what happened the next day. The sound of this album serves as the soundtrack of those sad times and the lyrics seemed to describe the day’s events. The irony was profound to me. No one else paid it any mind. I continued following Bob, enjoying the very high quality shows that this time period offered (2000-2002). In 2004, I moved to a small rural town, Dylan answered this by playing in the town I drove to get my groceries, on my birthday (yet again). My friends started getting suspicious. Soon he hired my favorite musician, a nice fellow whom I had spent a few raucous nights with, as his multi-instrumentalist. Odd indeed and a dream come true. In 2006, the very week Modern Times was released I took a risk and ventured into business ownership. That album became the soundtrack to my own Modern Times as I kicked the Workingman’s Blues. Dylan chugged along and I chugged along. Soon, a fellow Dylan fan, and I, decided to get married. We had our wedding date set and we waited with anticipation. Surprisingly, the week before we embarked on a life of marriage together, Dylan released an album titled Together through Life. How did he know? We wondered. Dylan continued playing to me on my Halloween birthdays throughout the course of this decade. The night our first child was born Bob played Happy Birthday in his encore set… When Halloween rolled around the next October we spent our first night away from our baby boy seeing Bob, yet again on my birthday.
19 years after my first Dylan show. I have amassed hundreds of tapes and Cd’s, attended 80 shows in 12 states, eight on my birthday and 26 with my wife. I have seen Stage Diving in Dubuque, IA (1996), Dylan’s band as the opening band (1997), Bob play Hank Williams songs in Nashville (1999), Dylan’s first show at his birthplace (1999), Bob perform passionate post 9/11 sets, perform on presidential elections nights twice (2004 and 2008), Bob use 23 different opening bands and more festivals, state fairs and baseball parks than I care to mention. I have met two of my best friends at Dylan shows and seen a lot of the American Middle West because of him. You name the album I will tell you the time of my life that it represents. But most of all Bob has been alongside me every step of the way during my adult life. Like life itself, Bob doesn’t stop.
I truly believe that he is the most important individual of the last 100 years and his legacy will outlive everyone else from this time period. He is a living link to the world’s past. His latest renaissance in which I have closely monitored has been one of the greatest personal transformations ever. I feel honored to have shared time and space with him and know that as long as the world turns, so will he. So what does Bob Dylan mean to me, well, it’s personal.
Cory Ritterbusch
Galena, Illinois, USA
"Why Bob Dylan?" --by Tara-Jane Hulligan Zuk, May 6, 2011
What makes Dylan different from other singer/songwriters for me? Some people get hit by a lightning strike – a road to Damascus, an epiphany, or a blinding flash of piercing clarity where they hear Bob Dylan for the first time in a memorable moment of enlightenment. Others, like myself, have it creep up on them gradually. My life has been filled with Dylan’s music from the start. It's just always been there, consciously and subconsciously. First it was in the background before finally pretty much taking centre stage. So, here’s a bit of information about my musical history to start with:
I grew up in Liverpool with parents who exposed me to many different forms of music. My Dad had been in the Merchant Navy, learning and singing shanties first hand when training with Stan Hugill, the last true shanty man in England. Both of my parents attended live folk concerts and recordings, they loved rock ‘n’ roll (especially Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran), they had seen The Beatles and all the other Liverpool groups of that era, and they were politically active which introduced me first hand to the protest music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and (of course) Bob Dylan amongst many others. Our house was often filled with activists discussing politics and playing topical or political tunes late into the night. I would sit on the stairs listening in the dark as they passed the guitar.
My Dad was a fan of country music from the time he spent in the US with the Merchant Navy and I became familiar with Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Laughlin, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash and others from an early age. Then there was folk, blues music, the soul, be-bop, sixties’ pop and Motown. Classical music, Broadway musicals and opera I got from my Mum. Pre-WWII music, the crooners, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael came from my grandparents.
To me, Bob Dylan encompasses all of these forms of music. He assimilates them all and transforms them into a new entity, but still retaining enough of the original lexicon to connect for me. Even decades after first performances, his music remains new and exciting to me (I am a big fan of pre-Columbian Dylan, by the way!) and yet they are timeless and eternal in some sense. Authentic. Even though he is American and I am English, there is enough shared musical background for me to say that he always reconnects me to my roots in some way. I always feel immersed in all the eclectic formative music of my youth when I listen to Dylan. I’m always finding new connections, which almost makes it a part of who I am.
He never stays stagnant, and that also suits me. I can never listen to just one genre of music to the detriment of others.
Dylan’s songs fulfill so many purposes for me. They rile, they tease, they seduce, they are painful and playful, they inspire, they confuse and they provoke thought. There are many that can raise a smile and some an outright belly laugh! They are always intense, multi-faceted… nothing is to be taken at face value in Dylan’s writing. Reality is exaggerated and twisted until it becomes a new reality. Dreams merge with consciousness and the lines become blurred.
And yet, through all the twisting, blurring, posturing and allegory, for me listening to Bob Dylan is like standing in a hurricane-force wind of truth. It is like standing on top of a mountain and taking a deep breath of the clearest air imaginable. It is enough to knock me off my feet with the power of the realization. Human emotion and condition are laid bare. Painfully so sometimes.
I have friends who say they don't like Bob Dylan's music. They say they don’t ‘get’ him (what’s not to get?) and the reason they often state is that 'his voice is terrible'. Some say they ‘don’t understand what he is saying’ and I want to howl at the moon in despair!
Perhaps what they mean is that his voice is not computer-generated smooth. Perhaps they mean that the lyrics are not superficial or instantly understandable and require some thought.
Bob Dylan – and I am going to nail my colours to the mast quite firmly here – has a most beautiful voice. In the oral tradition of story telling, he effectively utilizes the multiplicitous semi-autobiographical masking of reality in role-playing and reinvention. Dylan crosses genres with ease and his voice, for me, is the key.
Dylan has altered his vocal delivery several times over the years. He shifts rhythm and cadence; he emphasizes different words, stresses syllables, lilts and falls, even completely misses notes or forgets words in his live performances… and yet, those mistakes can sometimes be the moments of greatest feeling.
When he is at the top of his game, there is a fire and power in the way Dylan sings that is electrifying and moving beyond words. I think the connectivity of his voice could be why people sometimes feel like they know him when they don’t. We all have an active role to interpret the versions of truth and multiple personalities we are presented with – the confusion of pronouns and the variety of masks. That gives the listener more of a vested interest in the music.
One reason I find Bob Dylan's music so powerful is that as a listener I am no longer passive. And it is the power of his voice and the intricacy of his lyrics that keeps me involved – it keeps me guessing and questioning my understanding.
In later years, Dylan’s voice is aged and broken, but still containing the deep beauty maturity brings. It rolls across the apocalyptic wasteland of a song like Ain’t Talkin’ with the gravitas and dignity of a world-weary elder statesman of the damned.
I have yet to hear a performer whose voice can more perfectly understand and convey regret and pain, fun and sarcasm, speculation and knowledge, irony and indifference, truth and fiction… the value of a silence and the meaning in a sigh or breath.
Bob Dylan is a talented poet. His use of language is inspiring. As a teacher of literature and an aspiring writer myself, I am drawn to that element of his work. His ability to express deep emotion in a clear and touching manner without resorting to cliché or mawkishness appeals to me. His writing is complex, but with a sharp and clear edge. It is lyrical, but not flowery - full of pastoral imagery and idealism, but retaining the hard edge of realism.
He might not be a philosopher, but so much philosophy and wisdom can be found in his words. I like music and lyrics that challenge me and make me think and question, consider the morality of situations and actions and ponder relationships.
Everyone in the world has a story to tell. It's what makes us human and makes our resilience and strength so amazing. It's not having 'perfect' lives that makes us wonderful people - it is facing our demons and adversities and coming out the other side. We need to wear our battle scars proudly and not be ashamed, they are the marks of a life lived and they carry meaning and heart.
For me, this is the basis of much of Bob Dylan's music. It speaks to me and as well as helping to get me through those massive moments of turmoil it touches my daily life and existence. My friends and colleagues always laugh because I have a Dylan quote for every single situation. But that is the point. He writes about LIFE and so his words permeate everything.
For myself, he speaks directly to something deep inside me. He said it best in Tangled Up In Blue - 'And every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coals, pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you...'
As for personal resonance and my story… well, I don’t have any dramatic tale to tell, but I can say that if it not for Bob Dylan I would never have met and married my husband. We’re both Dylanistas! We had a long-distance relationship for a long while. He would send me bootleg tapes instead of flowers and chocolate when we were first dating. He would copy Dylan lyrics into cards for me. I remember him sending me a copy of Love Minus Zero/No Limits’ and worrying that he was expecting me to live up to the expectations of the song! We got married to a Dylan soundtrack. We both have very varied musical tastes and knowledge, but Bob Dylan is always front and centre!
It was Bob Dylan who first led me to pick up a guitar and learn the harmonica. Investigating the music and literature that influenced him opened up whole new branches of knowledge I’m still exploring. In that way, you could say he has enriched my life.
Earlier this year, I fell ill. I suffered a series of migraines that attacked my brain stem, left me blind for three days and suffering intense vertigo for a further 4 weeks. During the recovery, Dylan’s music was my touchstone. I couldn’t read or watch TV for a while. Couldn’t go online. I turned to the music and it kept me going. It was very healing. A caring friend made me a set of CDs from his bootleg collection and I listened to them daily when I wasn’t able to do anything else.
That’s my basic Bob Dylan story. I wish I were able to better explain my connection to the music. It’s something difficult to describe and I feel like I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. It might not have completely answered your question, but I hope it helped somewhat! I really enjoyed trying to write about my experiences.
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Bob Dylan is for me the most important living artist.
When I began to really listen to his music, I was amazed to discover that someone seemed to KNOW so much, which is a feeling that all great art should give you. Listening to Dylan's song, I felt like he expressed everything I had always felt without knowing it : it was exhilarating.
It's great that you're doing your thesis on Dylan. Most academic studies today often forget the most important part of his gesture, which is the MUSIC. That's what it's all about. Experiencing a Bob Dylan concert is first and foremost about hearing the music.
His music will always be timeless. He will always matter !
by Clemence Rietsch - France
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It was on a rainy day in October, 1983, at the awkward age of 16, when I realized that Bob Dylan’s words and music were fated to drastically alter my life.
I grew up with a military father and a family life that bore a striking resemblance to the film, The Great Santini. My folks couldn’t have been more mismatched: a domineering and strict Air Force father and an artistic, dreamily emotional mother. Then again, their decision to tie the knot was like something out of a fiction novel anyway, having first encountered one another on the street back in 1962 and saying their “I do’s” only six days later. It was the ’60s, after all.
From the time I was a freewheelin’ little cutie in pigtails, my father let me know that I had my place, which was in “the box.” I was too fearful of evoking his militant wrath to ever seriously entertain the notion of crawling out of this box custom-made just for me. Common sense restricted my defiant nature, but my soul was never fooled; it was running around in panicked circles, pleading with me to speak out and bust loose from my emotional prison. For countless hours, I’d lie on my bed, fantasizing over words of dignity I’d love to have roll from my tongue in protest of everything my Air Force father and his black-and-white world stood for.
Of course, being so young and so obedient, these thoughts remained strictly fantasies. That is, until that chilly October day when my mother arrived home toting Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits under her arm. “I bought this for you, sweets.” she said, which elicited a sneering, “Yeah, right.” I figured anything she would be into couldn’t possibly relate to me in even the remotest sense. “You’re going to hear this. Got me?” she replied with an edge in her voice. In a half-hearted attempt to humor her and get her off my back, I took my place on the couch and rolled my eyes as she gingerly placed the needle on the vinyl.
Minutes into first hearing Bob’s voice, I was certain my initial instincts about his music were right on target. Still, something about it stayed with me. Later that night, I crept out of bed to make a date with our den’s stereo to hear those songs again...and again...and again. By the end of the week, I knew every word to every track on the record. Never before had anyone presented me with such freedom and vision. That magnificent strength and attitude woven throughout his lyrics gave me hope for an individuality I’d never thought possible in the confines of my tight little box. Finally, finally, I had found a voice to articulate my yearnings, my resentment, and my vulnerability.
Seven years later, in September 1990, the day arrived when I was graced with the opportunity to attend one of his shows. I remember the drive up to Birmingham, Alabama, with my best buddy, whom I had converted to Dylanism several months earlier. Highway 61 Revisited and assorted other Dylan masterpieces screamed out of the cassette player of his beat-up Sunbird. It was a magical evening, and I was Cinderella on my way to the ball. Hours later, I was perched out under the stars, the autumn breeze blowing across my face and sifting through my hair, listening as intently as a child to Bobby (with only his acoustic guitar) crooning the traditional lullaby, “Barbara Allen.” His voice caressed each word like a graceful lover: “Young man, I think you’re dying.” I felt I, too, could die happily right then and there, as I savored every smirk and every nervous brush of those wild curls.
As the end of the show inevitably approached, and “Blowin’ in the Wind” was winding down, I dashed to the edge of the stage and stared up at him in utter disbelief. During the last two or three minutes, I could have sworn he was looking directly at me. After commanding myself not to faint, I eyeballed him back. For all of 15 seconds, those piercing, bright-blue eyes bore directly into mine until I could take this pseudo-intimacy jive no longer. Like some sort of rough-and-ready Annie Oakley, I hiked up my long peasant skirt and began to climb up past the barriers to plant a kiss on that “childish mouth,” as Joan Baez so beautifully described it. At that very moment, a brute of a security guard grabbed my hem, yanked me back down to reality, and growled, “Don’t even think about it, sister.”
Minutes later, Bobby Dylan strummed his last chord, flashed his last lightning-quick grin, softly spoke his last “Thanks ever’body,” and was gone. (“The Vanishing American,” as Bobby Neuwirth once quipped.) The overwhelming evening had drawn to a close. As other concert-goers filed out of the arena chatting, laughing, and arranging rides back home, I stood rooted in my grassy spot for what seemed like ages—hypnotized, speechless, and aching, really, for more of the conjurer’s magic.
On the way home, my buddy and I didn’t speak. No “Tombstone Blues” screaming out of the cassette player, no cheap conversational, “Wow, great show, huh?” Just a highway of diamonds with nobody on it, and a spiritual, sacred feeling swelling inside our souls we wanted to savor as long as possible. Later, when I mentioned this strange silence to him, he said, “I was too moved to speak. I was afraid if I did, it would have shattered the sounds inside my mind. Do you know what I mean?” Did I know what he meant? Was that some kind of joke?
Over the years of attending his concerts, I discovered I wasn’t the only one who had fantasies of making some sort of connection with Bob Dylan. Standing in line at shows, nearly every fan I encountered shared memories of having met him or dreams of doing so. And with every single tale at every single venue, I was enthralled by these conversations. I wondered if others might be, too. Thus came the idea for this book.
Bob, you’ve given so many of us voices. So many of us have received courage and dignity through your words. You’ve touched the lives of the gentle, the inarticulate, the guardians, the protectors of the mind, the aching, the wounded, the luckless, the abandoned, and the forsaken. Now, it’s time that we lifted up our voices to you, to give thanks for getting multitudes of us out of our boxes and into our own minds.
By Tracy Johnson, Author of "Encounters with Bob Dylan: If You See Him Say Hello" (Humble Press , 2000)
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I wrote this letter to my father a dozen years ago and thought it would fit your project: Okay, so this is an attempt to answer your question of "What is it about Dylan?"
IT'S THE MUSIC...few artists have explored so many different types of music genres. He has mined the territories of bluegrass, folk, rock, country, gospel & blues. Dylan has taken an organic approach and never overmade music with machines or electronics. With one or two exceptions the production and engineering of his albums have been in the background.
IT'S THE MELODIES...like many coming from the folk tradition, he began his career by twisting and revising old folk tunes as Woody Gutherie had done. So many of this songs have beautiful, hummable melodies and tunes.
IT'S THE LYRICS...like all great poets, Dylan's use of words is mindblowing. For me, noone has ever quite expressed the range of emotions, thoughts and ideas as effectively as he. His use of imagery is amazing - check out the lyrics in "A Hard Rain..." Because he is identified with the 60's so many have tagged him a "protest singer" which ignores the majority of his work - and is way too confining. While his political and social songs are terrific, his greatest lyrics are about relationships and the human condition. His lyrical reach is much broader than his well-known early political songs. But even those songs are deeper than the causes that inspired them.
So many contemporary love songs are simplistic, his relationship songs are naked, honest and insightful. They are about the way people really feel and relate to one another, not sentimental hoo ha. They are romantic and touching, but operate on a higher and deeper plane.
Peter Paul & Mary's overblown verion of "Blowin' in the Wind" connected that song to the Vietnam War movement, but reading Dylan's words I draw a vastly different conclusion. His greatest political songs like "Masters of War" and "Hard Rain" are not pigeon holed in time, but are still relevant. So many of the popular political songs of the late 60's and 70's now feel so dated.
IT'S HARD...whether it be his voice or the dense lyrical content, Dylan takes effort to appreciate. Most pop or contemporary music is catchy and doesn't require much of the listener. In order to get Dylan - it requires effort. You need to listen, follow the words and think about it. Dylan is not for the casual.
IT'S THE ART...Dylan is really the individual who changed the perception of what rock and roll is. No longer was this music just adolescent child play, but art that had deeper meaning. I am able to find real truths in his art - the same way I find truths in the art of Mary Cassatt or Henri Matisse. One purpose of art is to help us analyze the world in which we live, Dylan does that for me. I am constantly discovering new meanings.
IT'S THE LIVE PERFORMANCES...Bob is a road warrior. Now in his late 50's, he has been on never ending tour for nearly a decade putting in over 100 shows around the world a year. In performance, he reworks his songs, changes instrumentation, melodies and pacing. He does some songs acoustically and others electric. Many performers do the same set night after night, Dylan changes the set - constantly surprising his audience with rarely performed songs. It's a drama that unfolds nightly as opposed to some slickly produced production. This all means there is some risk, catch a good night and catch a bad night.
Dylan hates the recording studio. At times he doesn't even share the songs or music that he is about to record with the other musicians present. He will tell them just to watch him and play along. This can result in some less than successful studio recordings. It is often on the road that a song transforms and realizes itself.
IT'S THE LONG CAREER...He's been around for four decades so there's alot to cover. He became a born again, he went Las Vegas, he went electric; there's just alot of stuff to know. He's officially recorded 500 songs or so, had 40+ comercially released albums, wrote a book, wrote and directed a film, released a book of sketches that's a ton of material.
IT'S THE INFLUENCE HE'S HAD ON MUSIC...unquestionably one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He's has influenced everyone that came after him from the Beatles on up.
IT'S THE FACT HE PISSES PEOPLE OFF...Noone has confounded his audience and the "critics" more than Dylan. he was the Leader of the folkies when he went electric (Pete Seeger attacked the stage with an axe to sever the electric lines), he did a country album in the late 60's that perplexed all those hippies, he became a Christian and did a trilogy of religious records (you can imagine how that was received). Not only does he follow his own muse, but does so while risking everything that came before it. He has always had the courage of his convictions to take a risk.
IT'S HIS VOICE...oh the voice. No artist has been vilified more for his voice which I find incredibly expressive. And his voice has constantly changed. Singing, of course, is more than just the sound you make, but the feelings and emotions you can express.
IT'S THE HARMONICA...his harp playing just sends me into orbit. It's such an honest and revealing instrument. He has played less in concert of late which has been my sole recent disappointment.
IT'S THE BOOTLEGS...there are over 600 illegal bootlegs of his work, he is the first
bootlegged artist. It consists of two basic areas: live concerts and unreleased studio recordings.
There is a large amount of unreleased material that his record company, has inexcusably not commercially released. Under pressure from the Dylan Nation, they have in recent years begun a process of getting some of that material out.
Dylan has toured with a number a different bands resulting in a different distinctive sound in various stages of his career. You gotta have it all. There is a tremendous Dylan culture and lure on all of this. They are books, websites etc. on all of this stuff it's a world unto itself aside from the commercially available discs.
That's it, see if you can find it.
by Larry Fishman, USA
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Hey, Barry
Great idea, man. Its really all about the heart, Yours, and His. The analytical viewpoint has its place, but it is not everyplace. Its difficult for the academic status quo to accept non quantifying data as valid. The test tube has helped humanity immensely but it is not the answer to everything, but I know you already know that or you wouldn't be attempting this study. You can't leave the heart out of life or it all becomes pointless cardboard.
I am glad to see someone approach the study of Dylan fandom. As you probably already know, Bobcats are different than the fans of others. As one reviewer said, "it takes some deeper living from you to be a Bob fan". Bob makes us think, way more than a lot of people want to.
I first heard him in '63 and that was it, I never looked back. He's been my life line in the midst of personal crises, and he brings me happiness when that's appropriate. He has been/is the ground of my life.
And I love the sound of his growly, raspier than ever voice. People say Bob's voice is shot, but it still reaches your heart and it can be more tender and more vituperative than ever. And you know, if Bob's there 'everythings gonna be allright'.
Wishing you great success with this project. I would really like to read it when you get it finished.
Yours in Bob,
Ivy Rhys, Kentucky, USA
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What makes Dylan different from other singer/songwriters for me? Some people get hit by a lightning strike – a road to Damascus, an epiphany, or a blinding flash of piercing clarity where they hear Bob Dylan for the first time in a memorable moment of enlightenment. Others, like myself, have it creep up on them gradually. My life has been filled with Dylan’s music from the start. It's just always been there, consciously and subconsciously. First it was in the background before finally pretty much taking centre stage. So, here’s a bit of information about my musical history to start with:
I grew up in Liverpool with parents who exposed me to many different forms of music. My Dad had been in the Merchant Navy, learning and singing shanties first hand when training with Stan Hugill, the last true shanty man in England. Both of my parents attended live folk concerts and recordings, they loved rock ‘n’ roll (especially Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran), they had seen The Beatles and all the other Liverpool groups of that era, and they were politically active which introduced me first hand to the protest music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and (of course) Bob Dylan amongst many others. Our house was often filled with activists discussing politics and playing topical or political tunes late into the night. I would sit on the stairs listening in the dark as they passed the guitar.
My Dad was a fan of country music from the time he spent in the US with the Merchant Navy and I became familiar with Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Laughlin, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash and others from an early age. Then there was folk, blues music, the soul, be-bop, sixties’ pop and Motown. Classical music, Broadway musicals and opera I got from my Mum. Pre-WWII music, the crooners, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael came from my grandparents.
To me, Bob Dylan encompasses all of these forms of music. He assimilates them all and transforms them into a new entity, but still retaining enough of the original lexicon to connect for me. Even decades after first performances, his music remains new and exciting to me (I am a big fan of pre-Columbian Dylan, by the way!) and yet they are timeless and eternal in some sense. Authentic. Even though he is American and I am English, there is enough shared musical background for me to say that he always reconnects me to my roots in some way. I always feel immersed in all the eclectic formative music of my youth when I listen to Dylan. I’m always finding new connections, which almost makes it a part of who I am.
He never stays stagnant, and that also suits me. I can never listen to just one genre of music to the detriment of others.
Dylan’s songs fulfill so many purposes for me. They rile, they tease, they seduce, they are painful and playful, they inspire, they confuse and they provoke thought. There are many that can raise a smile and some an outright belly laugh! They are always intense, multi-faceted… nothing is to be taken at face value in Dylan’s writing. Reality is exaggerated and twisted until it becomes a new reality. Dreams merge with consciousness and the lines become blurred.
And yet, through all the twisting, blurring, posturing and allegory, for me listening to Bob Dylan is like standing in a hurricane-force wind of truth. It is like standing on top of a mountain and taking a deep breath of the clearest air imaginable. It is enough to knock me off my feet with the power of the realization. Human emotion and condition are laid bare. Painfully so sometimes.
I have friends who say they don't like Bob Dylan's music. They say they don’t ‘get’ him (what’s not to get?) and the reason they often state is that 'his voice is terrible'. Some say they ‘don’t understand what he is saying’ and I want to howl at the moon in despair!
Perhaps what they mean is that his voice is not computer-generated smooth. Perhaps they mean that the lyrics are not superficial or instantly understandable and require some thought.
Bob Dylan – and I am going to nail my colours to the mast quite firmly here – has a most beautiful voice. In the oral tradition of story telling, he effectively utilizes the multiplicitous semi-autobiographical masking of reality in role-playing and reinvention. Dylan crosses genres with ease and his voice, for me, is the key.
Dylan has altered his vocal delivery several times over the years. He shifts rhythm and cadence; he emphasizes different words, stresses syllables, lilts and falls, even completely misses notes or forgets words in his live performances… and yet, those mistakes can sometimes be the moments of greatest feeling.
When he is at the top of his game, there is a fire and power in the way Dylan sings that is electrifying and moving beyond words. I think the connectivity of his voice could be why people sometimes feel like they know him when they don’t. We all have an active role to interpret the versions of truth and multiple personalities we are presented with – the confusion of pronouns and the variety of masks. That gives the listener more of a vested interest in the music.
One reason I find Bob Dylan's music so powerful is that as a listener I am no longer passive. And it is the power of his voice and the intricacy of his lyrics that keeps me involved – it keeps me guessing and questioning my understanding.
In later years, Dylan’s voice is aged and broken, but still containing the deep beauty maturity brings. It rolls across the apocalyptic wasteland of a song like Ain’t Talkin’ with the gravitas and dignity of a world-weary elder statesman of the damned.
I have yet to hear a performer whose voice can more perfectly understand and convey regret and pain, fun and sarcasm, speculation and knowledge, irony and indifference, truth and fiction… the value of a silence and the meaning in a sigh or breath.
Bob Dylan is a talented poet. His use of language is inspiring. As a teacher of literature and an aspiring writer myself, I am drawn to that element of his work. His ability to express deep emotion in a clear and touching manner without resorting to cliché or mawkishness appeals to me. His writing is complex, but with a sharp and clear edge. It is lyrical, but not flowery - full of pastoral imagery and idealism, but retaining the hard edge of realism.
He might not be a philosopher, but so much philosophy and wisdom can be found in his words. I like music and lyrics that challenge me and make me think and question, consider the morality of situations and actions and ponder relationships.
Everyone in the world has a story to tell. It's what makes us human and makes our resilience and strength so amazing. It's not having 'perfect' lives that makes us wonderful people - it is facing our demons and adversities and coming out the other side. We need to wear our battle scars proudly and not be ashamed, they are the marks of a life lived and they carry meaning and heart.
For me, this is the basis of much of Bob Dylan's music. It speaks to me and as well as helping to get me through those massive moments of turmoil it touches my daily life and existence. My friends and colleagues always laugh because I have a Dylan quote for every single situation. But that is the point. He writes about LIFE and so his words permeate everything.
For myself, he speaks directly to something deep inside me. He said it best in Tangled Up In Blue - 'And every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coals, pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you...'
As for personal resonance and my story… well, I don’t have any dramatic tale to tell, but I can say that if it not for Bob Dylan I would never have met and married my husband. We’re both Dylanistas! We had a long-distance relationship for a long while. He would send me bootleg tapes instead of flowers and chocolate when we were first dating. He would copy Dylan lyrics into cards for me. I remember him sending me a copy of Love Minus Zero/No Limits’ and worrying that he was expecting me to live up to the expectations of the song! We got married to a Dylan soundtrack. We both have very varied musical tastes and knowledge, but Bob Dylan is always front and centre!
It was Bob Dylan who first led me to pick up a guitar and learn the harmonica. Investigating the music and literature that influenced him opened up whole new branches of knowledge I’m still exploring. In that way, you could say he has enriched my life.
Earlier this year, I fell ill. I suffered a series of migraines that attacked my brain stem, left me blind for three days and suffering intense vertigo for a further 4 weeks. During the recovery, Dylan’s music was my touchstone. I couldn’t read or watch TV for a while. Couldn’t go online. I turned to the music and it kept me going. It was very healing. A caring friend made me a set of CDs from his bootleg collection and I listened to them daily when I wasn’t able to do anything else.
That’s my basic Bob Dylan story. I wish I were able to better explain my connection to the music. It’s something difficult to describe and I feel like I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. It might not have completely answered your question, but I hope it helped somewhat! I really enjoyed trying to write about my experiences.
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Bob Dylan is for me the most important living artist.
When I began to really listen to his music, I was amazed to discover that someone seemed to KNOW so much, which is a feeling that all great art should give you. Listening to Dylan's song, I felt like he expressed everything I had always felt without knowing it : it was exhilarating.
It's great that you're doing your thesis on Dylan. Most academic studies today often forget the most important part of his gesture, which is the MUSIC. That's what it's all about. Experiencing a Bob Dylan concert is first and foremost about hearing the music.
His music will always be timeless. He will always matter !
by Clemence Rietsch - France
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It was on a rainy day in October, 1983, at the awkward age of 16, when I realized that Bob Dylan’s words and music were fated to drastically alter my life.
I grew up with a military father and a family life that bore a striking resemblance to the film, The Great Santini. My folks couldn’t have been more mismatched: a domineering and strict Air Force father and an artistic, dreamily emotional mother. Then again, their decision to tie the knot was like something out of a fiction novel anyway, having first encountered one another on the street back in 1962 and saying their “I do’s” only six days later. It was the ’60s, after all.
From the time I was a freewheelin’ little cutie in pigtails, my father let me know that I had my place, which was in “the box.” I was too fearful of evoking his militant wrath to ever seriously entertain the notion of crawling out of this box custom-made just for me. Common sense restricted my defiant nature, but my soul was never fooled; it was running around in panicked circles, pleading with me to speak out and bust loose from my emotional prison. For countless hours, I’d lie on my bed, fantasizing over words of dignity I’d love to have roll from my tongue in protest of everything my Air Force father and his black-and-white world stood for.
Of course, being so young and so obedient, these thoughts remained strictly fantasies. That is, until that chilly October day when my mother arrived home toting Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits under her arm. “I bought this for you, sweets.” she said, which elicited a sneering, “Yeah, right.” I figured anything she would be into couldn’t possibly relate to me in even the remotest sense. “You’re going to hear this. Got me?” she replied with an edge in her voice. In a half-hearted attempt to humor her and get her off my back, I took my place on the couch and rolled my eyes as she gingerly placed the needle on the vinyl.
Minutes into first hearing Bob’s voice, I was certain my initial instincts about his music were right on target. Still, something about it stayed with me. Later that night, I crept out of bed to make a date with our den’s stereo to hear those songs again...and again...and again. By the end of the week, I knew every word to every track on the record. Never before had anyone presented me with such freedom and vision. That magnificent strength and attitude woven throughout his lyrics gave me hope for an individuality I’d never thought possible in the confines of my tight little box. Finally, finally, I had found a voice to articulate my yearnings, my resentment, and my vulnerability.
Seven years later, in September 1990, the day arrived when I was graced with the opportunity to attend one of his shows. I remember the drive up to Birmingham, Alabama, with my best buddy, whom I had converted to Dylanism several months earlier. Highway 61 Revisited and assorted other Dylan masterpieces screamed out of the cassette player of his beat-up Sunbird. It was a magical evening, and I was Cinderella on my way to the ball. Hours later, I was perched out under the stars, the autumn breeze blowing across my face and sifting through my hair, listening as intently as a child to Bobby (with only his acoustic guitar) crooning the traditional lullaby, “Barbara Allen.” His voice caressed each word like a graceful lover: “Young man, I think you’re dying.” I felt I, too, could die happily right then and there, as I savored every smirk and every nervous brush of those wild curls.
As the end of the show inevitably approached, and “Blowin’ in the Wind” was winding down, I dashed to the edge of the stage and stared up at him in utter disbelief. During the last two or three minutes, I could have sworn he was looking directly at me. After commanding myself not to faint, I eyeballed him back. For all of 15 seconds, those piercing, bright-blue eyes bore directly into mine until I could take this pseudo-intimacy jive no longer. Like some sort of rough-and-ready Annie Oakley, I hiked up my long peasant skirt and began to climb up past the barriers to plant a kiss on that “childish mouth,” as Joan Baez so beautifully described it. At that very moment, a brute of a security guard grabbed my hem, yanked me back down to reality, and growled, “Don’t even think about it, sister.”
Minutes later, Bobby Dylan strummed his last chord, flashed his last lightning-quick grin, softly spoke his last “Thanks ever’body,” and was gone. (“The Vanishing American,” as Bobby Neuwirth once quipped.) The overwhelming evening had drawn to a close. As other concert-goers filed out of the arena chatting, laughing, and arranging rides back home, I stood rooted in my grassy spot for what seemed like ages—hypnotized, speechless, and aching, really, for more of the conjurer’s magic.
On the way home, my buddy and I didn’t speak. No “Tombstone Blues” screaming out of the cassette player, no cheap conversational, “Wow, great show, huh?” Just a highway of diamonds with nobody on it, and a spiritual, sacred feeling swelling inside our souls we wanted to savor as long as possible. Later, when I mentioned this strange silence to him, he said, “I was too moved to speak. I was afraid if I did, it would have shattered the sounds inside my mind. Do you know what I mean?” Did I know what he meant? Was that some kind of joke?
Over the years of attending his concerts, I discovered I wasn’t the only one who had fantasies of making some sort of connection with Bob Dylan. Standing in line at shows, nearly every fan I encountered shared memories of having met him or dreams of doing so. And with every single tale at every single venue, I was enthralled by these conversations. I wondered if others might be, too. Thus came the idea for this book.
Bob, you’ve given so many of us voices. So many of us have received courage and dignity through your words. You’ve touched the lives of the gentle, the inarticulate, the guardians, the protectors of the mind, the aching, the wounded, the luckless, the abandoned, and the forsaken. Now, it’s time that we lifted up our voices to you, to give thanks for getting multitudes of us out of our boxes and into our own minds.
By Tracy Johnson, Author of "Encounters with Bob Dylan: If You See Him Say Hello" (Humble Press , 2000)
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I wrote this letter to my father a dozen years ago and thought it would fit your project: Okay, so this is an attempt to answer your question of "What is it about Dylan?"
IT'S THE MUSIC...few artists have explored so many different types of music genres. He has mined the territories of bluegrass, folk, rock, country, gospel & blues. Dylan has taken an organic approach and never overmade music with machines or electronics. With one or two exceptions the production and engineering of his albums have been in the background.
IT'S THE MELODIES...like many coming from the folk tradition, he began his career by twisting and revising old folk tunes as Woody Gutherie had done. So many of this songs have beautiful, hummable melodies and tunes.
IT'S THE LYRICS...like all great poets, Dylan's use of words is mindblowing. For me, noone has ever quite expressed the range of emotions, thoughts and ideas as effectively as he. His use of imagery is amazing - check out the lyrics in "A Hard Rain..." Because he is identified with the 60's so many have tagged him a "protest singer" which ignores the majority of his work - and is way too confining. While his political and social songs are terrific, his greatest lyrics are about relationships and the human condition. His lyrical reach is much broader than his well-known early political songs. But even those songs are deeper than the causes that inspired them.
So many contemporary love songs are simplistic, his relationship songs are naked, honest and insightful. They are about the way people really feel and relate to one another, not sentimental hoo ha. They are romantic and touching, but operate on a higher and deeper plane.
Peter Paul & Mary's overblown verion of "Blowin' in the Wind" connected that song to the Vietnam War movement, but reading Dylan's words I draw a vastly different conclusion. His greatest political songs like "Masters of War" and "Hard Rain" are not pigeon holed in time, but are still relevant. So many of the popular political songs of the late 60's and 70's now feel so dated.
IT'S HARD...whether it be his voice or the dense lyrical content, Dylan takes effort to appreciate. Most pop or contemporary music is catchy and doesn't require much of the listener. In order to get Dylan - it requires effort. You need to listen, follow the words and think about it. Dylan is not for the casual.
IT'S THE ART...Dylan is really the individual who changed the perception of what rock and roll is. No longer was this music just adolescent child play, but art that had deeper meaning. I am able to find real truths in his art - the same way I find truths in the art of Mary Cassatt or Henri Matisse. One purpose of art is to help us analyze the world in which we live, Dylan does that for me. I am constantly discovering new meanings.
IT'S THE LIVE PERFORMANCES...Bob is a road warrior. Now in his late 50's, he has been on never ending tour for nearly a decade putting in over 100 shows around the world a year. In performance, he reworks his songs, changes instrumentation, melodies and pacing. He does some songs acoustically and others electric. Many performers do the same set night after night, Dylan changes the set - constantly surprising his audience with rarely performed songs. It's a drama that unfolds nightly as opposed to some slickly produced production. This all means there is some risk, catch a good night and catch a bad night.
Dylan hates the recording studio. At times he doesn't even share the songs or music that he is about to record with the other musicians present. He will tell them just to watch him and play along. This can result in some less than successful studio recordings. It is often on the road that a song transforms and realizes itself.
IT'S THE LONG CAREER...He's been around for four decades so there's alot to cover. He became a born again, he went Las Vegas, he went electric; there's just alot of stuff to know. He's officially recorded 500 songs or so, had 40+ comercially released albums, wrote a book, wrote and directed a film, released a book of sketches that's a ton of material.
IT'S THE INFLUENCE HE'S HAD ON MUSIC...unquestionably one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He's has influenced everyone that came after him from the Beatles on up.
IT'S THE FACT HE PISSES PEOPLE OFF...Noone has confounded his audience and the "critics" more than Dylan. he was the Leader of the folkies when he went electric (Pete Seeger attacked the stage with an axe to sever the electric lines), he did a country album in the late 60's that perplexed all those hippies, he became a Christian and did a trilogy of religious records (you can imagine how that was received). Not only does he follow his own muse, but does so while risking everything that came before it. He has always had the courage of his convictions to take a risk.
IT'S HIS VOICE...oh the voice. No artist has been vilified more for his voice which I find incredibly expressive. And his voice has constantly changed. Singing, of course, is more than just the sound you make, but the feelings and emotions you can express.
IT'S THE HARMONICA...his harp playing just sends me into orbit. It's such an honest and revealing instrument. He has played less in concert of late which has been my sole recent disappointment.
IT'S THE BOOTLEGS...there are over 600 illegal bootlegs of his work, he is the first
bootlegged artist. It consists of two basic areas: live concerts and unreleased studio recordings.
There is a large amount of unreleased material that his record company, has inexcusably not commercially released. Under pressure from the Dylan Nation, they have in recent years begun a process of getting some of that material out.
Dylan has toured with a number a different bands resulting in a different distinctive sound in various stages of his career. You gotta have it all. There is a tremendous Dylan culture and lure on all of this. They are books, websites etc. on all of this stuff it's a world unto itself aside from the commercially available discs.
That's it, see if you can find it.
by Larry Fishman, USA
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Hey, Barry
Great idea, man. Its really all about the heart, Yours, and His. The analytical viewpoint has its place, but it is not everyplace. Its difficult for the academic status quo to accept non quantifying data as valid. The test tube has helped humanity immensely but it is not the answer to everything, but I know you already know that or you wouldn't be attempting this study. You can't leave the heart out of life or it all becomes pointless cardboard.
I am glad to see someone approach the study of Dylan fandom. As you probably already know, Bobcats are different than the fans of others. As one reviewer said, "it takes some deeper living from you to be a Bob fan". Bob makes us think, way more than a lot of people want to.
I first heard him in '63 and that was it, I never looked back. He's been my life line in the midst of personal crises, and he brings me happiness when that's appropriate. He has been/is the ground of my life.
And I love the sound of his growly, raspier than ever voice. People say Bob's voice is shot, but it still reaches your heart and it can be more tender and more vituperative than ever. And you know, if Bob's there 'everythings gonna be allright'.
Wishing you great success with this project. I would really like to read it when you get it finished.
Yours in Bob,
Ivy Rhys, Kentucky, USA
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