The only thing we knew for sure about Bob Dylan is that his name isn’t Bob Dylan.
Usually, when I write about an artist on Folk Radio, I will have been listening to their latest work for maybe a couple of weeks prior to putting pen to paper. When it comes to writing an accompanying appreciation to feature alongside a series of Dylan playlists (listen to the first one below featuring over 5 hours of music) we are sharing over the coming weeks, all in honour of Bobs 80th birthday, I will probably come across with far less clarity than I usually aspire to. This is despite the fact that 2021 marks my own 30-year anniversary of following Mr Zimmerman. Yes, I have been mentally preparing this for three decades, but does that mean I can unlock any more code-breaking insight than the multitudes of Dylan scholars, devotees, commentators, writers and academics out there? Well, no quite frankly, but I started 2021 by deciding to go in deep once more in the Dylan catalogue and I now can’t find my way out. It has relegated all other music to the sidelines, it’s a bit like when I got into the TV drama The Sopranos and suddenly other TV didn’t quite cut it. Not that I regret this experience, some things are worth prioritising and taking your time with and I am, wholly in love with this music.
“All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie”
Yes, the music, or to be more exacting, the words and the music. The songs. That is what any celebration of Bob Dylan should come down to. The art form of top-level song writing that he has given us for 60 years now. This is the medium he has specialised in, the form in which he has justifiably been recognised as a master. Yes, there have been excursions into other mediums. From what my untrained eye tells me he is a fairly decent artist. He can write on the page engagingly, indeed lyrically, as seen when we delighted in Chronicles although most fans will attest that Tarantula is more a tome to nod off to. And with even the most pro-Dylan bias in my arsenal, I am unable, in all honesty, to say that I believe he is a great actor (although I do find he has a strangely magnetic on-screen presence). Ultimately, it’s the songs alone that count. I cannot think of any songwriter who has so entertainingly maintained such levels of excellence, fascination, depth, intellect, wisdom, laughter, drama and mystery.
“If you cannot bring good news then don’t bring any”
In writing popular songs in what will almost certainly be regarded as the revolutionary, evolutionary early years of recorded music, he rose speedily to the top and for the most part remained there. In celebration of this, I am now going to attempt a nine-punch knock out audio pro-Dylan argument in his honour. Ultimately the beauty of music, the masterstroke of song, is that it is all there for you bundled up in the experience. The listener should not really need a chaperone to guide them through, a great song will grab you on the level you need it to. The meaning will be fluid, changeable and personal. Dylan songs understand this, they are created that way. There is no nailed-on message, sometimes lines jump out that bypassed you on a previous listen and often it is the conviction of the performance that cuts through. And Dylan has, in his own perversely unique way, perfected the art of capturing spontaneous magic on tape. Not through generating a polish out of repetition, quite the opposite, it is in his pursuit of first take, unfiltered, raw imperfection. Many have had a problem with this over the years, but it is hard to ignore that the newborn freshness heard on so many of his classic recordings is the very essence of what makes them timeless.
“The pump don’t work ‘cause the vandals took the handles”
Journalists used to ask him what his message was, he never did give a straight answer to that question. “Keep a clean head and always carry a lightbulb” was about the best they could hope for. At least it’s a funny line and something people often miss is that he can be a hilariously funny writer. But fascination leads to intrusion and sections of his audience have perpetually sought to join the dots between his work and personal life. Occasionally Dylan does throw those aficionados a bone, for how can this tapestry not be drawn from the life its creator is living? The late sixties do undoubtedly appear to have been a time of domestic idyll when he did indeed think “that must be what it’s all about” when contemplating his rural parental bliss. Later on, it is hard not to relate the “sixteen years” sung about in Changing Of The Guards towards the length of his recording career at that time and the shifting sands occurring within the music world back then.
“I don’t need your organisation, I’ve shined your shoes. I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards but Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards”
Years later still, the same man who sang with such compassion about changing times informed his listeners that he “used to care but things have changed”. But for all the apparent self-referencing, there will be as many times when a disclaimer in disguise is deliberately lobbed into the conversation to throw people off the scent. Like writing in Chronicles that Blood On The Tracks is based on Chekov short stories. Despite this, people remain undeterred in the assumption that it is one of his most personal, heartfelt collections bled from the residue of real-life marriage breakdown. But Bob has got no interest in wasting time dissecting these things, why would he? He gave us the work; it is up to us listeners to draw whatever we want from it. I get that, the work itself is enough. Why should the writer offer you short cuts or explanation? He has gone to extremes in avoidance to ensure he never does explain. From those hilarious press conferences in the sixties, through the concerts where no words are spoken to the audience and on to vintage style DJing on the Theme Time Radio Hour, if you are going to engage with him you have to do it on a cultural level. He is going to entertain you, advise you, enlighten you, make you laugh and cry through the medium of his work as an entertainer. Those are his terms, nothing but a song and dance man to the end!
“They’re spoon-feeding Casanova, to get him to feel more assured. Then they’ll kill him with self confidence after poisoning him with words”
So, for now, please dive in and enjoy five hours of the cream of Bob Dylan’s catalogue. If you really do not know much of his work (well, you’re reading Folk Radio, so I doubt there are many of you uninitiated) this is the stuff you have to hear at least once in your life. Listen to it properly, enjoy the lyrics, you should be made to wear earphones! There is so much treasure waiting to be uncovered. Even after 30 years I still have lines jump out at me that seem rich, fresh and exciting. Hidden meanings and unconsidered perspectives always abound. And if the Dylan-ologists among you spot some unforgivable omissions then I should say there are further schemes and themes waiting in future editions of this little celebration. For now, why not bolt up your personally welded Dylan front gates, pour a glass of Heavens Door and bathe in some singer-songwriter masterworks for a few hours? I cannot think of many other recording artists where one could compile 75 of their greatest tracks and still feel like you have only scratched the surface. But then Bob has always been one of a kind.
“Well I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist, I punched myself in the face with my fist. I took my potatoes down to be mashed and made it on over to that million-dollar bash”.
Bob Dylan: Vol 1 Playlist
Spotify link: Bob Dylan Volume 1
Photo Credit: Weston MacKinnon