Bob
Dylan: Who would have believed in the global power of
American
blues and folk when Dylan began over 40 years ago?
Bob Dylan was 70 years old on May 24.
Die Welt, Germany
'Dear Bob Dylan'
"If
there’s one thing we can learn from you, Bob, it would be this: We have to
change if we really want to live. We have to shed our skins and slip into new lives
now and again - even if it hurts. We must learn from our mistakes and change -
even if it surprises those around us. ... And if we don’t have the strength or courage to change, then we can simply leave that to you."
Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village, 1961: The folk singer with the gravely voice has reinvented himself over and over again over the years - baffling fans and critics alike. Happy Birthday Bob!
So how does it feel now that
you’ve done everything in your life as a pop star right? When no one can credibly
claim that Dylan is a good-for-nothing who has done a terrible job and is
totally irrelevant besides? When all of those who take pen in hand to write
something on your 70th birthday seem deaf and dumb, like ants looking up at the
brightly shining moon? It’s probably easier to write about God than to write
about you, Bob. Is that what you wanted?
As a young man you came to
Greenwich Village in New York, where you soaked up your surroundings like a sponge.
The all of a sudden, the sound of the music and songs of your fatherly friends
sounded flat and lame compared to yours. You listened to and stole their albums
- and within weeks, under the rubric of “wayward folk singer,” you swept them
from the stage.
They let you sleep in their homes,
play on stage at their side, introduced you to their beautiful women and even
loaned you their guitars. And you thanked them by revealing to them their own
mediocrity and moving on alone. While others struggled to write three decent
verses for their songs, you wrote twenty stanzas for a single song - as if they
were written in stone; as if you had copied them from the bluest sky; as if
they had been dictated to your ears by a mysterious voice that only you could
hear.
As a young man of just twenty
years old, your songs and performances were already so self-assured. Every word in the right place.Every sound.
Nothing can be changed without diminishing the whole. Add to that a face without
movement. Almost without facial expression. No empty
phrases. Not trace of friendliness. Three chords, a relentless harmonica and
that strange, off-key voice with which you use to sing so far from the right
notes. In the recording studio, you call the shots from day one. During the
recording session for your first album, the producer asked you to sing a song
again. You refused. Once is enough, you said. Played is played. Sung is sung. And
that's good for all time. Where do you get your shameless self-confidence?
And then, finally, when
everyone was hanging on your every word, all the people at the folk festivals, all
the gentle do-gooders, peaceniks and traditionalists - then you slapped them in
the face with the back of your hand. You slung an electric guitar over your neck,
put on a tight suit and played Rock 'n' Roll. Loudly.Coldly.Cynically. Instead of
singing about war and peace you suddenly started singing about a friend’s funny
hat. Your lyrics become more and more mysterious. You were booed. Your audience
was disappointed and sad; they raged and wanted their old Bob back. Even today at
her concerts, they ask your old folk girlfriend Joan Baez whether you’ll be
coming on stage. But the old Bob Dylan is dead. He no longer exists.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
At some point during all this,
during their first visit to the U.S., you met The Beatles at a New York
hotel. In the midst of all the craziness, you taught the charged-up lads from
Liverpool how to smoke those exotic herbs and relax - and that it’s possible to
sing about things other than your last girlfriend and all the pretty girls out
there. The encounter had a profound influence on the sound of this exceptional
band. And then, all of a sudden, you completely stopped. After three huge, monumental,
and eternally relevant albums produced in just fourteen months, you has your motorcycle accident. A very serious
accident. And then suddenly it was all over. A quiet life with your wife
and children was more important than the whole crazy pop-music business. You
spend the Summer of Love
and the years that followed living quietly in the country. You slept through it
all. And then when no one really expected it, you came back again. But not with a revival of your music, of course. You made a
comeback with a country album! No rock. No roll. No soul. No folk. Country music, of all things.
Bob
Dylan with John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1964:
Dylan's
influence on The Beatles is a much debated topic.
In no time at all, as if
nothing had happened, you were back in good form and went on a huge circus-like tour. Other heroes of the 60's didn’t even make it into the 70's. For
you it was child’s play. Albums were produced that almost incidentally, competed
with the great works of the 1960s. And then when everything was up and running
again, when everyone believed in Bob Dylan again, you took another 180 degree
turn - toward God! There were two albums of Christian gospel music. The man who
all those years ago had apparently relied on himself alone, who had
categorically refused to believe in higher authorities, those with influence, or
whomever, was now singing about the need to serve someone - and no one better
than Jesus Christ. Since then, you’ve been on your never-ending world tour
during which, more than anything else, you've enjoyed reinventing yourself and
your songs on a nightly basis. You deconstruct your music and your lyrics, tearing
apart, crumpling up and destroying your own songs. You try to surprise yourself.
You don’t make it easy for us.
If there’s one thing we can
learn from you, Bob, it would be this: We have to change if we really want to
live. We have to shed our skins and slip into new lives now and again - even if
it hurts. We must learn from our mistakes and change - even if it surprises
those around us and leaves them behind and disappointed. And if we don’t have
the strength or courage to change, then we can simply leave that to you. We
listen to your albums, despair over your incomprehensible lyrics, marvel over
your transformations, listen to your Bob Dylan voice, feel
your eternal breath flowing through your Bob Dylan harmonica and hope that you'll
stay with us a few more years. Do it for us, Bob!
