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Bob Dylan, have an opinion?

Would love to hear your comments on the man. Good, bad or indifferent. Is he rocks most influential artist? Is he a musical and poetic genius? What are your favorite albums, songs, and concerts. Cornfedboy, ya got any good Dylan stories?
brulee
blbloom
286 posts
 
I was at a party where they were playing Andrea Bocelli. Someone said: "Imagine being able to sing like that". I thought to myself: Imagine being able to do anything that well.. inspired, near perfection, with nothing in the way.
That's how I fell about Dylan's poetry. What astounds me, even more,is that he is so prolific.

Iv'e seen him in concert many times, from The Concert for Bangladesh, to the recent tour with Paul Simon. Some great shows and some bad. I saw him do "I shall Be Released" so poorly that I didn't recognize it, until the song was almost over, no melody whatsoever.
sdcampbell
2,136 posts
 
Guess I'm the only naysayer in this thread. I was in my 20's during the 1960's and listened to a lot of singers and groups. Of all the artists from that period, I never understood why Bob Dylan was so idolized. There were many other artists who also wrote great lyrics and had infinitely better singing voices. I also have a number of good friends who can't stand Dylan. As the French say,
chacun a son gout...........
prs123
58 posts
 
If you rate Dylan by his voice, rather than what he does with it, you can miss the whole point. Sure, Lightfoot or
Don Mcclean or... have 'better' voices, but few if any, singer/songwriters can go straight through to your gut like Dylan. BTW, Nashville Skyline, Blood On The Tracks and Desire show off his voice, versus just his interpretation, a little better, but the Dylan I love best is the
hard-edged Dylan of Blonde on Blonde or Highway Sixty-One Revisited. OK, you got me, I like all of it. Hey there are a lot of Manilow-smooth vocalists out there. Who cares. Give me grit and soul any day. There are more good lyrics in one decent Dylan composition than in any hundred other albums. and that's counting the better albums, IMHO.
His voice these days sounds like they dug him up to record, but his inner voice is undeniably still there. If they are going to give every hack for miles around an award, it was about d*** time they gave an Oscar to America's greatest troubador.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Well I believe you SD but how do they say it when speaking the Queen's English? I agree that there were other great lyricists of the day and the first to come to mind would be Paul Simon. Dylan however spoke to the 60’s youth about a generation’s concerns in one of the most upheaval periods in our history. He was therefore more than just a lyricist. He was the spokesman to the youth opposed to the status quo. I certainly can't think of any other singer, lyricist of that time that connected better to the themes of that era than he. “For what its worth” to paraphrase another poet/lyricist of the same era (Stephen Stills).
blbloom
286 posts
 
Dylan has never been willing to be the spokesperson of the times. I think it is best to seperate the art from the artist. The art will be here in a hundred years. Puff Daddy (unless he's remembered for something other than music, a possibility), Madonna, Britney, ect., will be forgotten like the rest of us. As the song says: "It Aint Me Babe".
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