The Aaron Copland / Bob Dylan connection

Well Dylan fanatics, the Clinton Heylin book, The Double Life of Bob Dylan; A Restless, Hungry Feeling 1941-1966, is finally on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. Or at least it was (I bought the only copy) at my local branch. And it shouldn't have been, as street date is not for a coupla days.

Heylin has written a lot of books on Bob, and it considered the best writer on the subject:

- Robert Hilburn: 'If you really want to know the story of Bob Dylan (and everybody should), this is where you must start."

- Rolling Stone: "British writer-historian Clinton Heylin is perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan."

- New York Times: "The only Dylanologist worth reading."

- Graham Nash: "So, you want to know more about Bob Dylan? Read Clinton Heylin's new book. You'll get all you need."

- Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth): "Whether you've read one book on Bob Dylan or one hundred, THIS is the one you want to read and refer to from this day forward. It leaps a couple light-years ahead with much newly revealed material and deep scholarship. If somebody's got to tell the tale, we can all thank our holy electric pickups and mystical typewriter keys that it was up to Clinton Heylin."

If after reading the above quotes you aren't compelled to immediately find a copy, you REALLY aren't interested in Bob Dylan. ;-)

bdp24;

Not sure what you mean by your assertion that Americana "rejected the hippie ethos". . . 

There are striking parallels between the music of The Band and early 70's  Dead, for example.
 

bdp24

my copy has been ordered- awaiting delivery!

Happy Listening!

stuartk

I concur, Americana certainly embrace Hippie ethos to my ears.
Nice correlation between The Band and early 70's Dead (American Beauty & Workingman's Dead) are pivotal.

Happy Listening

Though American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead were radical departures from the music The Dead had been making prior to those two albums, if one knew about Garcia’s early involvement in Folk and Bluegrass music during his formative years (I love those pictures of Garcia playing banjo---banjo!---on the Palo Alto Stanford campus, not far up El Camino Real from where I was growing up in Cupertino), it shouldn’t have been a complete surprise. And as the music being made by some of the Dead’s friends and contemporaries (Crosby, Stills, and Nash, etc.) was trending towards the acoustic/short song/harmony singing format and style (as opposed to the Dead’s long, free-form---in terms of song structure and improvisational nature), it was a natural transition for them to move in that direction.

To see who were the actual leaders in that back-to-the-Country movement, and who were the followers, watch the documentary film Festival Express. Then remind oneself of the two albums The Band made in 1968 and ’69, and compare them with The Dead’s two contemporaneous albums: 1968’s Anthem Of The Sun and 69’s Aoxomoxoa. Not to mention Dylan, who had been recording in Nashville long before any other Rockers of his generation. Compare John Wesley Harding (’68) and Nashville Skyline (’69) with Anthem Of The Sun and Aoxomoxoa, recorded and released contemporaneously. Dylan had earlier (1965) completely changed John Lennon’s approach to songwriting. "You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away" was nothing more than John’s Dylan imitation.

But ya’ll missed the point about the Hippie ethos: In The Last Waltz (and in Martin Scorsese’s later documentary on The Band), Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko discuss not sharing in many regards the sentiments of the Hippies. Not to mention Dylan, who, after almost single-handedly codifying the basic tenants of the counter-culture that emerged in his wake (it would be an exaggeration to claim he created it), turned his back on that very community.

While The Airplane on the West Coast, The MC5 in the Midwest, and politically-minded "radicals" on the East coast were calling for revolution, and rejecting all that American (and in fact all Western) civilization embraced, The Band posed with their parents, grandparents, and other relatives on the inside gatefold cover of the Big Pink album. So much for hating your parents ;-) . When Dylan and The Hawks toured Europe and England in 1966, Bob hung a giant American flag behind the stage, sticking his finger in the eye of the growing hate-The U.S.A. sentiment embraced by his audience in those countries.

I love what Rick Danko said in one Last Waltz scene: "We’re not trying to save the world, only improve the neighborhood." Hillbilly wisdom ;-) .