Similarly, Dylan would go on to work different fragments and techniques from everything he heard almost immediately, and it’s just here that it’s basically plagiarism because he hasn’t yet built up a big enough database of techniques. That’s terrible.” That ability to instantly see what he does and does not want to do and forge on despite criticism would inform so many highs in his career, it just happens to look stupid and short-sighted in this moment. I can’t see myself singing the same song twice in a row. There’s a line in the Wikipedia page on Bob Dylan (album) that strikes me as marvelously arrogant: “I said no.
Something that fascinates me about Dylan is that in the first few years of his career, he was a giant prick, but the ways in which he was a prick were informed by the same things that would make him charming to me down the road. I suppose the connection is that baby Gene hasn’t yet defined who he is yet, and this song is Dylan’s first definition of himself. I did not recognise “Song To Woody” from the ending of the Mad Men episode “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency”, although to be fair the connection is a little esoteric the sentimentality of the guitar perfectly suits Don bringing together Sally and Gene, but the lyrics don’t immediately jump out as relevant. “American Idiot”) or some raw joyful meaninglessness (which the Beatles were always good at – this is akin to “Drive My Car” opening Rubber Soul). There’s only two ways to open up an album: either a definitive statement of purpose (e.g. I particularly like how Dylan barely restricts himself to the structure – my favourite line is “She said you can’t repeat the past, I said ‘You can’t? Whaddya mean you can’t, of course you can!”, because the melody threatens to break into musical gibberish before righting itself. I get a real kick out of the 12 bar blues, because there’s this idea that the joy of formula is finding an individual spin on the same old ideas, and that argument is most convincing to me with the blues, because the chord progression sounds awesome no matter how it’s played.
Having a much deeper understanding of Dylan’s religion makes it easier to get his overall worldview, even outside religion specifically.
0 kommentar(er)
