blastingas10

The instrumentation on that album is great, very unique. Van himself is a pretty good guitar player.

blastingas10

Bob Dylan was the original hippy, and anyone curious about the style and tone of the "younger generation's" thinking in the early 1960's has only to play his albums in chronological order.They move from folk-whimsy to weird humor to harsh social protest during the times of the civil rights marches and the Mississippi summer protests of 63' and 64'. Then in the months after the death of president Kennedy, Dylan switched from the hard commitments of social realism to the more abstract "realities" of neo-protest and disengagement. His style became one of eloquent despair and personal anarchism. His lyrics became increasingly drug-orianted, with double-entendres and dual-meanings that were more and more obvious until his "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" was banned by radio stations from coast to coast... maybe because of the chorus line saying "everybody must get stoned." By this time he was a folk hero to the "under thirty generation" who seemed to be in total revolt of everything their elders were trying to believe in. By this time, too, Dylan was flying around the country-from one sold out concert to another-in his private jet plane, worth about 500,000 dollars. His rare press conferences were packed with reporters who treated them more like an audience with a wizard than a question and answer session with an accidental public figure. At the same time, Dylans appearance became more and more bizarre. When he began singing in Greenwhich village about 1960 his name was Bob Zimmerman and he looked like a teen-age hobo in the Huck Finn tradition... or like the Nick Adams of the early Hemingway stories. But by 1965 he had changed his name to Dylan and was wearing shoulder-length hair and rubber-tight, pin stripe suits that reflected the colorful and sarcastically bisexual image that was, even then, becoming the universal style of a sub- culture called "Hippies." -Hunter S. Thompson

SATCHMO

Do you have any relevant and original thoughts of your own on the subject, or did you just feel like dropping this quote in any thread that happened to be about Dylan?

blastingas10

Thats exactly what I felt like doing. Hunter Thompson was a great writer, people should hear what he has to say about Dylan. This is the Bob Dylan thread, theres no rule that I cant post a quote about him. Give me an effin break man. Its the Bob Dylan thread for christ's sake, anything about him is relevant. I admit, I was off topic on the other thread but I havent done a damn thing wrong on this one.

It is a generalization, but there is some truth to it as well. Its hard to understand some of Bobs songs when you are young.

To all the Dylan haters:

If he isnt the greatest songwriter/lyricist ever, then who is? Besides Leonard Cohen, and I dont even think Leonard is better.

SATCHMO

There's absolutely nothing wrong with quoting anyone on this forum, especially Hunter S. Thompson whom-- if you haven't figured out by now--I absolutely adore. You didn't violate any forum rules and I didn't give you an infraction, ban you, or send you a private message telling you not to do anything that you've done.

Yes, Hunter S. Thompson was a brilliant and talented writer and I believe that the quote you posted by him speaks quite eloquently of Mr. Dylan, whom I also admire, but probably not to the degree that you do, however...

You are not Hunter S. Thompson and by quoting him in a manner which simply catapulted some giant cut-and-pasted glob of of another writer's handiwork with out so much as quotation marks, quote tags, Italics, or even a preface as to why or how you thought his opinion was relevant, noteworthy, or represents your own opinion in any way just shows a great deal of laziness and a lack of both reasoning capacity and original thought. It also really does no justice whatsoever to Hunter Thompson's writing.



Bob Dylan's career was founded on his obsession with Woody Guthrie. Although one could never accuse him of plagiarism, he obsessed over Guthrie to the degree that Dylan's entire singing style and song writing rhetoric was initially a caricature of someone else. He is an amazing songwriter and his influence on contemporary music is beyond immense, but to call him the greatest songwriter/lyricist ever is a very tall order and much of his reputation as such is a matter of him riding the coattails of his own legend.

Some songwriters that I think are as good, if not better than Dylan are:

Neil Young
Tom Waits
Bob Marley
Joni Mitchell
Elliot Smith
Ray LaMontagne
Hank Williams
Stephen Merritt
Mose Allison
Pete Seeger
Steve Earl
Bruce Springsteen
Merle Haggard
George and Ira Gershwin

...I honestly could go on

blastingas10

Haha. Hank Williams and Merle Haggard. Theyre not even close. Neil is the only one who is and even he is pretty far off.

OOO no, I forgot the quotation marks! Call the grammar police! How is his opinion relevant? It certainly is as long as were talking about Dylan. I dont see why you need to ridicule me for quoting him about a relevant subject. He is a prestigious writer, his opinion on another writer certainly holds some credibility. I wasnt trying to do his writing justice. This is a damn Bob Dylan thread, he wrote a little bit about Dylan, I thought I'd share it on this Dylan thread, its completely relevant. I wasnt trying to express original thought. Why do you have a quote of his as your signature, Cant think of your own quote? Thats a lack of original thought, my friend.


Yes, the beginning of his career was based on the folk tradition. So what? He was just following in the footsteps of his idols. It wasnt long before he started to move away from the traditional folk style. He was a plagiarist? I would hardly call him that, especially when you compare him to a band like Led Zeppelin. They were plagiarist. Compared to them, hes not much of one. I do know some cases where he could be considered one, a slight one. I know my Dylan, Ive looked into it. You dont think hes the greatest? Well I do. It may be a "tall order" to you, but saying that Ray Lamontagne, Hank Williams or Merle Haggard are better writers than Dylan, well thats a ridiculous order. Bruce Springstein? Haha, you must be joking. Marley and Young are some of my favorites, but theyre no Dylan. Waits is good too but not better than Dylan. Leonard Cohen is better than anyone you named off.

Chives

I've recently 'discovered' Bob Dylan and I've decided to take the plunge and purchase the recently released mono recordings boxset. That collects his debut through John Wesley Harding so my question is...what albums beyond that are worth my time? All I've heard anything good about is Blood on the Tracks, so is that it?

blastingas10

John Wesley Harding is great. It was his retreat from the rock n roll sound. Can't gto wrong with the mono recordings boxset. There are plenty of great albums after John Wesley Harding. Start with the next one, Nashville Skyline. It's his first real country album. It features some great guitar playing, a new voice from Dylan and a really great duet with Dylan and Johnny Cash.

After Nashville Skyline there is Self Portrait, skip it. It's one of his worst, rumour is that he released as somewhat of a joke, and I believe it.

After Self Portrait, you have New Morning. It is one of my all time favorite Dylan albums. I strongly reccomend it.

Then there is Pat Garret and Billy The kid. It features one of his greatest songs, "knockin on heavens door". Most tracks are instrumentals, some really great, guitar led instrumentals. Songs feature the great Bruce Langhorne and Roger Mcguinn on guitar and the great Booker T. Jones of Booker T. and the MG's on bass, playing some great bass lines.

After that you have Planet Waves. Another one of my favorite Dylan albums. It's his only studio album featuring The Band. It features one of his biggest hits "forever young", actually, 2 different versions of the song. It also contains some of my personal Dylan favorites like "Something there is about you", "Going, going, gone" and in my opinion, one of Dylans greatest songs ever, "Dirge". It's a very dark song, as you can tell by the name. It features some of great lyrics and some great, dark piano playing from Dylan; Robbie Robertsons acoustic guitar playing on the song is absolutely bone-chilling.

Finally we get to Blood on The Tracks, which is a great album, but I feel that it is a little over-hyped. It's certainly a must have for your collection.

SATCHMO

^^^ I'm kinda curious about what you think of Slow Train Coming and Saved.

blastingas10

I'm not a big fan. "gotta serve somebody", "when you gonna wake up", and "gonna change my way of thinking" are pretty decent songs. The title track is pretty good, probably my favorite off the album. I've never even listened to Saved very much.

What do you think about them?