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Bob Dylan - What's to like?

Met this great guy over the weekend and it turns out he's obsessed with Bob Dylan. I've never really listened to his music, and frankly, what I have heard kinda sucks. But I want to impress this guy, so what makes his stuff any good?

Some early replies:

R 461 - the lyrics. He conveys emotion and experience efficiently and unpretentiously in the song lyrics I've read.

The problem is you can't really hear what he's saying.

R462 - And the humour. His voice is like listening to sandpaper haha. Some of his poetry is really great. He's a very gifted poet, and then as a singer... Well, it works I guess.

Ramona come closer shut softly your watery eyes

by Anonymousreply 75September 24, 2020 4:42 PM

It's not going to work, OP. He's deep and you're shallow.

by Anonymousreply 1May 6, 2015 8:40 PM

This.

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by Anonymousreply 2May 6, 2015 8:42 PM

You can't really hear what Dylan is saying? How old are you - 95?

by Anonymousreply 3May 6, 2015 8:45 PM

So what should I know to impress this guy? I told him I'm a fan too, but I know next to nothing about his music.

Thanks to the guys who responded on the other thread, it's a great start!

by Anonymousreply 4May 6, 2015 8:46 PM

I dream of Bob. About three times a year, he appears in my dreams.

I have been haunted by Bessie Smith for the past few months, I can;t get his voice singing it out of my head.

by Anonymousreply 5May 6, 2015 8:49 PM

Start by being honest. Don't claim to be a fan of someone you don't like. Tell him you're not that familiar with his music and ask him what albums he recommend you listen to.

by Anonymousreply 6May 6, 2015 8:50 PM

Read his book. He actually borrowed heavily from other songwriters, which he blithely deflects. It's not a bad read. He does hang out with Bono at one point, sorry to report.

He was a manufactured oracle and in many ways a poser. Some even have wondered if in lean spells Leonard Cohen wrote his lyrics. His transitions in songwriting and singing style seem to indicate a hollow center. I didn't fall for his mystical impenetrability but he has so many good songs. I always liked this, classic break up song:

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by Anonymousreply 7May 6, 2015 8:53 PM

Robertson and Danko's voices I should say re; Bessie, but I'm pretty sure Bob is croaking the chorus in the background with them

by Anonymousreply 8May 6, 2015 8:56 PM

Don;t try and impress him, OP. It will seem what it is -forced and inauthentic. If you want to understand his love of Dylan, maybe invite him to watch the Scorcese doc with you, Ni Direction Home, which covers Dylan's transition to electric. Ask him to make you a playlist.

Listen to Desire, Blood on the Tracks, early seventies Dylan.

by Anonymousreply 9May 6, 2015 8:59 PM

r7 I love the Mike Ness version of that song, but hearing the original makes me realize that yeah, I'm never going to be a fan of Dylan's singing. It sounds like a deaf person who has never heard music trying to sing.

by Anonymousreply 10May 6, 2015 8:59 PM

R6 that's good advice, because I'm not sure I can act being a fan of his music for very long

by Anonymousreply 11May 6, 2015 9:00 PM

OP, look, listen, love

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by Anonymousreply 12May 6, 2015 9:03 PM

Why does DL like Neil Young, but not Dylan?

by Anonymousreply 13May 6, 2015 9:16 PM

OP, be sure to wear Bob Dylan t shirts and really lay it on thick.

by Anonymousreply 14May 6, 2015 9:26 PM

R14 is there a mantra I should repeat while rehearsing?

by Anonymousreply 15May 6, 2015 10:34 PM

If Bob Dylan doesn't speak to you or move you, cop to it, you asshole. Bob Dylan did not get to be the legend and monstre sacré who he is by being talentless. You probably have narrow, mainstream tastes in pop culture, limited to stars contemporary to your age.

by Anonymousreply 16May 6, 2015 11:08 PM

Apparently the question "what's to like" is hard to answer.

by Anonymousreply 17May 6, 2015 11:19 PM

He WAS: hot, poetic, musical, brilliant, political, sensitive, cunty, successful, important. Did I mention he was a babe?

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by Anonymousreply 18May 6, 2015 11:34 PM

babe

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by Anonymousreply 19May 6, 2015 11:35 PM

babe

by Anonymousreply 20May 6, 2015 11:36 PM

babe

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by Anonymousreply 21May 6, 2015 11:37 PM

babe

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by Anonymousreply 22May 6, 2015 11:38 PM

OP, tell your friend that you like Bob's hot son, Jakob.

by Anonymousreply 23May 6, 2015 11:38 PM

that was one hot hebe

by Anonymousreply 24May 6, 2015 11:39 PM

Manufactured pop star. Total phony, pathological liar. Kahanist.

by Anonymousreply 25May 6, 2015 11:42 PM

Seems you are still dying pretty hard, R25.

by Anonymousreply 26May 6, 2015 11:44 PM

R25 has an air of Mark Chapman about him.

by Anonymousreply 27May 6, 2015 11:46 PM

Have you heard Soon After Midnight?

by Anonymousreply 28May 7, 2015 12:34 AM

'Kahanist' is pretty extreme, and yes, borderline Chapmanesque. Don't pretend to be fan, OP -- do what others suggest and ask your friend what his favourite Dylan songs are. Dylan freaks are (in fact) like Protestants -- they love to convert people. PS I doubt Bob did anything at all on "Bessie Smith" but it is a great song (esp Garth Hudson's organ solo -- you should check into The Band as well).

by Anonymousreply 29May 7, 2015 12:36 AM

Blood on the Tracks is a great album.

by Anonymousreply 30May 7, 2015 12:41 AM

Actually OP, his new Sinatra tribute cd is really, really good.

I linked a review from the New Yorker which will give you some good insight.

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by Anonymousreply 31May 7, 2015 12:42 AM

I like later Dylan: Desire (1976) and Blood on the Tracks (1975) are my favorites, in that order.

by Anonymousreply 32May 7, 2015 12:44 AM

If you think from what you've heard his music 'kinda sucks' believe me it will not get better. And if this guy is obsessed with him have sex but don't plan on having any long-term relationship.

I would personally rather declare myself an atheist to the Spanish Inquisition than ever hear Blowing In the Wind again.

by Anonymousreply 33May 7, 2015 12:46 AM

I'm pretty sure OP is a troll, but I'll still add to those praising Blood on the Tracks.

You can hate Dylan and still love Blood on the Tracks. It's one of my favorite albums ever, and I hardly listen to anything else of Dylan's.

by Anonymousreply 34May 7, 2015 12:49 AM

"Meir David Kahane was a controversial American-Israeli rabbi, ultra-Z1onist political figure, and writer, whose work became either the direct or indirect foundation of most modern J3wish militant and extreme right-wing political groups."

"Kahane gained recognition as an extreme advocate for J3wish causes, such as organizing militias in J3wish neighborhoods... He later became known in the United States and Israel for violent terrorist attacks, calls of emergency J3wish mass migration to Israel due to a "second Holocaust" in the United States, advocacy that Israel's democracy be replaced with a J3wish State dictated by J3wish religious law, and advocating the idea of a Greater Israel in which Israel would occupy the entire Biblical Land of Israel."

"Kahane founded the FBI-listed terrorist group the J3wish Defense League (JDL) [6] in the USA as well as an Israeli political party Kach ("This is the Way"). In 1971, he was convicted for plotting to manufacture explosives."

by Anonymousreply 35May 7, 2015 1:03 AM

"In a 1971 interview, Bob Dylan made positive comments about Kahane. In Time Magazine, Dylan stated, "He's a really sincere guy. He's really put it all together."[29] According to Kahane, Dylan did attend several meetings of the J3wish Defense League in order to find out "what we're all about"[30] and started to have talks with the rabbi.[31] Subsequently, Dylan downplayed the extent of his contact with Kahane."

At the same time Kahane was inciting violence against blacks, and getting arrested making explosives, Bobby Zimmerman, graduate of Z1onist summer camp and JNationalist to the core, was defending him in Time Magazine.

by Anonymousreply 36May 7, 2015 1:05 AM

Also Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline. I don't listen to Dylan nearly as much as other 60's but some of the albums are just terrific for doing housework and baking and cooking.

by Anonymousreply 37May 7, 2015 1:10 AM

Neighborhood Bully, aka Leave 1srael Alooooonee!

By Robert Zimmerman

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by Anonymousreply 38May 7, 2015 1:11 AM

I used to love Desire, until I realized that the song Joey was about a mafia psychopathic murderer and child rapist, and that Hurricane was about a guilty-as-sin sadistic thug of a boxer, cought red handed.

"for something that he never done" my ass.

A lot like how the Jmedia made a martyr out of Big Mike Brown, gangsta rapper, strong arm robber, and would be cop-killer.

And in the same spirit as Mattress Girl

by Anonymousreply 39May 7, 2015 1:15 AM

Dylan's contributions to the English language are incalculable. His use of compression is magnificent ("Madams light the candles") and he turned our language into the language of poets ("Ceremonies of the Horsemen"). Listen to "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" to appreciate his breathtaking ability to manipulate words and tell stories. Dylan's purpose, like a truly great artist, is not to entertain, but to illuminate. Don't try to fake interest in Dylan. Admit you don't know much about him and ask your new love interest perhaps to show you why Dylan means so much to him.

by Anonymousreply 40May 7, 2015 1:20 AM

"Like a rolling stone" sounds like a mean old juwish grandfather yelling at his affluent teenaged grandkids. "Oh you're the big shot! You think you're so great. Listen to me, huh? You're gonna get a big surprise one of these days, big shot!"

by Anonymousreply 41May 7, 2015 1:21 AM

Like a Rolling Stone is worse than that. It's about Eddie Sedwick, the damaged and drug addicted "It" girl of Warhol fame. Dylan dated her, promised big things for her, and then unceremoniously dumped her, which broke her heart and led to her death shortly after.

And then Dylan writes Like a Rolling Stone about her, just rubbing it in.

Z1onist summer camp does a number on a kid. Eddie Sedwick represented the goyishe aristocracy that Dylan was programmed from birth to destroy.

by Anonymousreply 42May 7, 2015 1:26 AM

Like I said, total fraud:

"October 24, 1963, Dylan performed Philadelphia’s Town Hall.

A few days earlier he was interviewed for Newsweek and they branded Dylan a fake pretender who manipulated the media and maybe didn’t actually write the hit song, “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Instead, Newsweek reported, the hit song that was fanning revolution was instead written by Millburn, New Jersey high school student Lorrie Wyatt,” who fellow students claimed sang the song before Dylan, and Newsweek printed the false rumor even as Wyatt denied it."

by Anonymousreply 43May 7, 2015 1:27 AM

Dylan probably hated JFK because he wouldn't let 1srael develop a nuclear bomb, a project that got the green light the day after Jack Ruby and LBJ got rid of JFK.

"In the two months between Town Hall and Carnegie Hall and the Tom Paine Award, JFK was killed, and the assassination was still on his mind and he talked about it when he accepted the award."

"Dylan said: “I'll stand up and to get uncompromisable about it, which I have to be to be honest, I just got to be, as I got to admit that the man who shot President Kennedy, Lee Oswald, I don't know exactly where —what he thought he was doing, but I got to admit honestly that I too - I saw some of myself in him. I don't think it would have gone - I don't think it could go that far. But I got to stand up and say I saw things that he felt, in me - not to go that far and shoot. (Boos and hisses) You can boo but booing's got nothing to do with it. It's a - I just a - I've got to tell you, man, it's Bill of Rights is free speech and I just want to admit that I accept this Tom Paine Award in behalf of James Forman of the Students Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and on behalf of the people who went to Cuba.” (Boos and Applause)."

by Anonymousreply 44May 7, 2015 1:30 AM

Dylan stopped singing war protest songs the day JFK was killed and the Vietnam war picked up.

He just didn't give a shit, and he was already famous so he didn't need to fake it any more.

by Anonymousreply 45May 7, 2015 1:31 AM

Career suicide for anybody but a Made Mensch:

"For anyone else, it would have been career suicide, but on Friday December 13, 1963, Bob Dylan's career arc was rocketing. Nothing was going to stop him from speaking his mind. The occasion was the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee's annual Bill of Rights dinner, when the organization gave its Tom Paine Award to some distinguished individual. The year before, it was Bertrand Russell; this year, it was Dylan."

"Dylan then began ridiculing people who engage in politics. “There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore,” he stated flatly. “There's only up and down, and down is very close to the ground, and I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics.”

Speaking about his performance that he did in August during the March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr., Dylan then lambasted the movement as phony, “I was at the March on Washington up on the platform and I looked around at all the negroes there and I didn't see any negroes that looked like none of my friends. My friends don't wear suits. My friends don't have to wear any kind of thing to prove they're respectable negroes.”

At this point, with the audience fully alienated, Dylan drove the final spike home, admitting that he saw similarities between himself and Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy's assassin only three weeks earlier: “I got to admit that the man who shot President Kennedy, Lee Oswald, I don't know exactly... what he thought he was doing, but I got to admit honestly that I too—I saw some of myself in him. I don't think I could go that far. But I got to stand up and say I saw things he felt, in me...not go that far and shoot.”

by Anonymousreply 46May 7, 2015 1:38 AM

Dylan spent all of '63 faking it and making it as a giver of shits, right up until the day JFK got killed with Dylan's enthusiastic support.

"Ultimately, the ECLC speech became Dylan's declaration of independence from politics. A month afterward, he released the most politically charged album of his career, The Times They Are A-Changin', but he'd already moved on to the next thing. As he'd made loud and clear, his next album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, released in October of 1964, would be completely vacant of what he called “finger-pointing songs.” And it was."

by Anonymousreply 47May 7, 2015 1:40 AM

Dylan did NOT destroy Eddie. She was a deluded fabulist, addict, and 100% on self-destruct for years.

by Anonymousreply 48May 7, 2015 1:41 AM

edie...

by Anonymousreply 49May 7, 2015 1:41 AM

Lyrically, he's a smart ass and funny. You get him or you don't...he isn't some relationship deal breaker.

I like some of the later stuff the best---leave the old 60s behind.

Quality records:

Modern Times Love and Theft Time Out of Mind

by Anonymousreply 50May 7, 2015 1:43 AM

"Although Bob Dylan gained a superficial political worldview through Woody Guthrie's musical influence back in Minneapolis, when he arrived in New York in January 1961, he had no stance on the issues. By all accounts, it was Dylan's girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, that nudged him down the road as an activist singer. The daughter of union organizers(Commies, CPUSA leaders), and a volunteer for the Congress of Racial Equality, Rotolo encouraged Dylan to perform at political rallies."

by Anonymousreply 51May 7, 2015 1:43 AM

Amen, r40!

by Anonymousreply 52May 7, 2015 1:55 AM

Listen to "Blonde On Blonde" "Highway 61 Revisited" "John Wesley Harding" and "Bringing It All Back Home".

That is all.

by Anonymousreply 53May 7, 2015 2:16 AM

OP, is your new friend J3wish? Probably vicariously living through Dylan's accomplishments. Tell your friend how much you love Woody Allen movies, and how you don't understand how white bread and mayo types don't understand Allen's brilliant humor.

by Anonymousreply 54May 7, 2015 2:20 AM

which one of you hasbarats wants to defend Dylan's admiration of Meier Kahane?

by Anonymousreply 55May 7, 2015 2:21 AM

Here's the real story of the Hurricaine. And the caucasian goyim Dylan came to blame. For something that they never done.

Before their was Mattress Girl, there was Bobby Zimmerman, blaming the goyim for arresting a sociopathic murderer who happened to be black.

"When Rubin “Hurricane” Carter died the other day, the newspapers were filled with articles praising him as some sort of a civil-rights activist who was jailed for a crime he didn’t commit.

Nonsense. These guys needed to do their research before parroting untruths."

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by Anonymousreply 56May 7, 2015 2:28 AM

"Joey" is a song from Bob Dylan's 1976 album Desire. It was written by Dylan and Jacques Levy.

"Like another long song on the album, "Hurricane", "Joey" is biographical. The song is about the life and death of mobster Joey Gallo, who had been killed on his birthday at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy, on April 7, 1972."

"The song treats Gallo sympathetically, despite his violent history.[3][4] Gallo had been accused of at least two murders and had been convicted of several felonies.[4] But in the song he is given credit for distrusting guns, being reluctant to kill hostages and for shielding his family when he was being killed, and makes him appear to be an unwilling participant in the crimes of his henchmen, thus not deserving his fate.[4][5] As a result of the sympathetic treatment, critics such as Lester Bangs harshly criticized Dylan and the song. Bangs described it as "repellent romanticist bullshit."[4] However, Dylan claims that he always thought of Gallo as a kind of hero and an underdog fighting against the elements.[6] Besides his status as an outsider, Dylan was likely also drawn to the fact that Gallo's best friends in prison were black men."

by Anonymousreply 57May 7, 2015 2:30 AM

This filthy, filthy troll needs to be banned forever from DL.

by Anonymousreply 58May 7, 2015 10:30 AM

R54 his family is catholic but he's not really anything.

Went out on a date last night with him and he's one of those people who latches on to things to protest...went on and on about income inequality and when I asked him what he thought the solution was, he said that wasn't for him to decide. (He's fairly well off, so income inequality really doesn't affect him.) I think he's one of those people who live to bitch about stuff without actually doing anything about it.

Trying to decide if there's going to be a second date. The sex was good, but dunno if it's worth it for a second? Probably not, but he'd make a nice hook up.

by Anonymousreply 59May 7, 2015 2:27 PM

Sounds like it's already over.

by Anonymousreply 60May 7, 2015 2:48 PM

I'm not a fan, really. He's someone who I feel I should like more, but I only really love a few of his albums. The two obvious classics - Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde - are both awesome. One of my absolute favourite films of all-time, Wonder Boys, with Robert Downey Jr and Tobey MacGuire as a coupla gays, has an Oscar winning song that Dylan wrote for it, which is kinda awesome. Those theme time hour radio things he did are online too and have some amazing music on them.

by Anonymousreply 61May 7, 2015 2:52 PM

I love many of his early songs, but I cannot listen to that voice.

by Anonymousreply 62May 7, 2015 3:24 PM

His 2007 Cadillac Escalade commercial was the nadir of Bob Dylan's legacy. It played out like an expensive, perfectly executed SNL parody commercial, except it was real. It was the last nail in the coffin of the idealism of the baby boom.

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by Anonymousreply 63May 7, 2015 3:37 PM

Pff.

William Burroughs' Nike ad at the link.

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by Anonymousreply 64May 7, 2015 3:51 PM

R60 probably, but I'm willing to give it a try. He does have a lot of good qualities.

R62 sums up my entire opinion on Dylan thus far, but it's interesting what people have posted about his life. Keep it up!

R63 that commercial is the dullest thing I've ever seen.

by Anonymousreply 65May 7, 2015 4:41 PM

I love his voice. It's so authentic, compared to the shiny, happy "perfection" of most pop singers. Someone mentioned his newest album, which contains covers of Sinatra songs--really cool.

by Anonymousreply 66May 7, 2015 4:46 PM

[quote]Why does DL like Neil Young, but not Dylan?

I don't know if DL in general really likes Neil (I doubt it), but I do. And I tried to appreciate Dylan many times and failed. Can't really explain why...they both have "unique" love-it-or-hate-it voices, but Dylan's just irritates the hell out of me. And he seems SO very pretentious. Neil may be a douche in his private life, but his music speaks to me in a way that few artists' do. Also his early stuff w/Buffalo Springfield and CSN is incredible.

Yes, Dylan has written some classic songs, but I'd rather hear them performed by literally anyone else.

by Anonymousreply 67May 7, 2015 4:51 PM

I am going to see him Friday and I have first row seats. It intrigues me that he supposedly dates black women with big legs.

No matter what he sounds like, his band will be tight.

by Anonymousreply 68May 13, 2015 12:46 PM

Dylan seemed a little awkward, shy and almost fragile in person. I can see him writing the profound lyrics and hating the spotlight.

by Anonymousreply 69May 16, 2015 11:40 PM

R19-22:

"Babe"?!

"Babe" ain't HIM, babe.

No, no, no, it ain't HIM, babe.

It ain't HIM we're babe-ing for, babe.

"That little toad" is more like it. And I oughta know.

by Anonymousreply 70May 21, 2015 5:07 AM

I never liked him. I like him even less now because I used to date a guy who loved bob dylan and would only put his songs on the jukebox. Needless to say, it didn't last.

by Anonymousreply 71May 21, 2015 5:45 AM

Gee r72 How does it feel to be the center of the universe?

by Anonymousreply 72May 21, 2015 7:18 AM

R68, would he like her? Asking for a friend

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by Anonymousreply 73May 21, 2015 7:37 AM

The quality of that picture was horrific! You can barely see my gorgeous tablecloth!

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by Anonymousreply 74May 21, 2015 7:49 AM

Well the Jew haters have ruined this thread. Just more proof that most of the people that post on this site aren't gay. I am a huge fan of Mr. D and an elder gay. In my experience not that many gay men are into Dylan. That said, who says you have to like what your new found love likes. My husband dislikes Dylan and Neil Young it didn't stop me from loving him. He likes 80's hair bands , we have different tastes. No big deal, there are many things that go into a healthy relationship. Love of Bob Dylan isn't one of them.

by Anonymousreply 75September 24, 2020 4:42 PM
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