"that's it. it wasn't as good as i thought it would be." my exact words after my first time… listening to bob dylan.
bob dylan. almost every time i would read an interview from bands, the one person always mentioned as an influence was bob dylan. he was almost like this mythical man- he is this mythical man. i decided to listen to bob dylan one day and force myself to like it. i looked up times they are a changin' and like a rolling stone- probably dylan's most famous works. standard and typical dylan songs. i sat there and listened to them and said "that's it. i wasn't as good as i thought it would be". everyone seems to put him on this pedestal or think of him as some musical god, but he can't sing! i didn't get it. this was the man that inspired musicians, authors, poets, and wrote the songs of 1960s political change. this probably should have been some life-changing, spiritual experience listening to these songs, but instead my head kind of hurts. i can't decide if it hurts because the singing is that bad or if it hurts from the sheer confusion i got trying to listen to those lyrics. i thought how did this man become so famous and inspire so many people and what drugs was he using? more importantly, what wasn't he on? my experience after listening to bob dylan for the first time was "this is really overrated". but times they have a changed - terrible pun intended.
it wasn't until about a year ago until that i began to appreciate the genius that bob dylan is. i think you begin to appreciate him when you finally hear that one song that intrigues you/speaks to you/gives you a headache because you'll never understand it. for me, that was highway 61 revisited. oh god said to abraham "kill me a son"/ abe says "man you must be putting me on"/ god said "no", abe say "what?" / god said "you can do what you want abe, but the next time you see me coming you better run".
i didn't know that it was bob dylan at first, but i knew i liked it. i googled it, and surprise, surprise it was bob dylan. that very confusing man i tried to force myself to like a year earlier. that's the thing about bob dylan, you can't force yourself to like him. you, in a way, have to discover him yourself, and the majority of people hate him. his voice, after a while, becomes less out of tune and grating. you just have to give it time. in fact, his voice almost becomes what you like about it. he's arrogant, a recluse, at one point a bad father (apparently he has like nine kids out there somewhere), and an unfaithful husband/boyfriend- but he can write and he writes lyrics like nothing i've ever read/listened to before. there are entire college classes dedicated to the analysis of 1960s dylan recordings like times they are a-changin', the freewheelin' and blonde on blonde. some of the lyrics you understand, some of them you never will. he's a genius. not the nicest person or best role model, but one of the best poets ever to come from america. most of the musicians in the genre of alternative today say that he was their first love in music or their inspiration.
my second favorite dylan song is subterranean homesick blues. it's two minutes of strange, rhyming lyrics, or as jon fratelli put it "sh*t what the hell is that? " that was also my reaction. i was so confused and in love with it all at the same time. i finally began to understand how he meant so much to people who write music- it's not really like anything else. lyrically it's confusing and poetic. way beyond what i can comprehend, but sometimes you can understand it if you sit there an listen to it. dylan has written books, which if his lyrics give you headache, don't even try to read his novel tarantula. i got through one chapter, put the book down and thought "i don't think anyone can understand this sober". i got lost somewhere when a pig started walking a lawyer on a leash. i only listened to bob dylan at first because he was the musical hero of people i like to listen to, like jon fratelli or jake bugg. it took me an entire year almost to even begin to appreciate the musician and poet bob dylan is. there are so many dylan songs and albums out there beyond like a rolling stone. i can't promise that you'll like any of them or that you'll not shut it off the second he opens his mouth. i can't force you like dylan. he's just a strange and truly brilliant man with a not so pretty voice, but it's that voice that grows on you and makes you appreciate what he's written even more.
subterranean homesick blues
tombstone blues
(this video is awful)
and if your ears are confused/bleeding, here are some people (with a little better pitch) influenced by bob dylan.
jon fratelli / santo domingo
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