Bland on bland
They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat:
Whenever Dylan did something artistically egregious, in poor taste, inept, schlocky, or otherwise incompatible with his reputation for genius, the reviewers would explain that he was a kind of musicologist, plumbing the roots of Americana, absorbing within himself the variegated traditions of our native music and transmuting them into art uniquely his own. Hence “All the Tired Horses.”
As one of the poor sods who actually shelled out American dollars for Self Portrait in 1970, I’m prepared to defend its opening track: yes, it’s inane and repetitive — so is McCartney’s “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” — but it’s much more listenable than some of the vaunted Zimmerman epics. (Yes, “Hurricane,” I’m looking at you.)
But the occasion here is not to kvetch about forty-year-old trifles; it’s to mock Dylan for having had the temerity to release that most banal of all musical commodities, the Christmas album. I’m not going to run out and grab it myself — last Dylan album I actually bought was “Love and Theft,” eight years ago — but if any track thereupon gets enough radio airplay to crowd out even one iteration of José Feliciano’s beyond-fossilized “Felix Navidad,” I promise to be grateful to ol’ Blind Boy Grunt.
(Via Scuffulans hirsutus.)
Bill Peschel »
14 November 2009 · 1:38 pm
I like Dylan’s work, but I don’t worship him (and unlike some presidents, I think he’d prefer that you didn’t either).
All artist have one work they’d rather you forget. Hell, McCartney’s got vast swatches that are risible (“Mary Had A Little Lamb,” anyone?). And poor John Lennon could probably look back on some of his solo stuff and blame the drugs.
From that article: “A Dylan concert is unlike any other event in the history of American show business. It is notable most for the uneasy sense among the audience that no one has the slightest idea what song they’re listening to.”
That’s just silly. Having heard Dylan perform in Hershey a few years back, he’s not that difficult to follow, and he certainly wasn’t doing anything odd.
I think what disappoints a lot of people is that they think Dylan should act like them. Dylan, however, would prefer to act for himself. Drives people batty.
CGHill »
14 November 2009 · 2:02 pm
There are several incidents of audience hostility during Dylan’s touring days, and I suppose it’s easier to identify with the audience than with the artist.
On the other hand, I remember the first time I got to hear the brouhaha where someone yelled “Judas!” at Dylan, presumably for betraying his sensitive-folkie heritage or some such business, and for the next number, Dylan turned to the band — more precisely, to The Band — and gave instructions on how the next number was to be played. Said next number, which was “Like a Rolling Stone,” was indeed played effing loud, and I found myself thinking, “That’ll show the ungrateful bastards.” So I know whose side I was on, at least then. (The oft-bootlegged recording was allegedly from the Royal Albert Hall, but eventually it was traced to a performance in Manchester.)