|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM: The TerryReport
|
|
|
News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff
|
|
|
|
What are the words and music of Bob Dylan about? What is his purpose? Some thoughts, in reaction to an article on the New Yorker online.
|
|
|
Doesn't everyone know what Dylan is about? You don't have to parse the lyrics until they bleed. He is, first and foremost, about escape. For himself. From the expectations of others, from the imposition of social pressures, norms, attitudes, prison walls without prison gates, escape from everything he doesn't want so he can find, by himself, what he does want, a kind of personal freedom that relies on no other person and which requires no social approval. Rock n'Roll is about the same thing, in mythical, unreachable, untouchable form, save for the moments of being carried away in ecstasy at a concert or late at night cruising down a lost two lane road, listening to music and feeling unbound, utterly free. In that sense, it is about adolescence: get me out of here! Let me be. Get off my back and out of my mind.
Dylan is also about stacking words and images, phrases and rhymes and looking straight at the sharp knife of life that is about to cut you, but not turning away. He is about a deep reverence for America's past, for working people and hard times that came together to make pain, suffering, self expression and modest attempts at artfulness. As an artist, he is about the hardest, thorniest problem for anyone who attains popularity and that is to maintain authenticity and more than just the core of the inner being, the entire, uncompromising self. This latter task, for most, borders on the impossible. (I believe in the impossible/you know that I do)
No artist in late 20th/early 21st century America has engaged more people in pursuit of answers supposedly to be found in his or her works. Beyond the twists and turns that so entrance his most ardent followers, he is simply about art itself, about the creation and performance of a good tune with words that offer an entrance to another way of viewing the world, one rooted in our more authentic, real American past and hopeful of sustaining the personal sphere, unbroken, into the challenges of the present and future. He is, at last, about freedom. He wants it. And, he got it, for himself.
|
|
|
|
This comment below is response to the charges of plagirism that have been made against Dylan in recent years.
|
|
The idea of the completely original, creative genius/artist is a myth. Not just for Dylan, in general. It might be said that artists discover something new in something that existed previously or was created previously by others.
I was in Dallas years ago and we visited a museum right next to the center of the high rise, corporate cityscape. The museum is deliberately built low to the ground in sharp contrast to the giant towers nearby. They had put together an exhibit of Picasso's works (you've heard of him?) with African masks and other objects from Africa right next to them. Well, there was the source of cubism and much of Picasso's originality, right in front of me, in a simple, direct showing. Perhaps the most renowned painter of the 20th century took his inspiration from the works of so called "primitive tribes". Appropriated, but it was highly original, daring and ground breaking in Paris and Europe when first shown.
Another thing: rock n'roll was stolen from black people. Is there anyone who doesn't know this now? This theft, however, is not the same as stealing someone's guitar. They stole something to reinterpret it and make it "better" for their audiences. White singers and song writers stole the feeling and some of the attitudes (my woman done done me wrong). Dylan stole these attitudes, too, but in a wonderful act of careful balance, never slipped into misogyny, never found himself trapped on the wrong side of a revolutionary change in American social values.
All artists know that they are not completely original. In fact, if they were, they would not be appreciated widely at all, because their audience would not have reference points by which they could understand and accept the visions being offered. Artists start out as clever thieves and, if they meld that theft into something worthy of attention and interest, then create a mythology in the public mind about their works and, with willing collaborators in the media, about themselves, too.
As for plagiarism, it could be that Dylan has borrowed, quoted, paraphrased, incorporated and stolen so much and so often that he has lost track himself of what is his and what is someone else's. It could be that he has not crossed the line, but erased it long ago and can't look back.
|
|
|
|
Here’s the link to the New Yorker article
|
|
|
|
|
|
to go to recent posts, nearly 300 pages of news and comments filed during the first nine months of 2013 and during the critical election year of 2012.
|
|
|
|
|
|
to go back to prior years (500+ pages) of The TerryReport
|
|
|
