I finally listened to Bob Dylan. I've heard his music on the radio my whole life, but I finally took the time to really listen to his entire catalog. With my online music subscription, I was able to play each of his albums in order. It was a spellbinding journey, I assure you! I now have not one but three incredible Bob Dylan playlists I’ve compiled. I'm officially a "Big Dylan Fan". I learned some things along the way. I became aware of some facts unique to Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter. He’s, of course, revered and spoken of as being “sent from heaven.” The Beatles are also. Still, other musicians get this treatment as well, but what is unique about Bob is that the ones who hold him so high aloft are also the same ones who honestly tried to “cancel” him at multiple points along his career! It’s an unsettling example of total hypocrisy among his fans and critics. It’s also interesting to me how it played out that way. I think I can even understand it somewhat.
I have the advantage of listening to his whole catalog end-to end. I also have that 20-20 vision thing because I know he did, in fact, become “a music legend.” His fans, who were also his detractors (at times) along the winding way of his creativity, had to try to understand this genius when he took sudden, inexplicable, sometimes very sharp turns. Bob knew what he was doing, but like many greats before him, blazing new trails left his “fanbase” feeling jumpy and uneasy. They needn’t have, and Bob didn’t care if they did. He was playing the music he liked. That’s what mattered. No noise from the peanut gallery would derail his passion to follow the music wherever it led him.
What he was “doing” is something he wound up doing over and over again. He did it with Folk music, Country music, Blues, Gospel music, and Rock-n-Roll. He would learn each genre and write songs like the people of the genre that he admired. Then it was as if he would say: “But if I were to write this kind of music (with my own words and melodies) it would sound like this…” That’s the part where he blew everyone’s minds.
With folk, he started out writing songs like Woody Guthrie. Then, taking the baton, he raised the bar. After writing country music that sounded like the country he enjoyed, he dropped “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” This was country music the likes of which no one had ever heard before. He did the same with Blues music, Gospel, and Rock.
So, if you want the “formula” for how to be a great musician and songwriter, just use Bob’s three simple steps! First, learn a genre well. Second, write songs that emulate your best-loved peers’ music from that genre. Finally, write your own (subjectively better) tunes in that genre that thereby redefine the entire genre. Easy!
The whole time he was doing this, his “fans” were livid. They repeatedly tried to get him to understand how “wrong” he was at every turn. When he started making country music, the Folk crowd booed him. When he brought an electric guitar into the mix, the Folkies hissed and called him “Judas.” When he became a Christian and wrote music to reflect his faith, the “fans” lost their collective minds and they crucified him! His blues music was criticized as BOTH “borrowing too much” from traditional blues AND leaning too much towards Rock-n-Roll and “away from traditional blues.” The “we fear change” crowd literally screeched at the man who wrote: “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Why? Because he changed!
Thanks, Bob (Mr. Zimmerman that is), for all the exceptional music, the astonishing poetry, the mirrors you polish off and hold up high. Sorry for all the hassle! I can't wait to hear what comes next.
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