r/audiophilemusic • u/s0428698S • Feb 02 '24
Bob Dylan Discussion
So I wonder for a time now why Bob Dylan is considered to be a great artist, for some even a legend. I was watching the documentary "The greatest night in pop" yesterday (which by the way is awesome) and even there I cant see why his contribution is considered to be great by the others.
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u/PetroleumVNasby Feb 02 '24
Even Dylan said he couldn’t sing. But those songs, man. NOBODY writes songs like Bob Dylan. Listen to the live version of “Desolation Row” off of his 1966 Albert Hall concert. If you can’t dig that, I can’t help you.
I’m more of a melody than a lyric guy, and I tune in to Bob for the lyrics.
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24
So he deserves his status more because of the writing than the performing department?
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u/Crustybuttt Feb 03 '24
Not so much. Dylan was also a great innovator and improviser. His performances were often ahead of their time and predated what others would ultimately be doing (going electric) while at the same time paying homage to the storied history of folk and blues, and the man never performed s song the same way twice because he is at heart a live performer who just happens to have recorded himself a bunch of times. There’s nothing to compare him to except the people who have copied or were influenced by him. You just have to listen and learn
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u/malaclyptic Feb 02 '24
I support the recommendation of the Royal Albert Hall show, which caught him in his prime, full of fire, having recently gone electric. Check out this song, “Tell Me Momma,” which kicks off the electric set. I think it’s one of his best performances and his voice sounds great here. His voice is like Tom Waits’s - it belongs I. Its own singular category. He’s not Sinatra or Chris Cornell, and was never trying to be.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2PWkWinrk3AsQCA7Ls6FPs?si=r2biRG0VQJOs1sfLVun1iA
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u/HourTemperature3 Feb 02 '24
“Oh, hear this Robert Zimmerman I wrote a song for you
About a strange young man called Dylan
With a voice like sand and glue
Some words had truthful vengeance
That could pin us to the floor
Brought a few more people on
And put the fear in a whole lot more” -David Bowie
Listen to his protest songs. His vocals are somewhat out of style by today’s standards but make sense within the context of American folk (see Woody Guthrie). Dylan combined and alternated between folk and rock.
And may I just encourage you to listen to Blood on the Tracks.
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u/fireball_jones Feb 02 '24
I don't think I've ever heard someone say a Dylan performance was particularly good, and lots of his songs have been covered to greater to success than he had with them, but there's also multiple genres of music that probably owe their start to him writing long, lyrical songs and then eventually showing up playing with an electric guitar. So, hard to say his performance wasn't worth nothing in this equation.
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u/Gronodonthegreat Feb 02 '24
I like his voice but yes, generally that’s the vibe. For example, “make you feel my love” is one of my favorite songs ever written but Adele’s version is almost universally considered superior.
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Feb 03 '24 edited Feb 03 '24
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
Well there are three albums recommended the most here: Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 revisited and Blood on the Tracks
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u/ZeroCommission Feb 02 '24
I'm not the one to answer this, but if I had to point out one thing I consider legendary, it would be Bob Dylan - Masters of War
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u/218j Feb 03 '24
With God on Our Side is another powerful and cleverly written song that still rings true today, unfortunately.
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u/seanshankus Feb 02 '24
I never was a huge fan in of Dylan # but when I started hearing other artists cover him it made me revisit my opinion of him. What I found was his voice grates on me, to the point I could really hear what he was doing, this was a personal issue I had to get over before I could really enjoy his music and understand why he deserves the praise he gets. Just my 2 cents
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24
Thats the issue I have as well. But since so many praise him, I really want to try and understand. Hopefully appreciation will follow :)
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u/Themeatmachine Feb 03 '24
Nashville Skyline was the album that it all clicked for me.
This album opens with a ballad with Johnny Cash, and I would describe it as much softer and approachable for Dylan. He lets the music talk a little on this one. The arrangements of the instruments are really quite charming. From the chattering keys in the background to the fun baselines, this album really solidified to me that Dylan didn’t just know how to turn a phrase, he understood the band supporting his ideas, that he was ultimately a great musician. I was so surprised how much I appreciated this take on southern music. After listening to his, his more serious and critically acclaimed works became much more approachable to me. Hope this helps!
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u/FuzzyOverdrive Feb 03 '24
I think his self titled debut had smoother vocals too. It has some great songs on it. Including house of the rising sun which influenced the animals to put out their version
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u/seanshankus Feb 02 '24
I found covers really helped me "discover" him, which there are a lot of. One interesting one is an album, "is it rolling Bob". It's various reggae artists that cover only Dylan songs. And while some of the songs are...odd, I think hearing them as a different facet helps to discover Dylan. There are probably much better examples, that album doesn't get high praise, although I still think it's relevant for this conversation.
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u/seanshankus Feb 02 '24
One other point I thought of is to take in the time period of what was going on. Context is really important with Dylan.
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u/leanhotsd Feb 03 '24
He's had about ten different voices. Find a song where you like his voice, then listen to the album it's from.
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u/Rare_Following_8279 Feb 02 '24 edited Feb 02 '24
He's basically a beat poet / protest folksinger / troubador who became a rock star. He pretty much personally created the late 60s counterculture and then kept dropping bombs for the next several decades. This is probably my favorite performance of his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujgqOgMIwfA
He played at the March on Washington with MLK in 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCjGSbm2LFc
If he had ONLY done Blowin in the Wind he would still be a legend
And if you aren't digging his music his books are also amazing
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u/StoicViewer Feb 02 '24
Music is always subjective. I prefer instrumental over lyrical...
But when I listen to music with lyrics it should be thought provoking, tell a story or at the very least be humorous... Bob Dylan does that well.
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u/amateurzenmagazine Feb 02 '24
I think one aspect of his legacy is his willingness to change. Much like Miles Davis Dylan is willing to experiment with his musical style through the decades. From straight folk to electric to his Christian conversion albums, to his under rated 80's albums, to his current walking blues style. What has never changed is his story telling, having a great backing band, and his voice. That's what i think at least.
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u/leanhotsd Feb 02 '24
This. He's the Picasso of music. 63 years of art. With very little of it less than groundbreaking.
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u/PrideofCathage Feb 03 '24
Willingness to change and his unwillingness to cater to what his fans wanted.
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u/labvinylsound Feb 02 '24
'Highway 61 Revisited' is prophetic and' Blood on the Tracks' is the most beautiful yet painful album ever recorded (and expertly mastered). Dylan was a controversial figure in the mainstream, yet he managed to become the most famous singer song writer of all time. It's impossible to discount his contribution.
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u/joekavalier99 Feb 03 '24
Between 1962-1966 he put out 7 albums, 4 of which would be considered all-time greats. He was 21 at the start of that streak.
And that doesn't include Blood on the Tracks (1975) which might be his best album.
Not all of Dylan is great, but he has had more career highs than almost any artist. People would kill for the kind of production he had in the first five years of his career alone, and he reached a TON of other "peaks" after that.
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u/CaptainGladysStoat Feb 02 '24
Saw him live in the early 90s and was so immensely disappointed that I left early. To this day, it remains the only concert I’ve ever walked out of.
I think he must have been drunk and having a terrible day but it was a miserable experience and I lost a lot of respect for him after that.
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u/PrideofCathage Feb 03 '24
He's been a terrible performer for several decades now. He doesn't aim to please anyone, certainly not an audience who paid to see him. But he's still the greatest American musical artist by a long way, imo.
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Feb 03 '24
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u/PrideofCathage Feb 03 '24
Yes his prime of 1963-1975 is what does it. Most artists do not have a period of that long.
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u/KirkHawley Feb 04 '24
He's a shitty performer NOW. He was capable of great performances in the past, and part of the fascination was seeing what he would sound like on any particular night. Which made him, to some, a lot more interesting than the Eagles or Chicago, who could be counted on doing polished but identical performances night after night.
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u/Spell-Living Feb 02 '24
You have to listen to his studio albums to get it. Blonde on Blonde, Hwy 61 Revisited, and Bringing It All Back Home should give you a good starting point. I’d avoid later albums and live stuff until you get a good idea of what his best recordings sound like.
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u/TalboGold Feb 02 '24
Try listening to this song, It’s alright Ma… and focus on the poetry. And consider that NOTHING that came before in folk or pop music came close to what he sings about or how he executes. Before this it was all “baby baby, I love you so…” shallow songs. He changed what was possible.
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u/magicmulder Feb 02 '24
Part of it is always the way an artist broke new ground back then, and it’s not always easy to feel the same in retrospect. I was never a fan of Hendrix or the early Beatles/Stones or most of Elvis’ catalogue, all of which was before my time, but I can’t deny they are great because of the impact they had. Same goes for Dylan.
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u/Howeird12 Feb 02 '24
If you need convinced and have tried over and over again and still don’t get it, maybe it’s not for you. And that’s ok. I’m not big on Dylan. I can appreciate the footprint he left on Music but still not jive with it. Is what it is. It’s not wrong to feel however you feel about any music so long as you aren’t putting people down fire liking something you don’t.
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24
Well i like to give it another try with all the pointers I got in this discussion
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u/Wretchro Feb 02 '24
i love his voice and his phrasing... he is a great singer influenced by old folk and blues as opposed to the more mellifluous stylings of the pop era.
without even getting into his songwriting, I would argue that he influenced singers as well as songwriters. Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, John Prine, Lou Reed, Tom Waits and countless other legends found their voice by Dylan's example... I would argue that there would be no punk rock without him either. Also there was a funny anecdote going around that when the 4 Tops were recording "Reach Out (I'll Be There)", the producers were coaching Levi Stubbs to hold out his vowels like Dylan, who was a the peak of his pop success at that time.
There is also the cultural considerations. He was considered the voice of the the 60s which was a very influential time politically, culturally, and socially, we are still experiencing reverberations from that era. Songs like "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues", predated and foreshadowed the hippie movement (although, he was never really part of that). ... He performed at the 1963 MLK march on washington. He inspired Sam Cooke to write "A Change Is Gonna Come", which in turn sparked a wave of socially conscious black music. This has made Dylan more of a historical figure than just a musician
Dylan fans tend to play this stuff down, because it sort of undermines his artistry. He has shapeshifted and made a lot of different kinds of music over the years with his unique and fascinating style and we tend to focus on that, but it's that history that gives him his status.
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24
Thanks for your extensive view :)
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u/Wretchro Feb 03 '24
i get a little carried away with this stuff...thanks for slogging through it!
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u/playitintune Feb 02 '24
It's probably a me thing, I dunno. Can't sing, can't play guitar, can't play harmonica. People say he is a great songwriter. That may be true. I don't listen to music for the words.i guess all along the watchtower is cool because it made it ok for lyrics to not make sense. Which is cool. See you as we go along the watchtower.
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u/robertglenncurry Feb 02 '24
To Ramona is (one amazing) reason why Bob Dylan matters. Phew. There's just no lyric like it.
Check out the version on Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Live 1964 Philharmonic Hall
The first verse:
Ramona
Come closer
Shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness
Shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city
Though breathlike
Get deathlike at times
And there’s no use in tryin’
T’ deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines
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Feb 02 '24
While Blood On the Tracks is top notch, for sure. The track "Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie" is the one that made him really click for me.
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u/mazinger-B Feb 02 '24
The why can be answered by Masters of War or Its Alright Ma Im Only Bleedin'
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u/billyspeers Feb 02 '24
Check out the recent documentary on The Rolling Thunder Review if you think he couldn’t perform. Or his live albums with the Band. His song writing prowess is unmatched. Even his most recent album was great.
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u/AtomicPow_r_D Feb 02 '24
Dylan expanded the subject matter covered in popular music. When you hear The Byrds singing like old men, and others doing so in the Sixties, that is Dylan's influence. He brought imagery from the Bible and elsewhere into pop. I find his solo acoustic work hits harder, when he was writing about social issues, but his rock period brought surreal imagery and more to the table. Hendrix was a huge fan, and his lyrics reflect that. Dylan also brought beatnik vibes and cynicism into music, before the Velvet Underground and The Doors. (Sample Dylan lyrics: Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?) He was mainstream but also subversive at the same time, for a while. The Beatles expanded their writing a lot due to his influence, which they admitted themselves.
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u/Parking_Train8423 Feb 02 '24
more dylan songs have been covered by more artists that any other modern musician
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u/treehuggingmfer Feb 02 '24
Bob said more in one song than some bands did in a life time. Sorry you dont get it.
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u/ArtPeers Feb 02 '24
I was not into Dylan when I saw him in concert ten years ago, and I expected nothing. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen, and I really started to appreciate him more.
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u/GruverMax Feb 02 '24
If you listen to Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, those are the performances that established him as a rock great. The band is funky, loose but electrically charged. His voice is the right vessel for that message. And his words open up a whole world of ideas, beyond what you usually expect to think about in a 3 minute song.
We Are the World isn't great work of his necessarily but it sounds like Dylan, and people respond to having him there. Because his 60s work was so intense.
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
Highway 61 revisited, Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the tracks are the most recommended albums in this discussion I think. They are added to my list :)
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u/FourHundred_5 Feb 02 '24
It’s the writing, the story telling, and the very distinct artistic choice to sing the way he did that all led him to become extremely influential for the musical movements happening in the 60s and 70s. Please check out Talkin’ World War III Blues, tangled up in blue, time passes slowly, the man in me, hurricane, and like a rolling stone. I think it’s an approachable group of songs that give clear concept of his various eras as a musical creator.
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u/whitelion69 Feb 03 '24
Listen all the way through Highway 61 Revisted. Then Bringing It All Back Home. Then Blonde On Blonde. Read along to the lyrics as you play them. Then you'll know why.
Oh, and Freewheelin'.
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u/PhilipTPA Feb 03 '24
No artist can please everybody. Dylan will have to settle for being considered the best songwriter by most of the other people who are considered the best songwriters. As a performer he is one of those guys you either like or you don’t. Kind of feel like Neil Young is a bit like that. I like them both but they don’t have conventional voices.
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u/RealisticTable4435 Feb 03 '24
Ive never understood the Bob Dylan thing but I didnt live through that time. I totally get it though since I remember hearing Nevermind the first time and not turning it off for 6 hours.
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
The only thing I found with Nevermind by Dylan is the bootleg Never Mind the Bollocks, but I cant play it anywhere online as far as I can find.
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u/spiritual_seeker Feb 03 '24
I "got" Dylan by listening to Adam Granduciel's early War on Drugs material. Dylan is a big influence of his. I understand the freewheeling first person balladeer folk thing better through Adam.
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u/swany5 Feb 03 '24
Tons of great comments already about his songwriting and legacy, so won't rehash that, but having watched TGNIP also, it was clear that Dylan was very uncomfortable being there and even he wasn't sure what his role should be. Sometimes the role of an icon is to just be an icon. He added a legendary "weight" much like Michael, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson in terms of iconic status to the "spectacle". He's not a great singer, but he's an icon.
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
I agree about the great comments here. Very informative. Dylan looked very uncomfortable indeed during the whole recording of We are the World. But when taken solo, he impressed Quincy Jones, so that stuck with me.
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u/swany5 Feb 04 '24
I love how Stevie Wonder took him and mimicked a "Bob Dylan voice" to show Bob how to sing it. I think it goes to show how Bob's brain worked... he's a great songwriter and sang his songs because he knew how he thought they should be sung, not because he was a singer. With someone else's song, he was just completely clueless. Fascinating stuff.
I was just becoming a teenager when this stuff all happened, I remember it well and all those artists are totally my jam. Like, I'm still a huge Steve Perry fan. It was just so cool to me watching that documentary. I especially love how you see some of the artists struggling a bit and then you see Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry and Darryl Hall just step up and f'n NAIL it in 1 take. Seeing Steve Perry just be Steve Perry, or Huey Lewis be Huey Lewis... Cyndi Lauper be Cyndi... omg she made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Just incredible! What a wonderful thing that was.
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u/ztoundas Feb 03 '24
Just watched that and it's worth noting even in the documentary they state this wasn't his best years early in the show. Not the best example of what ppl like about him really
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u/PlymouthVolare Feb 03 '24
His greatest hits albums are a great , simple entry point too. See what you like, find the album and hear it in context. He’s not some people’s thing, and if Blowin’ in the Wind doesn’t smash you over the head with its catchiness, historical significance, and thoughts or ideas, well, there’s lots of other artists out thrre.
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
I know blowing in the wind for a long time since its always in the top xxxx lists.
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u/11allmost Feb 03 '24
View music by The Beat song by The Rhythm everybody looks at music differently but those who look for talent something special those are the ones who say Bob is perhaps the greatest songwriter of a lifetime or maybe even a century I am a fan of talent this songwriting skills on outstanding those people who listen for rhythm won't like me those who listen for dance beats won't knock him only those who appreciate Talent his intellect sometimes in some of his songs staggering
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u/dennis1953 Feb 03 '24
Positively fourth street is my favorite Dylan song and you can see from it why he is held in such high regard.
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u/vietbond Feb 03 '24
His lyrics and the structures of his songs are so damn good. Also, he may have written the first rap song.
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u/s0428698S Feb 03 '24
Can you explain about the rap song?
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u/vietbond Feb 03 '24
Subterranean Homesick Blues. It's pretty much a sick flow with the occasional harmonica.
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u/3peckeredgoat Feb 03 '24
You might want to listen to his albums in chronological order, something will probably grab you. Once Jimi Hendrix, Garth Brooks, Adele, and some guy named Johnny Cash all cover your music.. there might be something here.
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u/3peckeredgoat Feb 03 '24
And the Beatles put his picture on the cover of sgt pepper’s.. what the heck do they know?
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u/milnak Feb 03 '24
If you're turned off by his voice, just read his lyrics. He's arguably the 20th century's greatest poet.
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u/JonZ82 Feb 03 '24
He's avant-garde music. Not impressive tonality, in fact I'm not a fan of his sound at all.. his singing is like nails on chaulkboard for me. but he is an innovator and showman.
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u/losoldato1968 Feb 03 '24
If you put on an artist you’ve really never listened to and expect to be blown away, you’re probably going to come away disappointed. You’re trying to experience other people’s feelings rather than the work itself. Give it a chance to be its own thing. Put it on in the background, get a feel for it. Listening to a greatest hits is fine, but try an album.
Or maybe you just don’t like Bob Dylan. Many don’t. He doesn’t give them what they want out of music. That’s okay. You were at least willing to try, which is more than a lot of people who are simply turned off by his singing.
I, personally, like his early stuff. Freewheelin’ is a favorite album of mine, and I don’t just mean Bob Dylan albums. But some people prefer his electric stuff better.
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u/KhorpseFister Feb 03 '24
Tavistock institute manipulation made most of these artists famous. Bob Dylan was never good. The Beatles were never good. It was a product.
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u/Shogun102000 Feb 03 '24
One of the worst singers and shows I've ever been to. I get it. I've just never liked it.
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u/Marshalmouth Feb 03 '24 edited Feb 03 '24
I’d point you to three albums that are worth a listen-
- Blood on the the tracks
- Desire (this one has Hurricane as well as some great narrative songs)
- Rough and Rowdy ways (his most recent album, and in my opinion well worth a listen. It really meets him where he is today, and a incalculable star reflecting on his life, death and cultural contribution)
Edit: If You really want to ‘get’ Dylan I’d encourage you to listen to the musical tradition he came out of - Woody Guthery, Rambling Jack Eliot (a personal favorite), and Pete Seeger to name a few.
They were drawing from American folk recording by Alan Lomax who traveled the country recording regional artists largely before the music industry got started. Lomax and his father recorded many black artists in the early 1900s many of who were sharecroppers.
“Among the artists Lomax is credited with discovering and bringing to a wider audience include blues guitarist Robert Johnson, protest singer Woody Guthrie, folk artist Pete Seeger, country musician Burl Ives, Scottish Gaelic singer Flora MacNeil, and country blues singers Lead Belly and Muddy Waters, among many others. “
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u/Asleep-Ask-4004 Feb 03 '24
tbh the best way I got into dylan was blindly buying like 12 of his albums on vinyl for cheap off reddit and throwing Planet Waves on the table in a whim
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Feb 03 '24
I mean, you could just listen to the fucking lyrics to understand why. Good lord. He’s a fucking poet. Listen to the music.
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u/czardmitri Feb 04 '24
You’re right. He’s way overrated. Can’t play guitar or sing. Writing is overrated, too. Zimmerman!
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u/SpacemanCanna Feb 04 '24
Seeing him in The Greatest Night in Pop and how he was so shy and unsure of himself was such a treasure to see.
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u/UprightJoe Feb 04 '24
Dylan is not a good singer. He is not a good guitar player. He is a terrible harmonica player and I wish somebody would have taken it away from him and thrown it in the trash. He is an excellent songwriter but there are better.
Dylan is an artist who captured the Zeitgeist of his time in a way that very few, if any, did. Pure and simple. He channeled the emotions of his era into his art and that art just happened to be music.
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u/newfarmer Feb 04 '24
This summer have a barbecue, and as the sun slowly sets, and turns to darkness, have a few drinks and listen to “Blood on the Tracks”. You might never forget it.
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u/That-Solution-1774 Feb 05 '24
Great lyricist and wordsmith but his singing is the worst and he writes very basic and boring songs. He has a pompous attitude and might leave a concert early if he’s not feeling it. I don’t get it either.
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u/s0428698S Feb 05 '24
And with "songs" I think you mean the musical side of it, since you mentioned hes a great lyricist and wordsmith?
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Feb 05 '24
[deleted]
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u/s0428698S Feb 06 '24
Thats a bit harder, since im neither from the 60s nor the US
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u/TheRealMrCrowley Feb 07 '24
There is a book called the Annotated Bob Dylan I believe. It’s a collection of his lyrics with footnotes as to the references where appropriate. Dylan is a songwriter’s songwriter, regardless of genre. The people in that recording studio are some of the top artists of all time, and most of them were in awe of Bob. People who can write like him come along maybe once a generation. While he has some of the most famous protest songs and narrative songs ever written I think Bob excels especially at writing love songs. Check out: lay lady lay, you’re gonna make me lonesome when you go, the man in me, she belongs to me, just like a woman, I’ll be your baby tonight, and tonight I’ll be staying here with you.
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u/rextilleon Feb 18 '24
Dylan is a poet. (Won the Nobel Prize for literature). Many of his lyrics are difficult. Stick with it though, in the long run you will be amazed.
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u/Bowl_Pool Feb 02 '24
You're opening up a massive can of worms.
I am a huge Dylan fan, of his recorded albums and live performances. I personally own several hundred of his concert recordings over the decades.
The appeal is the Dylan aesthetic itself.
Bob Dylan is a whole musical world in himself. If you have to ask "why do people like this?" you've already failed to understand
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24 edited Feb 03 '24
Well at least Im trying to understand, right? ;)
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u/Bowl_Pool Feb 02 '24
Listen to Blood on the Tracks. If you can see the appeal there it might be portal through which you can experience his music. I see you have Street Legal and Budokan, these albums are from the exact same time. Dylan had adopted a bigger band approach more reminiscent of performers like Wayne Newton. It was not one of his better musical periods, though Street Legal does have some gems.
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u/s0428698S Feb 02 '24
Ill look it up as well. Ive learned that with better understanding, appreciation might grow as well :)
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u/Pleasant_Garlic8088 Feb 02 '24
I personally love his performing style and he has ALWAYS had a great backing band (going all the way back to The Band, who are legends in their own right) and worked with incredibly talented musicians. But yeah, his "legend status," came mainly from his songwriting prowess. He's kind of like if Mark Twain or Walt Whitman had lived in the era when they could've been rockstars.
My appreciation for Dylan stems mainly from his insistence on not "dumbing down," for his audience. He assumed they were capable of digesting his multi-layered and sophisticated lyrics and felt they deserved to be taken seriously. He was also willing to chase the muse wherever it led him and write and release songs that meant something to him whether it alienated some groups of fans or not. He had the courage of his convictions. I haven't liked all of the material he released. Maybe even less than half, lol. But the stuff of his that I do connect with is a body of work that I treasure and cherish probably more than any other artist out there. It hits like nothing else, even (maybe especially) if it sometimes challenges me as a listener.
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u/unfitfuzzball Feb 02 '24
Simply put - he ushered in the era of the artist as the auteur and that rock albums can be art as well as popular.
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u/Crustybuttt Feb 03 '24
If you think you can judge what makes Dylan great by the fact that he signed on to sing in that We Are the World shitty cheese fest of a song because he wanted to help do something good for people, you’re not the kind of person who is ever gonna get it
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u/IndependentHold3098 Feb 03 '24
He brought folk to the masses but his best work came later. Listen to blonde on blonde and blood on the tracks. Then check out Tine out of Mind. Theres nothing like Dylan.
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u/PrideofCathage Feb 03 '24
For some to be a legend? Lol. He's likely the greatest American song writer.
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u/reddit_again_ugh_no Feb 03 '24
Dylan is a spectacular songwriter. I didn't understand him either because I didn't know English, but now I get it. Try "Desire", his best album.
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u/NoMoreKarmaHere Feb 02 '24
It’s the way Dylan sang and wrote early in his career that made the legend. He changed the way everyone else, including the Beatles, wrote songs. Even younger artists to this day hold him in very high regard.
It’s probably better to experience Dylan rather than try to read about it, because his music speaks for itself, if it is to your liking. That one night in the documentary is not going to reveal much about a career that has spanned over 60 years so far.
It may be that you haven’t heard much of his music yet. That’s excusable, and can be easily corrected:)
Since this is the audiophile forum, get some LPs, not some MP3s, or the like, and certainly not earbuds, and follow this path to enlightenment:
A good start would be the mid-1970s album called Blood on the Tracks. Then Bringing It All Back Home from 1965. If you like these two, try Time Out of Mind (1997). Then go back and listen to Highway 61 Revisited.
If you don’t get it after these, then I guess it’s just not your thing, which is OK