Bob Dylan is 82 years old tomorrow, May 24th. It is my son-in-law's birthday too. It was also my mother's birthday and the day that Hull City first reached the English Premier League in 2008. It was also Queen Victoria's birthday and it is or was Empire Day.
Getting back to the living legend who is Dylan, back in 1964 when he was still 22, he appeared on "Tonight" on the BBC, introduced rather unenthusiastically by presenter Cliff Michelmore. He sang "With God on Our Side" so purely - a bitterly ironic anthem that was laced with accusation and hope for a better, more peaceful world. Here, rather disappointingly, we don't get to listen to all nine verses....
Dylan's one time girlfriend Joan Baez said of this song upon first hearing it, "I never thought anything so powerful could come out of that little toad":-
Oh my name it ain't nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I was taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side
Happy birthday Bob and Mum and Stewart and Victoria!
This is very important day for you. I will be listening to Dylan on you tube tonight.
ReplyDeleteI hope you sing along Red. That will surprise The MM.
DeleteI have always been rather ambivalent about Dylan, he certainly wrote some memorable track. As for Joan Baez, she was a favourite of mine back in the day .
ReplyDeleteI have never been ambivalent about Dylan Will. As a songwriter - pure genius but as a performer very hit and miss.
DeleteI just read that BobbyZ is producing a movie about Pete Seeger, starring that Cumberbach fellow. Sorry, my senior brain can't recall his Christian name!
ReplyDeleteIt's Benedict Karen. Thanks for the heads up as young folk say.
DeleteI'm not a huge fan of folk music, and I was very young when Dylan started becoming well known, so I didn't really discover his music until about five years ago. I know he wrote prolifically, and that his lyrics were powerful and unusual for a person so young, but I like only a few of his songs - Jokerman, Lay Lady Lay, Make You Feel My Love come to mind. But there's no doubt of the impact he made on the world. In the clip above, it's so clear to see that he was an old man in a young man's body. He thought, talked, and wrote like someone who'd been in the world for a very long time. Happy Birthday indeed, and to your Mum and Stewart.
ReplyDelete" He thought, talked, and wrote like someone who'd been in the world for a very long time..." - That's a notion with which I can easily concur Jenny. I have always been a fan of Bob Dylan from the moment I first heard him in the mid-sixties. A giant amongst pygmies.
DeleteNo birthdays in my circle of friends and family today, but tomorrow, my beloved Opa (Mum's Dad) would have been 108 years old tomorrow, had he not died in 1989.
ReplyDeleteMaybe after work, my Mum and I will raise a glass of Trollinger (Opa's favourite wine) in his memory. I have been testing negative this morning, so visiting Mum should be fine.
Hurrah! Glad to hear you have got through your first bout of COVID Meike and Happy Birthday to Opa!
Delete"With guns in their hands and God on their side" almost makes it seem as if God approves of all the killing. Perhaps he does, the bible is full of smiting etc
ReplyDeleteWarmakers have often claimed a special connection to God. Dylan digs away at that fallacy.
DeleteNot really a fan of most folk music, - just the occasional song would register.
ReplyDeleteI am not at all sure that Bob Dylan would have ever classified himself as a folk singer Carol.
DeleteThe last album I bought of Dylan's was 'Modern Times'. I listen to it quite often. I seem to remember that there is just one rubbish song which I always bypass.
ReplyDeleteCompared with Bob Dylan, remember you are just a young lad!
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ReplyDeletemy favourite Bob Dylan was/is 'A-Hard Rain's A gonna fall' the words still send a shiver down my spine. Music and words maybe foretelling the future at the time.
I don't have a favourite really but "With God On Our Side" would be in my top ten.
DeleteMr Zimmerman put Duluth on the fok music map.
ReplyDeleteHe grew up in Hibbing and I have been there. I once stood in front of his childhood home. (I hope this doesn't count as boasting!)
DeleteDylan, better at writing than singing.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right Mr Penguin but there is often a tortured quality about his singing that can be very appealing.
Delete"That little toad" -- LOL! As much as Bob Dylan had a way with words, so did Joan Baez!
ReplyDeleteShe was a big star when he was a nobody but then the wheel turned.
DeleteAnd it is my daughter May's birthday, too!
ReplyDeleteI like the name May. I bet she was glad to be born in this month and not February!
DeleteIt is my son John's birthday too!
ReplyDeleteMay 24th is an auspicious date. Happy Birthday John!
DeleteMy first Dylan album (LP) was New Morning from 1970 which means I've been a fan since I was 15... Also recall listening to his music at the library with a friend, and trying to decipher his lyrics, from around that age. (They had two armchairs with headphones where you could sit listening to the same record with a friend.)
ReplyDeleteThe first Dylan album I bought was "John Wesley Harding" when I was fourteen or fifteen.
DeleteHe's exactly 13 months younger than me.
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