I don't have many heroes. Just a few. Amongst them is Robert Zimmerman or Bob Dylan as he likes to be known.
It was in 1963 when I first heard one of his albums in a council house on Trinity Close in the East Yorkshire village where I was born and raised. A friend's older sibling had brought it home. It was "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and it contained some of his most famous songs- including "Blowin' In the Wind", "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice It's Alright". I was blown away.
Much later, I twice saw Dylan live in concert. I visited his childhood home in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1977 and in 2005 stood outside his Malibu home in California. I don't profess to be a nerdy expert on the life and music of Bob Dylan but I know a lot about him and I own or have owned a dozen of his albums. His lyrics have often grabbed me by the heart.
This is not the first time that I have blogged about Dylan and matters that surround him. In 2020 I blogged about his younger brother - David and ten years earlier , I blogged about his first significant girlfriend back in Hibbing - Echo Helstrom.
Checking out this blog's background statistics, I notice that those two blogposts are still viewed regularly. When other posts get buried by the passage of days and years and finally disappear from view, "Echo" and "David" keep going. Of course this will all be to do with other Dylan aficionados searching through Google for more knowledge about someone who is a living legend.
Dylan is 83 years old now. He was born on May 24th - the same as my mother and my son-in-law and Queen VIctoria too. On the day that he dies, the world will become a poorer place and maybe this planet will stop spinning for a while. But at the moment he is still working, still creating and fortunately the end is not imminently nigh.
Link to my March 2010 post: "Echo"
Link to my August 2020 post: "David"
Dylan has had and is still having an amazing life. I'm not the fan that you are but I've always liked him, some of his songs speak to me. He's done his music his way and I admire him for that.
ReplyDeleteThere's a film coming out this month and next (Great Britain) about Dylan's early musical life. I am looking forward to seeing it. It is titled, "A Complete Unknown".
DeleteI enjoy documentaries/biopics and will watch for this one. It will surely be shown here at some point.
DeleteI must go back and listen to some Dylan songs again.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you will go there with an open mind Red.
DeleteI'm not a fan although I do like a couple of his songs. Now that he's a born again Christian, I doubt that I would agree with him much on religion...or politics.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian element has not been very apparent in his work for over twenty years.
DeleteI remember "Blowin' In The Wind" and quite liked it, but apart from that I was never a big fan, or even a little fan, I just knew who he was.
ReplyDeleteDifferent people have different musical preferences. Dylan can be a bit too intense for many.
DeleteMost of what I know about him and his music is, in fact, through your blog. As far as I can tell, he has never fallen for the "Star Style" like many other musicians in the 1960s and 70s have, but was and is entirely dedicated to his music.
ReplyDeleteHe has been evolving for seventy years - never staying still.
DeleteOf course I know of him but his music in my young mind was classed as 'folk music', rightly or wrongly, and I wasn't interested. No doubt his contribution to music is immense.
ReplyDeleteSome people like their music to be lighter.
DeleteI was never a fan, his voice and music just didn't "grab" me, but I don't doubt he is a very talented songsmith.
ReplyDeleteKeep on playing YP πΆπΈπ§π»πΉπΆ
How you get those symbols in the text is a total mystery to me JayCee.
DeleteI have been playing Chuck Berry recently. John Lennon said another name for Chuck Berry would be Rock'n'roll. I do believe I have found the king and inventer of Rock'n'roll. I like some Bob Dylan especially his Christian albums. I am not keen on his voice.
ReplyDeleteDylan isn't keen on your voice either Dave!
DeleteWow, you sure have been blogging for a long time! I was never a big Bob Dylan. I did go back and look at your previous posts. The song "Girl of the North Country" reminded me of my own upbringing in rural upstate NY, which is called The North Country.
ReplyDeleteThe version with Johnny Cash on "Nashville Skyline" is surely the best and the one that most Dylan fans remember the most.
DeleteI like his songs when someone else sings them; his voice doesn't do it for me.
ReplyDeleteTo some degree, I have often thought of him as more a creator of songs than a performer.
DeleteIt must be difficult to secure some privacy and solitude when so many want to share a part of a person's life. I like his words, but not his voice.
ReplyDeleteHe has a lot of songs that I love and I agree he is a spectacular lyricist, but he also has a lot of songs that I wouldn't miss if I never heard them again.
ReplyDeleteHe has written over 600 songs in his career. Some are certainly more noteworthy than others.
DeleteI never was a big fan of Bob Dylan. I was a Beatles girl. I like the lyrics to some of his songs but I never followed his career.
ReplyDeleteHe never was everybody's cup of tea Ellen.
DeleteI literally cannot remember the first time I ever heard Dylan. It's like he was just part of the ether, you know? But I do remember studying his songs and listening to him and being, like you, pulled in over and over by a lyric or a line. I've seen him three times live. Once was during the Rolling Thunder tour and I was nine months pregnant with Hank. There was a bomb threat at the venue. Oh my. The second time was the best, in my opinion. That was probably thirty years ago. The last time we saw him I think it was an off night. There was nothing sparking from him to the audience that i could see. I love that he still tours constantly. He's like the Rolling Stones- what else would they do? They're musicians, above all else. And musicians play music.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing- my daughter May's birthday is also May 24.
May 24th is an auspicious day. Your relationship with Dylan sounds a bit like mine - more complicated than simply saying "I love that guy".
DeleteMy oldest son's birthday is May 24th!
DeleteI'm a Dylan fan too, even if I can't claim to have listened to every album. Nor have I ever seen a live concert. But I started listening to him in my early/mid teens, and also made efforts to understand the lyrics. (English not my fist language, that was even more of a challenge back then.) Many years later, I was not totally surprised when he was awarded the Nobel prize in literature - even if can't claim I ever predicted the possibility... ;-)
ReplyDeleteHow fantastic that your ability in English was sufficient to appreciate Bob Dylan's poetry in song.
Deletegreetings from the Arctic--Fox
ReplyDeleteWhoa! A blast from the past... I hope you are keeping well AF.
Deletei am pretty well thanks - a little older and a lottle greyer...... but very ok thanks. Glad to see you kept up the blog and continue to do so..... well done sir!!
DeleteAre you not allowed to blog in prison?
Delete