Dreams, Schemes And Themes

Seven months into this venture and finally the Bob Dylan section on the shelf begins to roll around. What to write about Mr Zimmerman ? I'm not a fully paid up Dylan obsessive but I admire the guy enormously and think he is one of the major artists of the twentieth century. It is interesting how he has managed to regain a sense of space and normality in his existence in these celebrity obsessed times. By touring virtually non-stop he has removed the mystique and his wonderfully entertaining Theme Time Radio Hour d j work shows him a very human light. In his book Chronicles, he more or less admits to producing deliberately mediocre albums to tone down the hero worship. He also admits that the early iconic songs came from somewhere that he is now unable to tap into but that body of work remains remarkable and unique. The first album up for discussion here is The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. I may have gone slightly out of chronological order in tackling this one first, not sure but it doesn't really matter. It seemed appropriate since track one is Blowin' In The Wind which, stripped of its' ubiquitousness remains such a powerful anthem. The influences of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Ramblin' Jack Elliot etc are still apparent on some songs, with Girl From The North Country even indebted to Martin Carthy. But Don't Think Twice, It's Alright points to the start of an ongoing trait of sardonic personal songs, while nobody ever wrote anything like A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. It's strange to hear throwaway references to JFK, Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren which indicate just how long ago now these songs were written but the relevance of Masters Of War is undimmed and I'm sure there are plenty of current candidates to whom the song applies. More thoughts on the musical aspects as I move through the albums that I have.