Dylan - Genius or Generally Over-rated?

In a few days (28th Aug i think) a record will be released that will undoubtedly gain critical acclaim, moderate commercial success and several full-page articles in the music press. It is Bob Dylan’s latest little offering, Modern Times, and Dylan-philes are mopping up their anticipatory drool as we speak. You may well even be one. The chances are you will be, considering you must have typed his name into a search engine to get here.

Let me make my position clear right from the off, just so you followers of the cult of bob won't feel tricked into reading something that might make you angry. I know you'll read on anyway; funny that, sometimes you get so used to blindly following something that you lose the ability to consciously make decisions (think for yourself in other words.) It’s ironic in several ways that an artist (and his is an artist - I can't argue with that) who so actively promoted thinking outside the box is revered in such a mindless way. He is revered because that is the right thing to do. If you like music and believe in its ability to change the world then you must see Dylan as the godfather. I don't. I see him as the rabbit in the magic roundabout. Okay, that was harsh and I didn't mean it. Bob Dylan was a great poet, songwriter, philosopher and he is rightly highly regarded as such. The vast majority of people reading this will hold the man up as a genius - I don't deny you your right to do so. Just don't deny me my right to disagree. Dylan fans have told me that they feel sorry for me that I don't have the intellect/ soul/ empathy to understand the messages that Dylan gives us. Is it just me or is the awe that they hold the man reminiscent of the awe in which Christians hold our Messiah? Is that healthy? Sometimes I really want to understand the whole Dylan thing – but this isn’t one of them.

Here are just a few of the arguments people have tried to force-feed me in recent days:

He changed the world as we know it.

No, he didn't - that happened because it was always going to happen and would have happened anyway. Social circumstances at the start of the sixties had changed dramatically from what was recognisable previously. Dylan was part of the sixties, not the reason for them. In fact some people don't feel those changes were all good - Is Dylan taking credit for the obsession with self that kicked off in that decade? I’ll give him that one if he wants it.

He changed music as we know it. In terms of music there was music before Dylan and music after Dylan.

Right, just so I'm clear on that - You're putting Elvis in with Mozart and U2 in with the Bob the Builder. Excellent observation - perhaps a little generalistic. Perhaps a little clichéd. And couldn't that really be said of anybody? There was music before the Meatloaf and there was music after Meatloaf. I don’t like to blow my own trumpet but there was blogging before me and then there was blogging after me. Personally I think that Elvis, The Beatles and Buddy Holly were all just as, if not more, influential on the direction music took after them.

He is a poet - He put the mood of a decade into words that may seem incomprehensible to you unless you understand where it was coming from.

Again sounding a little dangerously like Paul talking about the secrets of the gospel being revealed by the Spirit in Corinthians. Keep off the religious allusions please. And actually I agree with the philosophical poet bit. He was very good. Hardly Kafka or Shakespeare but he put things nicely. In that case respect him as a literary figure – not a music legend.

Bob Dylan’s music is timeless.

Excuse me, I was choking on my coffee there. I have heard this argument so many times and it holds as much water as my first year art project [It was a coiled pot type thing – it was meant to be watertight but REALLY wasn’t. I was never very good at art] Dylan’s heyday came in the late sixties for a reason. The time was right, the sentiment was right, the music was right. While we may sentimentally want to cling onto some of the ideals presented back then the world has moved on. The vast majority of 60’s ideals have gone. Truly great timeless music endures through the decades – Ask some people what mental image they have of Bob – what decade are they imagining. Now that’s not a bad thing – it’s just not the sign of timeless appeal. Truly great timeless music appeals to generation after generation. Ask a random sixteen year old to sing a line from an Elvis song, a Lennon/McCartney song… a Dylan song. Truly great timeless music endures, not just after the artist’s death but for a long, long time after that. Beethoven, Vivaldi, Hendrix, Shakin’ Stevens; these are the true timeless greats.

What makes Dylan stand out is the fact that he didn't let things go to his head; that he didn't let his position as musical god change him as a person; that he didn't sell out.

I have to admit that I have a sneaking admiration for him on that. Except it doesn't hold true somehow. Just because the man didn't move to a mansion in the Hollywood hills somewhere doesn't mean he doesn't have his airs and graces. The one time I remember seeing the man in the flesh he came across as very arrogant. Maybe I caught him on a bad day; the Dylan-philes in other blogs never seem to have had that experience. In my opinion what makes Bob Dylan stand out was the fact that he was American. He was an American coming out with some rather continental European sentiments.

He wrote great song after song.

Not any more he doesn’t. Have you ever wondered why, other than one notable exception in the early nineties, Dylan hasn’t written anything of note in thirty years? Again I ask you to talk with a typical person (ie not a Dylan fanatic) and ask them to name his greatest hits. Mr Tambourine Man, Like a Rolling Stone, Blowing in the Wind, (and don’t get me started on this particular little ditty, this prime example of sixties utopianism, with the ripped off melody (listen to ‘No More Auction Block’) and the vapid list of questions followed by a metaphor I may have been impressed by if it was written by one of my year 8 pupils)

I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter. It is true that the only experience I have of seeing him live was on the night of my High School Formal when a Dylan-loving friend and I drove down to the Kings Hall in Belfast. The hall was only half full, Dylan was an hour late, he slurred his way through the set slouched against a chair as if he was very drunk and then played some of the longest encores I can remember. As my friend eased his way forward to get a better view of his hero I eased my way to the back and spent the last hour chatting up a girl selling Pepsi. He had a great time. So did I. Can we leave it at that and not belittle each other because of our views on a wrinkly old has-been with a bad voice? I have to end it here – I’m sure that barista just winked at me. Did she just wink? She just winked.





Should you be here and are still believing that you are a lesser human being in terms of musical taste because you haven't got original copies of Dylan's back catalogue I have a simple message for you. Maybe you, like me, have tried, at times, to become a fan more out of image than a genuine affection for his music. Well listen to these comments for me:

"[this album] is one of the most inspirational collections of our lifetime... This man is truly an underappreciated living legend and a national
treasure."

"If you like music, and I'm thinkin you do, then spin this platter, grab yourself a broad and view heaven."

"The album is genius, admittedly there's been some fairly serious production money involved but nonetheless it is Sheer. Genius. A virtuoso performance by a virtuoso at the height of his powers. "

"This dude makes the most life-affirming music in the history of mankind! I am a better woman for hearing his voice!"

and my personal favourite:

"Once in every generation you have gifted musical and literary geniuses who create bodies of work that can only be described as sublime transcendence. Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Tolstoy - this pantheon of greatness can only be complete with the addition of none other than [this artist]. I was depressed, lonely and spiritually empty until one day, I listened to "The Best Is Yet To Come", and my eyes were opened - I was thus convinced that God not only exists, but we are all ensconced in his presence. If you truly love music and poetry, you must have this CD in your collection."

Who can they possibly be talking about? Someone who changed the face of music, of the world, of their lives. Someone who, in their opinion, deserves the title of living legend. A poet, a philosopher, a true musician...
Who could this be? 124 reviews can't be wrong

It's good to see that Mr Dylan isn't the only one with obsessive fans

If you've reached this far and still can't give up your love for the big BD here is a blog you may enjoy more than this.