“Funny thing about Bob Dylan, the newest Nobel laureate in literature: He's been a master of self-invention for more than 50 years, creating personae, wearing them like masks, and then discarding them as soon as they grew too familiar.” YearsSelfLiteratureMastersGrewCreatingInventionFamiliarMaskBobDylanFunny ThingsNobel Author:Jay Michaelson
“I suspect many readers might associate [Bob Dylan] with one of the shortest phases of his career, the time from 1963 to '65 when he wrote his most famous "protest songs," like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin.'"” MightSongCareersWindReaderProtestSuspectsBobPhasesAssociatesDylanProtest Songs Author:Jay Michaelson
“After an initial solo album in which the young [Bob] Dylan was just finding his voice (i.e., reinventing himself from the middle-class Robert Zimmerman into a pseudo-hobo Woody Guthrie), Dylan put out two acoustic albums that forever changed popular music.” TwoYoungVoiceClassForeverMiddleChangedFindingsAlbumsMiddle ClassBobSoloInitialsDylanAcousticsWoodyPseudoPopular MusicReinventingHobosZimmerman Author:Jay Michaelson
“Folk music had long been political but [Bob] Dylan's poetry took it to a new level.” LongPoliticalLevelsFolksBobDylanFolk Music Author:Jay Michaelson
“"Masters of War" [of Bob Dylan] wasn't peacenik, anti-war stuff. With its minor key and uncompromising final lines ("And I hope that you die/And your death'll come soon/ I will follow your casket/ In the pale afternoon...") this was a previously unknown hybrid of caustic political commentary and punk rock, which itself wouldn't be invented for another decade or so.” WarPoliticalDiesStuffLinesRocksMastersKeysFinalsDecadesAfternoonAnti WarPunkBobPaleMinorsDylanCommentaryPunk RockHybridUncompromisingCasketsCaustic Author:Jay Michaelson
“In the meantime [1963-65], [Bob] Dylan was writing some of the best love songs in the genre, like "Girl From the North Country," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," and "It Ain't Me, Babe."” ThinkingWritingCountrySongGirlGenreBobDylanAlrightBabeBest LoveThink TwiceNorth Country Author:Jay Michaelson
“Probably the high-watermark of [Bob] Dylan's career came after he plugged in his guitar ("Judas!" one fan shouted during a concert) and exploded American poetry, combining Beat aesthetics, psychedelic imagery, collage techniques.” CareersFansBeatsGuitarTechniqueConcertsBobDylanImageryAestheticsPsychedelicCombiningJudasCollagesAmerican Poetry Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob] Dylan would cut out phrases from magazines and then paste them together.” TogetherCuttingMagazinesPhrasesBobDylan Author:Jay Michaelson
“While [Bob] Dylan's folk fans thought he was selling out [in 1965-67], actually Dylan was lodging a stronger, deeper critique of American hypocrisy.” FansStrongerFolksDeeperSellingHypocrisyBobDylanCritiqueSelling Out Author:Jay Michaelson
“Religion is commodified; the educational system is a sham; and yet,[Bob] Dylan wonders, everyone has to stand naked sometime.” WonderEducationalNakedBobDylanEducational System Author:Jay Michaelson
“Unlike many Sixties rockers,[Bob] Dylan sang about getting old, about broken dreams. His return to roots music pointed the way for many of his contemporaries to forsake trying to sound 'current' and to instead make music that would stand the test of time.” WayTryingDreamSoundBrokenReturnRootsTestsCurrentsBobSixtyGetting OldDylanForsakeRockersBroken DreamsTest Of Time Author:Jay Michaelson
“Weirdly, by the way,[Bob] Dylan also managed to write several beautiful love songs, like "To Make You Feel My Love" (covered by Adele, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, and who knows who else) and "Most of the Time." Go figure.” KnowsWayFeelsWritingBeautifulSongFiguresCoveredBobDylanBrooksBeautiful Love Author:Jay Michaelson
“The most recent incarnation of [Bob] Dylan has been the traveling journeyman/ charlatan who sings roots music, snarls dark lyrics that make "All Along the Watchtower" sound like a Disney tune, hosts an old-school radio show, and turns up in some unusual places, like ads for Chrysler and Victoria's Secret.” Has BeensShowsSchoolTurnsSoundDarkSecretRootsRadioTunesUnusualHostAdsBobDylanIncarnationOld SchoolVictoriaCharlatansVictoria's SecretChrysler Author:Jay Michaelson
“There has been a ton of excellent music in this period (along with a few misses), evoking scenes like a bar-room brawl at a border-town dive, a washed-up singer in a smoky lounge, and the scenes of violence in Bob Dylan latter-day music videos.I think the ethos of this period is best summed up in the 2001 song "Summer Days".” ThinkingHas BeensSongRoomsViolenceMissingPeriodsSceneSummerTownsSingersBarsVideoExcellentBordersLatterBobDylanEthosLatter DaysSummer Days Author:Jay Michaelson
“In late [Bob] Dylan, music is the key to immortality, even though the summer days are long gone.” LongGoneKeysLateSummerMusic IsImmortalityBobDylanSummer Days Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob] Dylan's many quotations from classic American roots music (that song is from an album aptly titled Love and Theft) join the aging poet to a tradition that preceded him and hopefully will outlive him as well.” WellsSongPoetTraditionRootsAgingAlbumsHopefullyClassicBobQuotationsDylanTheft Author:Jay Michaelson
“More of the symbols are stock (does [Bob] Dylan really have hogs lying out in the mud somewhere? I doubt it), but that's the point.” DoeLyingDoubtSymbolsBobMudDylanHog Author:Jay Michaelson
“The best songs of this [modern] period - the apocalyptic "High Water," for example - return [Bob] Dylan to where he was in his first phase, updating and transforming American traditional music.” FirstsSongWaterModernExampleReturnPeriodsTraditionalBobPhasesDylanTransformingApocalypticTraditional Music Author:Jay Michaelson
“Except in these latter-day songs, [Bob] Dylan is a grizzled old prophet who's already been to hell and back.” SongHellProphetLatterBobDylanLatter DaysHell And Back Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob] Dylan, like Johnny Cash and only a handful of others, simultaneously embodies the American dream and the harsh wake-up call that comes after it.” DreamWake UpCashBobAmerican DreamHarshDylanHandfulWake Up Call Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob Dylan] is a preacher but also a sinner; a poet but also a pitchman; authentic all-American but also invented persona.” PoetSinnerBobPreacherDylanPersona Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob] Dylan is a contemporary Don Quixote, at once besotted by the promise of America and yet also undermining it.” AmericaPromiseContemporaryBobDylanUndermining Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob] Dylan thus deserves the Nobel Prize, not just for "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," as the Nobel committee aptly described his work, but also for embodying the contradictions within it.” SongExpressionDeserveTraditionContradictionPrizePoeticBobCommitteesDylanNobelNobel PrizeGreat American Author:Jay Michaelson
