Is Bob Dylan overrated?

Trying to remember that great quote of his from his mentor's obituary, the name of said mentor escaping me now.

Ah, Irving Layton. “I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever."

I read a lot of Irving Layton when I was 15 or so.

And did you learn to live forever?

"Ha, he's often English class material in Canada."

yeah, i was actually gonna say...except in canada...

i still have nightmares of having to watch that horrible documentary with cohen

he's such a sleazeball

what did he do in it? i probably don't want to know. i like listening to his old records. some of them are amazing. he never raped anyone did he?

i can't listen to john martyn records anymore after reading beverley's horrifying accounts of life with him.

I remember seeing part of a documentary following an obviously heavily depressed and strung-out cohen on tour in the 70s, he gets stage fright and drops acid in jerusalem. it was a bummer

did he do heroin? i honestly don't know much about his life.

recently i listened to new skin for the first time in a long time and is this what you wanted and lover lover lover made me so ecstatic i thought i was gonna die. my kids thought i was nuts. they filled me with the idea that anything was possible in life. it wore off. but still...

listened to "Highway 61" the other day and it's still a great record. the mandolin and the lyrics go together so well on "Desolation Row". it is very poetic. he always has this evocative quality to whatever he does, whether it is folk, country rock, or singing Christmas songs. the uber snarky personality displayed in "Don't Look Back" being an intimidating jerk to Donovan and several journalists is part of this package.

i didn't get into Dylan until way later in my musical development. by then i realized how big an influence he was on so many people. Lou Reed is trying to be Dylan on half the Velvet Underground tracks. that mid 60s run is still my favorite (cos of the garage band and sound quality) but it is a testament to his greatness that it is nearly half a century later and we are still getting new music (and new old music) that is just as captivating and stunning as it has always been. when that Scorcese documentary came out a few years ago I saw a good hour or so of it and all the early footage of Dylan performing is spellbinding stuff. he is a born performer and a born charmer. of course all of that is part of his legend.

did he do heroin? i honestly don't know much about his life.

― scott seward, Friday, October 14, 2016 10:26 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

recently i listened to new skin for the first time in a long time and is this what you wanted and lover lover lover made me so ecstatic i thought i was gonna die. my kids thought i was nuts. they filled me with the idea that anything was possible in life. it wore off. but still...

― scott seward, Friday, October 14, 2016 10:28 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm imo he should have prizes or something

I don't think he did do heroin, no. I read and enjoyed the biography of him that came out a few years ago but am a little hazy on the details

Now they should give the next musician/lyricist one to a rapper... probably GZA or RZA.

did he do heroin? i honestly don't know much about his life.

ppl have said this was the case at some point in the late 60s, but I forget who/when exactly and at least one of them was notoriously crazy bio/stalker guy that used to dig through his trash

http://www.stereogum.com/1905429/bob-dylan-celebrated-his-nobel-prize-by-playing-guitar-for-the-first-time-in-4-years/video/

what can a nobel laureate do except what he does best

what can a nobel laureate do except what he does best

― F♯ A♯ (∞)

so he's bringing back his radio show? i loved that radio show.

on wballz

I just saw someone with a crazy looking t-shirt that turned out to be from a Dylan world tour. I wonder if I should try to describe and see if the hive mind can find an image of it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/17/nobel-prize-committee-gives-up-trying-to-contact-bob-dylan/

He should be made to be wearing a telephone

Would love to hear a live "Long and Wasted Years":

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bob-dylan/2016/comerica-theatre-phoenix-az-2bfd64ce.html

This t-shirt.

https://img1.etsystatic.com/133/1/5651148/il_570xN.1003061825_5932.jpg

What the heck?

I hope they become so ashamed of giving the award to an American who won't go to get it, who isn't Thomas Pynchon, that they give it to someone who is Thomas Pynchon next year. And then Bob Dylan goes and gets it on his behalf.

i really hope dylan turns it down, more than anything because it would hint at how dumb it was to give it to him in the first place

but maybe he just won't do anything, which would be good too

today in Dumb Dylan "News"
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvPEYpNVMAAwfjY.jpg:large

Well I mean if someone knew the def of overrated it would be Vonnegut, don't @ me

haha, well i think vonnegut's fine, just weird to make a news story out of a dead author's offhand comment from 25 years ago. i'm sure bob dylan didn't keep vonnegut awake at night. dude was born in 1922, he definitely did not give a shit.

Pretty stupid to separate his lyrics from the music. As poetry, out of context, his "and then SHAKESPEARE / was frozen in FEAR / because the KING OF FRANCE / wasn't wearing PANTS" shit is terrible.

Dylan planning a gospel-years volume of the Bootleg Series

Did Dylan show at all? Last I heard was that he didn't respond to the prize.

Rejecting the prize or not acknowledging it at all seems like a very Dylan thing to do. Everyone else fighting if he deserves it or not while he doesn't give a fuck.

ceremony doesn't happen for a while -- dylan's site updated a page selling his new lyrics book with a small note about the prize, heh heh.

Assuming he is just laying low whilst cooking up a cranky speech.

he's been closing shows this week with "Why Try To Change Me Now?"

So let people wonder
Let 'em laugh
Let 'em frown
You know I'll love you
Till the moon's upside down
Don't you remember
I was always your clown
Why try to change me now

I sit and daydream
I've got daydreams galore
Cigarette ashes
There they go on the floor
Go away weekends
Leave my keys in the door
Why try to change me now
Why can't I be more conventional
People talk
People stare
So I try
But can't be
'Cause I can't see
My strange little world
Just go passing me by
So let people wonder
Let 'em laugh
Let 'em…

If dogs run free.

They're polling flagposts of the zinging

dylan's site updated a page selling his new lyrics book with a small note about the prize, heh heh

Now removed!

a tony award is next bob dylan has written lyrics and music for a musical opening next year

Wigwamalot!

how soon we forget
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-93Ck62tsGQ

^ almost makes me interested in Bob Dylan

eh he's overrated

a tony award is next bob dylan has written original lyrics and music for a musical opening next year

yes, yes i get it.

Wigwamalot!

lmao

My work is done here

would love for Dylan to reject the prize or not care too much, but based on his ramblings in the 2012 RS interview where he talks about iirc being reincarnated as a biker or smth, I'm afraid this is all wishful thinking:

I'd always been different than other people, but this book told me why. Like certain people are set apart. You know, it's just like the phrase, "peers" – I mean, I see this, "Well, your peers this, your peers that." And I've always wondered, who are my peers? When I received the Medal of Freedom I started thinking more about it. Like, who are they? But then it became clear. My peers are Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, John Glenn, Madeleine Albright, Pat Summitt, Toni Morrison, Jasper Johns, Martha Graham, Sidney Poitier. People like that, and they are set apart, too. And I'm proud to be counted among them.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-unleashed-a-wild-ride-on-his-new-lp-and-striking-back-at-critics-20120927

dylan otm.