Is Bob Dylan overrated?

I think he's trying to tell us that he staged a motorcycle crash in which he killed off his original identity and was reborn as "Robert Zimmerman", after getting the idea from a book he'd been reading that day

(xp re: the dylan interview bit in question)
would be pretty funny if you did go to the gravesite, something was off, & shit very rapidly went all North-by-Northwest tho -- mr. dylan if you're reading please finance this adventure film & I promise to find a way to put you in, even if you're dead by the time we start shooting, we will find a way to cast your remains in a minor speaking role

You gave your prize to a rockstar, duh

He'll try to make it

this is a strange thing to say, especially the way the journalist connected these two ideas

“There’s a certain intensity in writing a song,” he replies, “and you have to keep in mind why you are writing it and for who and what for,” he says. “Paintings, and to a greater extent movies, can be created for propaganda purposes, whereas songs can’t be.”

with films, you can really lead the viewer by the nose and force them to experience the work the way you want them too. maybe paintings are similar -- images are more potent in advertising than jingles.

i feel like his paintings are the opposite of propaganda though -- these quiet scenes, rendered with these bold, oversaturated colors that collapse space and texture. the most propagandistic things he's done are songs like "blowin in the wind."

his statements in interviews often seem tossed off

Can someone show Dylan this, cheers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Propaganda_songs

I don't think of "Blowin' In The Wind" as "proprandistic", although yeah he's shaking his head re them cannonballs etc., but "the answer is"--not "we're gonna win, in a righteous peaceful way, that is" or "It's too soon to know", with cautious hope, folkie folk wisdom, like "the answer's out there, just hang in there"---nope, it's not doin' nothin" but blowin' in the wind, like a flag flappin' or any random piece of paper, paper bag, pine pollen, whutever. He marches us along and tips us over the edge like a trash can at the end of the line, over and over. And makes us, well some of us most of the time, makes us like it. Kind of an anti-anthem, or at the very least his own doubts.
Much later, one woman's experience of writing, in a way, with Mr. D.:
http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/bob-dylan-carole-bayer-sager-book-excerpt.html

Beautifully otm re blowing and that excerpt is outstanding

Outstanding indeed. Leafed through that book in the store the other day and read a funny anecdote about her and a shrink when she was breaking up with Burt.

Rex Murphy typically comes off as Canada's cranky, conservative old uncle, but I mostly* agree with him here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmDDkIeIq4

*Dylan > Cohen

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22485-blood-on-the-tracks/

Pitchfork reviewing BOTT for some reason

They're planting stories in the press.

i feel like his paintings are the opposite of propaganda though -- these quiet scenes, rendered with these bold, oversaturated colors that collapse space and texture. the most propagandistic things he's done are songs like "blowin in the wind."

Don't tell me we're supposed to take his painting seriously too as well now, how much more overrated can Bob Dylan get?

Analysing the shit daubings of famous people is pure 1st world degeneracy and should never have happened. A recent example was that laughable Marr program about Winston Churchill's art club style Sunday paintings.

Dylan apparently really valued his painting lessons from his neighbor down the road, all the more so since the guy didn't care at all about rock and roll celebrity, although he did feel pretty guilty when he abandoned the guy one day to entertain George Harrison at his house.

Bob was painting in Dorfman’s studio on Thanksgiving 1968 when Pattie and George Harrison’s car came up the road toward his property. Bob put down his brushes and asked Dorfman excitedly, ‘Aren’t ya comin‘?’ ‘Well, Bob, I’ve got work to do. You go ahead.’ It seemed to Dorfman, as Bob left, that his friend was irritated by his lack of interest in such a distinguished visitor.

Sounes, Howard (2011-05-24). Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Grove/Atlantic

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/questions-raised-about-dylan-show-at-gagosian/

remember this?

this was an enjoyable read: http://www.villagevoice.com/music/when-bob-dylan-practiced-downstairs-929266

Dylan apparently really valued his painting lessons from his neighbor down the road, all the more so since the guy didn't care at all about rock and roll celebrity, although he did feel pretty guilty when he abandoned the guy one day to entertain George Harrison at his house.

― From a Vanity 6 (James Redd and the Blecchs),

not guilty

For leading you astray
On the road to Mandalay..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lQyRihb3k

great read, thanks Karl

that garland jeffries album is great if you were there were another early graham parker & the rumor or elvis costello record

Can someone remember which Heylin book is good?

hmm my library only has the 1991 version of 'Behind the Shades' - must've been the one I read last time

iirc it's p definitive - any other recommendations?

wanna do a Dylan podcast, so I'm gonna read up a bit (the Heylin bio, Chronicles, Gray's Encyclopedia for reference, the Scorsese doc)

Took that one out of my own library a while back, perhaps in Revisited. The quotes are excellent, but I skimmed over his own opinions, since I was forewarned.

happy birthday, you overrated genius!

made a playlist for the occasion https://open.spotify.com/user/betamaxdk/playlist/5ObYSdPI0mpDzl7ObTe2cR

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

― conrad, Friday, 21 October 2016

i must say - i wasn't expecting three songs off of infidels

You got 'em, and so much more:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/inside-bob-dylan-musical-girl-from-the-north-country-w502632?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=091317_16

I saw it. It's very bad indeed. Don't waste your money.

Dylan's not overrated. Conor McPherson, however...

Bob Dylan is overrated, depending on who you're talking to.

trying to decide if i want to shell out to see bob next month — mavis staples opening definitely makes it more enticing.

didn't know they were still touring together, that's sweet

also Bob otm

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.BWwHxBlXMM2QEE7z-aSxhwEsEK%26pid%3D15.1&f=1

$2500 for a signed copy of his Nobel prize lecture (the one he couldn't be bothered to deliver in person):

http://bobdylannobel.com/

lol wasn't it plagiarized from sparknotes or whatever too

hadn't seen this one, kinda cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbXcCqSjDPU

Update: Merrill Markoe decodes neighbor Dylan's 2017 Christmas lights. She's been doing this on and off for nine years, for backstory includes helpful pix along the way, li'l film at the end. Sorry it's on Vice.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59wp5k/a-critical-analysis-of-bob-dylans-2017-xmas-lights?utm_campaign=VICE+HOLIDAY+NEWSLETTER+1225&utm_content=VICE+HOLIDAY+NEWSLETTER+1225+CID_1adfe21ae8e2a4793a42f7bac14e15d2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=vicetwitterus&utm_source=Campaign+Monitor&utm_term=A+Critical+Analysis+of+Bob+Dylans+2017+Xmas+Lights

Very favorable re New York production (didn't like the British) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/theater/girl-from-the-north-country-review-bob-dylan.html

Hope "Clothesline Saga" and others from The Basement Tapes are in there, ditto John Wesley Harding.

So now the director of Call Me By Your Name is making a movie based on Blood On The Tracks:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/call-me-by-your-name-bob-dylan-blood-on-the-tracks-film-738293/

I hope the internet is down the day Dylan dies.

kinda feels like todd haynes already made the blood on the tracks movie with one of the segments in I'm Not There, but ah well ...
supposedly there's a screenplay some guy in the 70s wrote for Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.

^^^my feelings exactly

I hope the internet is down the day Dylan dies.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, October 16, 2018 1:25 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm gonna post and tweet so much it's gonna be insane

the takes are going to be hottt!

I'm sure we could get a 1,000+ thread going right now if we want to get a jump on things