Defend the indefensible - Bob Dylan.

Haha what just happened. I lol'd at the last few moments.

I found this embedded and at first I thought it was a caricature.

horace freeland judson is a historian of molecular biology

Horace Freeland Judson OTM

The film's producer Pennebaker does not believe the tirade was planned, but notes that Dylan backed off, not wanting to come across as being too cruel. However, Judson believes the confrontation was contrived to make the sequence more entertaining. "That evening," says Judson, "I went to the concert. My opinion then and now was that the music was unpleasant, the lyrics inflated, and Dylan, a self-indulgent whining show off".[5]

more on horace:

horace judson was my prof!

i guess whatever judson wrote was never published, but pennebaker claims to have a copy.

This may be old hat, but I missed it if so...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_on_re_us/us_people_bob_dylan

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer Wayne Parry, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 14, 6:29 pm ET

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.

Do cops actually DO anything?

missed it by that much

what is the meanest bob dylan song?

damn – the list is long. Any one of these:

Idiot Wind
Positively Fourth Street
It Ain't Me, Babe
Gotta Serve Somebody
Love in Vain
Neighborhood Bully

question was inspired by idiot wind - "you're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe" is pretty cold

Like a Rolling Stone is pretty mean

the line about books in Idiot Wind is brutal

his cover of the boxer is pretty mean.

this bit from "Is Your Love in Vain" makes me laugh out loud. He's so damn sincere about it tool

All right, I'll take a chance, I will fall in love with you
If I'm a fool you can have the night, you can have the morning too
Can you cook and sew, make flowers grow
Do you understand my pain ?
Are you willing to risk it all
Or is you love in vain ?

Don't Think Twice

would go with Idiot Wind

so cruel

thinking of the 1964 live arrangement which is just so venemous

http://open.spotify.com/track/0H9ZzwIBJSxOJT3HVuAsjW

Gotta Serve Somebody

this strikes me as an odd inclusion. who is this mean towards, exactly? this song makes me laugh a lot.

the line about books in Idiot Wind is brutal

yeah thats what n/a said

aargh, my skimming is not what it used to be.

But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

this strikes me as an odd inclusion. who is this mean towards, exactly? this song makes me laugh a lot.

sounds like a crackpot on this song. It's my problem with most of the xtian stuff. It's not what Christ has done for him – it's what he thinks of you for not choosing Christ.

yeah it is a funny way to begin his first born again album. "hey i just found the lord a couple weeks ago -- WHY HAVEN'T YOU????"

The song is funny in retrospect, sure. Unlike "Is Your Love in Vain," which is pathetic.

yeah my first thought was "idiot wind" too. but i was listening to "like a rolling stone" the other day and that is one bitchy jam for sure.

"Ballad of a Thin Man" should be on the list.

'like a rolling stone' is maybe the best karaoke sound

and the live versions are so venomous

(can't stop using the word venomous today)

I've been listening to a lot of both Idiot Wind and Pos. 4th St. lately. This is my favorite line:

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth, Blowing down the backroads headin' south

this rewritten live version of if you see her say hello is pretty mean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZILewH38ASc

Well I know she'll be back someday, of that there is no doubt
And when that moment comes Lord, give me the strength to keep her out

Idiot Wind seems so much more biting and personal than the more abstract imagery in Rolling Stone imho

I was going to vote for Idiot Wind and may still but

You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, “How does it feel
To be such a freak?”
And you say, “Impossible”
As he hands you a bone

^^^gay

You should be made to be wearing earphones, Shakey.

So sorry

j/k I have always found the gay imagery/subtext of Mr. Jones interesting is all

BOB DYLAN WAS A HERO TO MY PARENTS' GENERATION BUT HE NEVER MEANT SHIT TO ME

mf him and history mayne

Ballad in Plain D is shitty mean. from the wiki:

Dylan, when asked in 1985 if he had any regrets about "Ballad In Plain D", replied: "Oh yeah, that one! I look back and say "I must have been a real schmuck to write that." I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I've written, maybe I could have left that alone."

that story upthread about the cops not knowing who bob dylan was is like something out of a bob dylan song.

'like a rolling stone' kind of transcends ordinary meanness; the sound is so exuberant and generous and full that i can't really hear it as a hateful song. whereas 'idiot wind' feels genuinely spiteful and petty and uncomfortable, like listening in on somebody's worst argument with their spouse.

That's exactly why I omitted it. I interpreted Dylannesque "meanness" as a pinched, sour lack of generosity, the more I think about it. "Positively 4th Street" is in the "Like a Rolling Stone" category, while "Is Your Love in Vain" and "Gotta Serve Somebody" and "Neighborhood" are in the former.

Do you think there's any song you could name that us haters might enjoy? I have tried, but I just don't hear the good in there. I just hear boring music with self-absorbed, extra-boring singing on top of it. I want to UNDERSTAND what you're on about

some of the best mean ones are indeed the you're-going-to-hell ones; they're like deliberately funny chick tracts. some kind of decadent philistine fortune-telling prostitute in "foot of pride":

she'll do wondrous works with your fate
she'll feed you coconut bread
spice buns
in bed
IF YOU DON'T MIND SLEEPIN WITH YOUR HEAD FACE DOWN IN THE PLATE!!!

there's a lot of bitterness in "someday baby" (WHEN I HEARD YOU WAS COLD / I BOUGHT YOU A COAT AND HAT / I THINK YOU MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN BOUT THAT) even if i don't think he actually breaks up w you.

ultimate "idiot wind" version meanwise is the one from hard rain, where sara is in the audience and he just ladles sarcasm upon "and it makes me feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY."

"gotta serve somebody" makes perfect sense as the first track on his first christian album: it's an explanation.

It's a splutter.

It's not "mean" in the personal sense a lot of you are going with, but "Masters of War" is pretty vicious:

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
’Til I’m sure that you’re dead

Dag.

And of course, preceding it:

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

Masters of War was the song that turned me into a Dylan freak. The hair on my neck stood up first time I heard it, and my mind was blown. This song is not funny, but a lot of Dylan stuff is very funny and it's one of the things I've come to like best about his stuff.

Upthread Bob Shaw mentioned Dylan's delivery. He has superb delivery, though he's not what I call a "technical singer". The only thing indefensible about Dylan is the goddam harp.

I think of "She's Your Lover Now" as a pretty mean song, probably because it alternates nasty asides to her current flame ("And I see you're still with her, well / She'll be standing on the bar soon, with a fishhead and a harpoon / You'd better do something quick ...") with sad sincere regretful memories ("Your mouth used to be so naked, your tears used to be so few").

"Idiot Wind" does this too, some of it is beautifully wistful but then "I can't even touch the books you read," damn.