what do you see as bob dylan's ultimate greatness

[oldblue]

I'm sorry, but "living metaphor" really does seem like music critic bulldust. Isn't just that these particular songs came out of the mind of this particular person? And thanks to these songs, this particular person seemed to a large number of young people to be on the ball, where it's at, and bloody brilliant?

Sometimes when I read your posts, OB, I think of Bear Stanley on his high chair.

take it or leave it and we're skirting territory here we may not want to enter.

it's more than just the songs

[Susan Butcher]

It is more than the songs. It's also the people who heard them and took them as gospel. Even if they weren't quite sure what some of them meant.

[oldblue]

It is more than the songs. It's also the people who heard them and took them as gospel. Even if they weren't quite sure what some of them meant.

uhm, i meant performance. you're hung up on meanings of words. your thinking is way too linear. read some kerouac

here's a message from garcia:

Songs are poetry, I guess, but it’s how a song works that’s most important, and that’s not always a function of what the content is, but the whole thing — the texture of it, the sound of it, the way it trips off the tongue, all that stuff. Sometimes it doesn’t have to mean anything and it can still evoke a great something. (Jackson 17)

[okeedoe]

And you tenaciously try to make a structure and content of your dispersing thoughts that confuse you.You must be very tired.You should stop reading and thinking for some time.Go fishing or make castles in the sand.

Garcia was just trying to substance the emptyness of some of their lyrics and you are trying to make a higher level of spirituality and wisdom out of your idols creations. How old are you? you must be some kind of an overgrown kid.Not to think of the worse.

[Susan Butcher]

Look, if I start talking about performance, then you'll just get me telling you about what I specifically like about Dylan's music, even if I pretend it's an answer to the question of "ultimate greatness". And I do think some of Dylan's songs, obscure in meaning though they may be, do "evoke a great something". It's a difficult thing to do, but Dylan did the trick for a huge audience, and perhaps this his great achievement. This is what I've trying to say. I'm being "linear" to counter what I think is mystification.

[okeedoe]

Right,Susie.

[nicktecky]

SB - "Bulldust" - how sweet!

Bob Dylan was greatest as a songwriter (not bad Blues & Folk Harmonica either), so the question maybe rewritten as Bob Dylan's greatest song:

Answer:
All Along The Watchtower as performed by Jimi Hendrix.

Although:
The Ballad of Hollis Browne performed by Nazareth isn't bad either.

[plasticfantastic]

I think that Bob Dylan's poetry is extroardinary. The imagery, emotion, and cadence of his lyrics are all marvelous, in my opinion. Whenever I listen to his music, I tend to get lost in those lyrics, and not really focus on the guitar, or the fact that he tends to go offkey.

Just the sound of his words are great. It isn't so much the meaning behind them as how they end up sounding together.

[Ensign]

Hey Old Blue,

You asked when it was that you said Dylan sought to become a metaphor. The answer is Aug. 6 at 7:17, when you wrote, "so he sought to become a living metaphor..."

You are going to lose credibility if you criticise linear thought in this forum. Kerouac you ain't. (And neither am I, of course.)

Jefferson Airplane Loves You.

Dylan's ultimate greatness is in the amount of influence he has had, and continues to have, on people who listen to his music and who think and feel. Does that answer your question or not? Or is that too simplistic and/or linear? Do you think we need to make sure our answers are not quantifiable?

[oldblue]

Hey Old Blue,

You asked when it was that you said Dylan sought to become a metaphor. The answer is Aug. 6 at 7:17, when you wrote, "so he sought to become a living metaphor..."

You are going to lose credibility if you criticise linear thought in this forum. Kerouac you ain't. (And neither am I, of course.)

Jefferson Airplane Loves You.

Dylan's ultimate greatness is in the amount of influence he has had, and continues to have, on people who listen to his music and who think and feel. Does that answer your question or not? Or is that too simplistic and/or linear? Do you think we need to make sure our answers are not quantifiable?

am i surrounded by new critics? linear thought alone is fine for engineering and science. taking a poem apart exegetically like you dissect a frog kills it and it is impossible to put it back together again once you have.

perhaps bob did seek this as he pushed against barriers in his 65-66 performances. i'll ask him next time i see him.

The Great Society doesn't like you very much, as Grace said of some proposed buttons when apprised on the Airplane buttons with Jefferson Airplane loves you on them.

[Ensign]

Very cool! I'd love to know what he says.
However, he has been known to put people on... that prankster.

[Susan Butcher]

OB: If you want objective not subjective, you get "linear". Simple as that. If you want us to think sideways, stop telling us, in so many words, that it's just our opinion and we haven't really answered your questions. I don't mind too much, but it kind of spoils the fun.

[okeedoe]

No one is suppose to answer his questions, not even his guru Zimmerman.He takes nothing for an answer because it would spoil his game of mental and ''intellectual' masturbation.What a profound , lateral and creative mind he has.
A pathetic and frustrated egomaniac he is.

[Susan Butcher]

I can understand someone wanting to prove they're the coolest one here. It's not a game I want to play, other than trying to write intelligently.

[usedtobebabson]

I have never met Bob Dylan or even been to one of his concerts at Newport or anywhere. My friend wrote a song and went to Dylan's house in New York in '68. He was turned away. He went back 6 months later and was let in. Don't know what the song was, or what happened to it. My friend told me the first time he went Dylan was on speed.
So is anyone here acquainted in any way with Bob Dylan?