[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[bclough]

Richard Hayes wrote:

>By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch Martin Scorsese's documentary
> on Bob Dylan just after reading that. The documentary is filled with
> numerous clips of an interview with a painfully inarticulate Bob Dylan,
> along with numerous clips of Dylan whining the unintelligible gibberish
> that he foisted off as lyrics back in the 1960s. The documentary filled
> me with a kind of wonder, as I marvelled at the fact that people
> actually used to enjoy listening to Bob Dylan. 

While I don't wish to stray too far into a topic that bears little direct connection with Buddhism, or enter into a debate on the merits of Dylan's lyrics, I thought I'd just say (and I suspect some others out there would agree) that my reaction to the documentary was quite different. I didn't find Dylan inarticulate at all; what I saw was a man who wouldn't respond to relentlessly repetitious questioning that aimed only at pigeon-holing him as "the voice of his generation" or "the conscience of the Sixties" and other such rubbish.  You could almost say that he saw that any answer to such questions would not edify how he wished to be understood.  (Here's the Buddhist connection: he refused to answer questions that wouldn't lead to edifying answers!--he said rather facetiously). Actually, I thought that he often suffered these foolish press people (who typically admitted that they hadn't even bothered to listen to his music!) with great humour, such as when he responded to one  "voice of a generation" question with the remark, "Well, actually I'm a song and dance man." And really, humour aside, that is all he was asking for: that he be given consideration as a creative and evolving artist, rather than a one-dimensional "protest singer." I still find many of his lyrics rich, evocative, and not infrequently profound. And the documentary showed that I am hardly alone here. People like Dave Van Ronk, Liam Clancy, and Joan Baez all show themselves to be highly articulate, yet each of them said at some point that Dylan gave masterful voice to much of what they were thinking at the time, but could not express nearly as well. Baez also added that those who are inclined to like Dylan tend to see layers of meaning in his work, while others just don't see much there at all. This has certainly been my experience in talking with others about Dylan over the years, and so I am not all saying that Richard is "wrong" here, but am simply noting with interest how people can have such opposing views of Dylan's lyricism.

Cheers,
Brad
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