Bob Dylan turns 70 on May 24 and he continues to defy expectations while enjoying another artistic and critical renaissance. Alan Corr pays homage to a true original
What have a 13-year-old YouTube sensation and a soon-to-be-seventy singing legend got in common? Well on the face of it, not a lot: Rebecca Black and Bob Dylan are not just separated by the great gulf of age but by two totally different music industries and cultures.
And yet when Black released Friday, a harmless but weirdly hypnotic ditty about living for the weekend, earlier this year the spectre of Dylan loomed into view. An enterprising online prankster recorded a cover of the song in the croaking and battered style of the Zim, photo-shopped a picture of a fake vinyl pressing, and shoved it up on YouTube, claiming Black’s sugary viral hit was actually a cover of a Dylan song left over from the legendary Basement Tapes of 1975.
The hoax video has since had over a million views and inspired Dylan fans to get in on the gag and reminisce about when they first heard it, either in prison or Vietnam or after bumping into the great man at his Woodstock homestead in the late sixties. One YouTube viewer named Dobermite wrote: “I completely agree that this is quintessential Dylan. He describes the dilemma we face between forward-thinking enlightenment and backward-thinking prejudice in this powerful metaphor.”
What a hoot! The point here is this - even after fifty years, Bob Dylan is still held up as the High Priest of all that is serious and meaningful in rock’s long and rich tapestry, the benchmark by which fluffy pop should be measured. As Dobermite proved, Dylan was once again having the last laugh. Once again because Bob Dylan has been having the last laugh for most of his remarkable life.
He was never a great guitar player, much less a great singer but by sheer force of will, Robert Zimmerman made his own legend at an early age, recasting old songs as new and single-handedly heralding a new age for rock `n’ roll. He has been caustic (Positively 4th Street, It Ain’t Me Babe), he has been tender (Just Like a Woman, Lay Lady Lay) and he has been seeped in the mystic (Sad-eyed Lady of The Lowlands) but he has also always known the importance of self mythology and the need to always keep several steps ahead of his deeply-committed audience. He has also always known what that audience wants.
However, the question hangs in the air like the snare shot that intro-ed his finest moment, Like a Rolling Stone - is Bob Dylan still relevant at 70? It’s tempting to divide his long career into bite sized units - the protest phase, the Woodstock years, the break up albums, the religious period - but the truth is that Dylan has held steadfast to his original vision like few other artists.
This has not stopped Dylanologists (an academic industry has sprung up around him that is worthy of Joyce and Yeats) poring over his every utterance and seeking to divine meaning in his spectacularly opaque and opulent lyrics.
Dylan’s superb, impressionistic memoir Chronicles provided few answers for those interested in cold hard facts about his background or his motivations. No one should have been surprised that it was written in the wildly fractured and non-linear style of some of his greatest songs, the very songs that provide the ultimate measure of his greatness.
If the fateful motorcycle crash in1966 which broke Dylan’s neck (and his stride) had killed him, he would have become a legend up there with his early outsider heroes, Brando and James Dean. It is true that the blistering, vertiginous period between `62 and `66 is his legacy but he’s still out there and no, you don’t have to look harder; you just have to bother to look.
You dismiss Dylan at your peril. During his last fallow period twenty (twenty!) years ago I remember my jaw dropping and my ears drooping to the sound of Wiggle Wiggle but he returned seven years later with the towering Time Out of Mind. His output from the 1980's is continually being revised and reviewed and he, or his record labels, continue to release official and unofficial bootlegs from a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration.
Let’s end where we started: is Dylan still relevant? Well, Adele’s delicate and serene cover of his To Make You Feel My Love has seized a whole new generation of music lovers and it was rumoured to be the song chosen by Kate and Wills for their first dance at their wedding. To uber Dylan fans who’ve stuck with him through contradictions, writer’s block and wilful self-sabotage, he is still releasing quality work (consider 2009's Together Through Life) and he’s continually touring (he's back in Ireland this summer).
From the sullen punk of ‘65 to the impish sprite of 2011, Dylan remains mischievous, defiant, and shrouded in mystery. He also stands utterly alone.
All that’s really left to say is, happy birthday Mr Zimmerman.
His back pages
Our top ten must hear Dylan songs – an alternative Bob Dylan Greatest Hits
Boots of Spanish Leather (The Times They Are a-Changing)
Love Minus Zero No Limits (Bringing it All Back Home)
Desolation Row (Highway 61 Revisited)
One Too Many Mornings (Greatest Hits Volume 2)
Dirge (Planet Waves)
Up to Me (Biograph)
I Believe in You (Slow Train Coming)
Every Grain of Sand (Shot of Love)
Jim Jones (Good As I Been to You)
Working Man Blues #2 (Modern Times)
Alan Corr
