I'm kinda sad. I really was wanting to like these early albums and be all enamored of this early ragged folky Dylan but I am mostly underwhelmed to be honest. I mean a smattering of great songs in there but a ton that just sounds like boring singer-songwritery filler for my tastes. Half the songs on the first album in particular made me wanna go all Animal House John Belushi on his guitar.

As far as the big anthems, I like Times They Are A Changing way better than Blowin' in the Wind. And, I also gotta come close to agreeing with Bloor that I am sure they are more meaningful if you were there but as someone who wasn't, they just don't sound all so special.

Listening to these albums does demonstrate to me why he HAD to go electric. Just cranking out a slew of these things and he would have been a narrowly-focused folky and never really amounted to the icon he became.

Coopers & Lybrand.

And?

No, there was a role obviously. I just think that the hippies try to take disproportionate credit for social action when most of 'em were basically just sitting around stoned and trying to get laid. Nothing wrong with that, but don't act like every time anyone doesn't like something it's off limits and some great grand key of progress.

Just a snide remark about how Dylan took one of his most celebrated songs that meant so much to people and US cultural history in general and sold it to an accounting firm.

i don't contribute much, but love these threads.

Well, I think there is a certain aspect of Dylan's personality that found that imminently amusing.

Besides, I can't hate on the guy for doing it 30+ years after it's release when it had become as ingrained in world pop culture (not just US) as Mary Had A Little Lamb or something.

Hyperbole that is uncharacteristic or you; this comes from your psychology, not your reason.

The civil rights movement has nothing to do with Baby Boomer entitlement. There was a time, in my lifetime, when Strange Fruit hung swinging in the breeze from trees all over the Heartland and The South, and "law" protected and defined white dominance. If that's megalomania, so be it.

I'll be honest (and Derris this isn't directed at you) and say this is what drives me crazy about the serious Dylan fans (and not so much the man himself) is that he gets a fucking pass on everything and it gets chalked up to him being clever and playful. He's the Jokerman, doing what nobody expects him to do, "Oh that Bob he's so deliciously clever! Imagine after all this time he sells it to an accounting firm Haw haw haw! And the reasons for selling the song are probably so brilliant and thought-provoking we couldn't get it even if we wanted.

I actually like a lot of Dylan stuff, just not so much these early albums as I have stated. And I didn't have to be there to look back at the history books see there were there significant changes in those years? I'd rank civil rights and women's right at the top of the lists. But, was Blowin' in the Wind responsible for those changes? Fuck no.

I'd disagree with that. I think you underestimate the role of music in people lives. I'm not saying civil rights happened because of a song but it was definitely a domino in the chain of events.

I actually like a lot of Dylan stuff, just not so much these early albums as I have stated. And I didn't have to be there to look back at the history books see there were there significant changes in those years? I'd rank civil rights and women's right at the top of the lists. But, was Blowin' in the Wind responsible for those changes? Fuck no.

Of COURSE it wasn't, and no one is dancing with that strawman but you. Well, Bloor is leaning hard in that direction, but he's ATL for crissake, and probably related to Ralph Dawson in some form or another.

And, nice of Obner to decide it was a good thing Dylan went electric. Hargh.
.

Yeah, these arguments against Dylan=social unrest and cultural revolution=sell out=artistry vs. ego=boomer-as-smothermother are running after windmills made of synaptic fear.

So Tenny, have you been on some new medication? You've been particular on target in recent weeks.

So what are we allowed to discuss then?

"Allow" is a staw man. There is no thread poh-leez. Argue back. Make the case. Make it well. Do what thou wilt and harm no one.

Is it blonde lebanese, or blond lebanese?

Oh, I know. There's no quieting down the ignorant masses .

I do get the feeling (and again this is not wholly directed at you, harry) that because the majority of us here were not present for his evolution that we'll simply never be on even ground in many Dylan et al. discussions and even the best arguments will be suspended with a temporal loophole. And it might not be an entirely unfair loophole either. I'm sure to fully appreciate Dylan as an artist, autonoetic consciousness might be necessary.