Friday, May 20, 2011

Bob Dylan (May 24, 1941)

I really don't see how Bob Dylan, much as I like his music, can mean much as a Jew when he can't seem to make up his mind what religion to be. I think I decided this when I heard his Christmas album a couple of years ago. I thought it was terribly unmusical, really a travesty on his early work. As a reviewer in Intelligent Life Magazine put it: "As he wheezed through “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, he sounded more than ever like a croaking drone."

I agree with the Intelligent Life summary of Dylan:
"He has spent a lifetime defying expectations. When the fans wanted him to remain a folkie, he went electric. When they prized his presumed atheism, he went Christian. When they turn up hoping for folk anthems, he gives them the blues. Inside the old man, a sullen teenager is still trying to get out. As he said himself: forever young."

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