Times, they are a changin’..
Since the age of 14, I have been in awe of the the greatest song writer of all time - Bob Dylan. I feel I know the man so well that if I were to come across him, my first few words would be “Hey Bobby, how’z it going?”. To me everything in life is a Bob Dylan song.
The legacy of Bob Dylan will be unknown, today when he is alive or tomorrow when he departs. The grunge movement spread from Seattle to the entire world in the 90’s, and while it hit me during adolescence, Bob Dylan was put on the hold. The mind needed ruthless music, grunge seemed God send. In hindsight, every year it started getting worst as glam rock came back with massive love ballads that I would put on a tape for my girlfriend, and in return earn the title of being the coolest boyfriend in the world. MJ and Madonna’s pop, Nirvana and Pearl Jam’s grunge, Guns n Roses and Bon Jovi’s glam, Metallica and AC/DC’s metal, U2’s rock, Floyd’s psychedelic, everything came a full circle. World needed alternatives, and it led to the alternative music mushrooming all over the world, even in Pakistan. R.E.M and few other good alternative bands were always around, but in early 2000’s every new band sounded the same. Alternative died too, at least for me.
While all these bands entertained, they also ensured that Bob Dylan always kept coming back to my wandering mind through their work. GnR’s covering ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ at their peak, Pearl Jam doing their own ‘Masters of War’ cover, ‘Maggie’s Farm’ covered by Rage against the machine are just few examples of how Bob was always there across genre’s and in life and sweat of most bands. Even the great Jimi Hendrix covered ‘All along the watchtower’ back in the late 60’s, and that prompted Bob Dylan to jokingly claim “I write great songs for Jimi to play”. The brilliant English band Pink Floyd were not shy from covering a Bob Dylan number from time to time in their live shows. I mean a core psychedelic band singing songs of an old American folk artist, what else can I say about Bob?
He has written about everything including economy, depression, war, freedom, religion, love, hatred, infidelity, universe, pain, countries, money, death, luck, hunger, global warming, technology, people ..and a lots more. The million dollar words sang with a skillful voice, a well tuned guitar and a rusty harmonica makes Bob Dylan sui generis. The beauty about folk music is that it is real and in tune with the current times. Too many of his songs in the past have highlighted political issues and united people across the globe. Too bad Bob is not writing these days, but even if he does, the CEO’s would want him to rap them rather than sing them.
Death of rock, bailout packages, Twenty20 cricket, Global warming and Bob’s silence… times, they really are a changin’.
Very nice and true, inspired by the book ?
No, inspired by the lack of real music around these days. This generation needs a Bob Dylan too, we live too much into gadgets, stocks and fake entertainment.
First of all, Guns n Roses waz NEVER a glam rock band like bon jovi.. Appetite for destruction was/is one of the greatest rock records ever made and there is only one ballad on that record and it’s not just any ballad it’s “Sweet child o mine”. So yea PLEASE don’t say G’n'R was glam rock, they might be really bad now, because Slash (the man who defines rock n roll!!) is not there anymore….All in all agree, with this article…Bob Dylan is by far one of the greatest SONG WRITERS to have lived…but I won’t say that he waz a great singer. And the reason why I say that is because most his covers are more popular than his own versions.Jimi’s all along the watchtower, and g’n'r’s Knockin on heaven’s door and some people might also say (I don’t) that rolling stones version of “Like a rolling stone” are better than his own versions. That’s what I think, he waz definitely one of the greatest song writers but his covers are more famous because as a singer and instrumentalist he wasn’t as explosive as Guns n Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana e.t.c.
@Mamoon: I knew putting GnR in a glam rock category would create reactions. But here is my defense. I agree, Appetite for Destruction was great, we all lived on it. But its not just about an album,the word glam includes their lifestyle, over the top glam videos, more ballads (November rain, Don’t cry, Patience..), teenage egoe’s within the members.. all this go a long was in making them glam. Back in early 80’s Bon Jovi were so hard (Slippery when wet..) that the reputed Rolling stone magazine presented them to the world as a metal band, not true at all.
Coming to Slash defining Rock n Roll, its a joke. You need to go back to the history of Rock n Roll. Guys like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Ray Vaughan, Angus Young, Billy Gibbons are few names of the greatest rock n roll guitarist of all time.
I agree with you that Bob’s covers are more popular. Its simple because they were covered by more popular bands at that time. GnR covered Knockin on heaven’s door at their peak, the whole world heard it and 90% people did not even know its a Bob Dylan cover because dylan wrote that in 1973 when A)most of us were not even alive B)There were less mediums for music to travel. Just because GnR’s version was more popular, does not mean it was better.
B/w, you raise some interesting points. It was fun defending article for the first time. Keep coming back..
hmm….I agree with you about the videos part, and that’s one of the reason why the band broke up but about the lifestyle yeah it’s true they were a bunch junkies but aren’t all amazing artists junkies?..Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and the drummer from Led Zepplin (Jon Bonham?)..to name a few.. heck Pakistan’s greatest poet, Allama Iqbal was also big junkie for that matter….But the biggest difference glam rock bands like Bon Jovi, Poison and Motley Crew and other good original bands is that for them the music comes first!!! and for this reason I wouldn’t put G’N'R in the same league as Bon Jovi and Motley Crew…I don’t know much about Bon Jovi but Motley crew sang only about girls and booz and drugs and I would also put Atif Aslam in the glam rock section because all of his songs are written for 14 year old girls (Aadat, Teray Bin I haven’t heard any other song but I’m sure they are along the same lines!!)….where as songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Civil War, Dust n Bones, Ain’t it fun, Breakdown, The Garden, Live and Let Die e.t.c were not about that…In welcome to the jungle video they are dressed up like members of a glam rock band because welcome to the jungle is a song about LA (and city life in general) and at the time glam rock bands were the biggest thing in LA….Also they played knockin on heaven’s door BEFORE they became famous, their performance of that song at their concert at ritz (Video Here) became really famous and thats why they put it on their next album which came out in 1991. In many ways they ended the glam rock scene in LA after their debut album! Another way to distinguish between glam rock and real hard core bands is by looking at whose music is dead and who is still alive. Poison and Motley Crew are dead and atif aslam’s music will die pretty soon as well but Guns n roses (the original band) still lives today. I bet you $100 if they were to reunite today they would be one of the biggest (maybe after Zepplin) bands today, they might also be bigger than Rolling Stones. and keep in mind they only made 2 albums (Appetite and Illusions), 1 EP (Lies) and a punk cover album. All the other bands have had at least 4 albums of original material.
I totally agree with you: Slash is definitely not the greatest rock n roll guitarist but in my opinion he was the last old school straight out hard rock guitarist to come out? I don’t think there has been anyone since then and to be honest that dangling cigarette and the top hat is just so cool and original..but anyway this point is arguable and the answer will be different depending on whom you ask. I just said that because he is guitarist who inspired me to pick up the guitar back when I was 16!!!!
Maybe your’e right, but don’t you think if he waz better as a singer than his own versions would be more popular…I mean “come together” by Beatles was covered by Aersosmith, “Born to be wild” by steppenwolf was covered by Hinder (not a very famous band) and there are other countless examples where the covers are not as famous as the original!!…Don’t get me wrong I still like his singing in a lot of his songs but I still think as a singer he wasn’t very good definitely not on my top 5 list…
The content is limited ‘at best’ for all these rock bands. I mean it was only Dylan who could write about the tragic life of the great boxer ‘Ali’ in his song Hurricane, to the desperate political situations, to condemning wars, to heart breaks …and so on. And he could write multiple different songs on the same subject. Its unfair to include the content of the song in judging the glam quotient in a band. U2 has written many love songs, but no one will ever label U2 as a glam rock band. I see your point about GnR singing on some varied subjects, but to me it was all glam. Plus as you admit, the GnR archives are so limited, we can’t make any judgments.
Slash may be the last old school rock guitarist, I give that to you. But not what you said earlier about him defining rock n roll. And I admit, he was so cool, that we all wanted to be like slash back in day. But again, he had a higher glam quotient that was part of the entire GnR package from LA. Honestly, I don’t see any difference between Bon Jovi of the 80′ and GnR of the 90′. Unfortunately GnR did not lasted long enough, so we will never even know how much gas they had in their belly.
Coming back to Bob as a singer, he did just enough to keep his music alive. The GnR version of knockin on heaven’s door sounds good because it came out 20 years after the Dylan’s version. The whole music recording, equipment, studio, production scene went through a sea change in 20 years. Dylan’s voice (or the lack of it) has got nothing to do with it. I agree though that Dylan was a lot better writer than a singer, but I’m glad he chose to sing his own gems. There is a simplicity in his voice that is hard to find these days.
Bob dhillon..ye punjabi gane bhi gata hai kya?
Ha. Yeah he is originally from bhatinda.
the song Hurricane about Rubin Carter no Ali
@Ankush: Correction accepted. Thanks!
Leave your response!
Puja's Blog
Archives
Subscribe via Email.
Recent Comments
Most Commented
Most Viewed