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Hal Phillips's avatar

Dylan has always understood what we seem to forget about lyrics: They don’t have to make sense, or mean anything. They need to flow on and around the melody, to fit the meter. That’s it. Any further evocation, real or imagined, is gravy. Which is why the next expectational step — the idea, advanced by cultural critics, that these lyrics [might] make anyone the voice of anything, much less an entire generation — is absurd... Great stuff here, Vic, btw. Going to see the movie Wednesday. My parents (born in 1936 & '39) were huge Dylan folk. They went to see Baez on their honeymoon, August 1963. She pulled Dylan out of the audience to sing with her. That was their introduction to him. They were never fans of the electric Dylan, but neither did they have an expectation that he was obligated to please them forever, in the same musical form. The idea that folk, rock or pop stars would continue to operate as such, forever, is a late 20th century construct. And a largely unfortunate one. But now that we have it, all those angry folkies in Newport come of as, well, even more absurd!

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Lainey Williams's avatar

Wow, now I know I have to see it!!

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