The Bob hits seventy thread!

[MrGongGong]

personally I find the wordyness of both a bit tiresome
though Van is (IMV) a far more interesting musician and less wedded to the (again IMV only !!) tired old "one man and his guitar" thing
for Musical interest (and great storytelling) give me Tom Waits any day

I suppose in some ways I "blame" Dylan for starting the whole "music is songs" thing , which seems to have taken over the world so that when you speak to many people about MUSIC they understand it to only be SONGS and nothing else , which is sad
but again I think i'm too young to get Dylan really though its nice to see a musician receiving acknowledgement of what is (despite my lack of enthusiasm for the genre) an impressive career !

[johncorrigan]

Really enjoyed Radio 4's 'Archive on 4' on Bob, particularly the bit about John Wesley Harding and Paul Morley's take on Bob the interviewee - but it's well worth a listen to hear the different takes people have on the birthday boy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0118brp

[Lateralthinking1]

I have been taking some time out to have a Bob Dylan morning. Caught the first of the R4 programmes and agree that it was good, even if the sound effects people went a little overboard.

I thought the Greil Marcus interpretation of "John Wesley Harding" was interesting. Prescient while also looking back, and ranging cinematically from the virtual wild west of the great outdoors to the comparative certainties of a living room, all the while featuring a small cast of characters who probably knew each other. I hadn't thought of the album in those ways before.

It was also lovely to hear Nanci Griffith speaking and focussing on Bob rather than Bob Dylan. So too to hear the Cerys Matthews comments on the historical basis of some of the songs. And I really enjoyed the contribution of the psychotherapist who had begged her parents at the age of sixteen to attend the folk and poetry evenings at the Pinder of Wakefield.

I caught Part 2 of Arena on I-Player and was sad to have missed the first part. It told the story of the acoustic to electric moments very well. There were also some fascinating clips of Britain socially in the early sixties, not necessarily as different from the current times as one might imagine.

Interestingly, as the whole business of celebrity in music took off, it seems that the musicians themselves were not overly keen on it. It wasn't just Dylan - Lennon and many others found it irritating. That is a significant difference. Many now crave it and even become it.

With the mentioning of Mike Bloomfield on "Highway 61 Revisited", one was reminded how so many didn't make it through the era of freedom -. "Its Not The Spotlight" etc. The Al Kooper contribution to "Highway" though was a splendid twist of fate and Al himself came across as a nice guy.

I have also watched the somewhat challenging documentary on AJ Weberman. It was quite difficult to sit though so much atrocious singing from doped up ex-hippies. Hard too to know quite what to think about AJ as a person. There were nevertheless some great lines in it - "They do acknowledge that I was the founder of garbology" and particularly "I don't know what it is with Dylan lately, his garbage has deteriorated" - as he is filmed going through his bins. Very, very. bizarre.

Martin's question about Bob and Van is a corker. It has to be Bob but it says so much about Van that the question could even be asked and make a lot of sense. A one word answer isn't enough. It needs a bit of explanation. The more I thought about it - similarities, distinctions etc - all the obvious points seemed less than obvious. This could therefore take some time!

[Lateralthinking1]

.....Incidentally, Radio 2 have a programme tonight to celebrate the birthday - I think this is part of the series also going out on 6music - and it might be tomorrow on R4 when Emma Freud looks more closely at the subject of Dylan and religion.

[johncorrigan]

.....Incidentally, Radio 2 have a programme tonight to celebrate the birthday - I think this is part of the series also going out on 6music - and it might be tomorrow on R4 when Emma Freud looks more closely at the subject of Dylan and religion.

....and at 9 tomorrow evening on 6, three hours of Bob including a couple of concerts it would appear. I also really enjoyed Nanci Griffiths' bit talking about Boots
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011p7wk

[Globaltruth]

If Bob and Van were fruits, what fruits would they be?

[Lateralthinking1]

Van is an apple, Bob is a fig. Next question.

[MrGongGong]

I really tried with the Dylan thing this afternoon on my trip down to Aldeburgh
but more or less all the comments were about the lyrics NOT the music
I get the Dylan as poet thing , fine but find the music does little for me ........ (unlike Van)
sorry
i'll leave you to it now

[gurnemanz]

I enjoy Schubert Lieder and Dylan songs about equally and play them with about equal regularity. They both have their duds and their masterpieces. If my arm were to be twisted, it would be Schubert, though, for the desert island.

[Globaltruth]

Van is an apple, Bob is a fig. Next question.

Now that Bob is old, tired and safe, who is the new Bob Dylan?