Mr Bob Dylan’s Nobel Literature prize

Political choice too - in todays rather scary world of extreme, fearful and narrow governments, who are giving into the voices of fear.

 Bob wrote of our common humanity, of tolerance, of inclusion and diversity, harmony.  Play a song for me Bob, play it questioning, sometimes angry sometimes full of wonder. Play it loud and deep.. The answers may yet be blowing in the wind.

Bob wrote of Masters of War, of a hard rain a going to fall, of love conquering all, of important freedoms,

He tied himself to the nearest tree, with the deepest roots.

Play it loud now Bob for all the disenfranchised, for those who cannot be heard, for the weak, for the blind….

 

Forever Young photos by Douglas Gilbert

 Journey to Becoming:  the Travelling Journeyman 

 FOLK SONGS spoke to him most directly… Dylan looked for songs that make you question what you’d always accepted, that break hearts, have power of spirit.

We are in a constant state of becoming.

He always believed in the constant state of becoming, that you must always travel and never arrive, that the road does not lead to the truth - the road is the truth.

The times writer Bryan Appleyard wrote,  ‘Not only does Dylan make great art, he inspires it I others.’

‘When you got nothing you got nothing to lose,

You’re invisible now, you go no secrets to conceal.’ 

His voice was full of honesty about life - yes life is tough at times - but also his voice and words are full of hopes.  I missed Dylan the first time around.  I was too young for his first albums while I remember his songs, Blowin In The Winds, Mr Tambourine Man and Like A Rolling Stone - although these songs were often sung by others on the radio. In 2009 I watched Scorceses' informed, clever and inspired documentary on Dylan and what an 'ear' opener that was and from then everything changed for me - thank you Scorcese! 

Times they are A-Changing

You never arrive.

Words change their meaning.

Time changes everything

Can’t be wise and in love at the same time.

I read these notes he wrote for Broadside 1962. And this is it for me too - those who see wrong but walk on by.   “"Too many people are telling me where the answer is, but oh, I don't believe that. I still say its in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper , its got to come down some time, But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not many people get to see and know it.. and then it flies away again, I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those who turn their heads away when they see wrong and know its wrong.............."

It is all about spin when there is no vision or passions, that's what worries me the most...about centralizing power and in so doing restricting our basic human rights and freedoms, its very very scary. We have a system in place with no checks and balances to the power of the 'Crown' or Royal perrogative that resides with our prime minister. I read the Tory's in Westminster want to restrict our Human Rights and ban Extremism.

We have to value our independent, informed and free thinkers – they are few and far in-between.

Dylan, "People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient and then repent... "

Is it the large media companies and their accountants who only want artists to play safe and who sing of the MOR and everything's OK with nothing too controversial? What would they make of a young Dylan singing Masters of War today? Would he even get a label deal?  I guess only in the folk circuits – how did Dylan get heard!

Where are any young singer songwriter with a voice of grit who might challenge assumptions. After all what is art is it doesn’t challenge?

One of the greatest Biographers of Bob Dylan was the award-winning Scottish journalist Ian Bell (who sadly died in 2015). I went to his talk on his book Time Out of Mind at Edinburgh book festival in 2015.  My BLOG on Ian Bell - http://www.musicfootnotes.com/search?q=ian+bell

Dylan wrote on political issues

Dylan wrote on political issues - but he fled from being tied to any one ideology or to men in suits and straight jackets.  He went straight to the heart of things, never skirting around the edges or pretending.  He looked at things from all the angles - he questioned and illuminated weakness, falseness, beauty and all the shades of grey,

He wrote songs that have had the most impact on issues such as those who peddling war - most remarkably in "Masters of War"

"Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul."

He wrote songs such as "You Gotta Serve Someone" which looks so cleverly and insightfully at what motivates us most.  

When I feel have questions and I feel confused over ignorance, I turn to Dylan's true, honest and questioning voice... His songs are A great reassurance in an often highly confusing world - and the knowing there are poetic voices of truth out there - even when the truth may not be what we might want to hear.

Quote Dylan, "There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They has got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt."

I read these notes he wrote for Broadside 1962 - and this is it for me too - about those who see wrong but walk on by. 

"Too many people are telling me where the answer is, but oh, I dont believe that. I still say its in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper , its got to come down some time, But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not many people get to see and know it.. and then it flies away again, I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those who turn their heads away when they see wrong and know its wrong.............."

It is all about spin when there is no vision or passions, that's what worries me the most...about centralizing power and in so doing restricting our basic human rights and freedoms, its very very scary. We have a system in place with no checks and balances to the power of the 'Crown' that resides with our prime minister.

Quote Dylan, "People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient and then repent... "

Beverly & John Martyn

Martyn soothed the soul with his folk blues

The early 70s were a golden time for new music albums.  In 1973 singer songwriter and expert guitarist, John Martyn, released a defining British album of the 1970s Solid Air. The title song was a tribute to Nick Drake. He developed a new sound of acoustic guitar through a fuzz box, phase shifts and Echoplayer first shown on the album Stormbringer.  

Martyn’s music exhibited feelings of serenity, freedom and rapture that he craved in his life. In 1967 he recorded his experimental album London Conversation outside, which gave the record a free, unconstructed feel. .
I was going to write this blog about John, but when I started reading about him I discovered he gained much from his wife Beverly Kuter (which then led to my blog on woman and art).

I read recently about Beverly Martyn (or Bev Kutner) who had worked with Paul Simon, Nick Drake and Jimmy Page before she met John. I was surprised to hear of their song writing collaborations, her being a partnership with John and then her being left at home with the children, a home on top of a hill. A home she didn't even choose. 

Apparently John Martyn wrote his best songs with Beverly Kutner, his wife, which she gets little credit for.  Bev played piano while they wrote songs together for the album Solid Air and John would say that he would ‘credit her on the next song!’

Beverly and Martyn recorded three albums together  - Stormbringer, Road to Ruin and Bless the Weather - before John was persuaded by his record label to go solo. Beverly was then left on the house on the hill to raise their children while John toured. When John turned to drink he became abusive towards her and after one threatening scene Bev decided to leave him after ten years of marriage.

....and yet John wrote the song May You Never with Bev, all very poignant really. 

May You Never has to be one of the all time greatest songs yet when the song  was released as a single in 1971 it didn’t chart. The end of his marriage to Bev signalled the end of their classic songwriting decade.

Martyn was born Iain McGreachy and he gew up with an unsettled childhood. John spent his childhood between his grandmother in Glasgow and his mother in London. On tour Martyn was accompanied by jazz double bass player Danny Thompson for most of his music career. His blend of stand out bluesy folk and slurry style of singing gave Martyn a stand out sound on the 1960s folk circuit. Over his 40 year career John released 21 studio albums.
Times quote – ‘an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the lines between the boundaries of folk, jazz, rock and blues.’