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
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….
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| Forever Young photos by Douglas Gilbert |
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
