Thursday, December 30, 2010

You Better Go Back To From Where You Came: A new blog all about the humor in Dylan lyrics

I was listening to Bringing it All Back Home the other day & thinking about the age-old claim that he is the "voice of a generation." Even the weird intro to his concerts says this. I've always wondered who it is that he got to record that strange message, but it turns out, at least according to the Wikipedia page about it, that he has a crew member read it every night. But that's not the point of this post; the point being that we're here to celebrate the weirdness that is Dylan's lyrics (& if you're lucky, random quotes from interviews & books). No where in that stage intro does it mention his humor.
"Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll. The voice of the promise of the 60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the 70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the '80s, and who suddenly shifted gears releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late '90s. Ladies and gentlemen — Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan!"
He's definitely written some funny shit, but no one ever talks about it. We always get "He's so serious," or "His commitment to social change is so important," or "If he just didn't mumble so much." That said, this new blog is meant to celebrate the humor in his songs. In each post, you'll get a quote picked @ random & then some rather uninformed commentary.
There have been books documenting the wit & witticism of everyone from Dan Quayle to Keith Richards & from George W. Bush to Chuck Norris. Never has the wit & witticism of Dylan been chronicled though, so here you go. Your 1st lyric post will follow soon.

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