Bob Dylan - Tempest, Sept. 11, 2012

There's a shit in Hurricane.

"Hey Judas, don't make it bad-ass.."

Everyone's dreams have come true!

LEX ON BOB DYLAN!

Okay, great headline.

so proud, so smug, so uncomprehending

Yes but about lex.

so proud, so smug, so uncomprehending

that's exactly what i thought too!

bah ned xp

xpost Why? Cos he doesn't like Dylan and doesn't give a shit? In exactly the way many Dylan fans would feel about the lyricists he loves?

i tried to be nice, i said dylan had potential :)

'there are people who don't understand our music, so we can not understand theirs!' is not so rewarding a critical posture, ithappens.

trying to give dylan notes on the rudiments of vocal performance just makes you sound like you have broken ears.

That comments box thread is going to be an absolute humdinger.

I liked Dylan's last album. But Lex is right - this one sucks.

You make it sound like he would like the last one.

There's a serious point in the piece: if Dylan is the great popular artist of the last 50 years, should his art not be accessible to even those not steeped in"Dylanology"? I like classic rock. I have plenty of Bob Dylan records. I don't enjoy the records he makes now. Why does that make me the failure, rather than him?

how about neither of you?

we are all failures, let's be really real

We're all motherfuckers who can rot in hell.

I'll get me coat.

i know it's hard to ignore the slavish praise that the dude gets all the time now, but hey if it's not your thing, you probably shouldn't feel bad about it. funny thing about dylan being "the great popular artist of the last 50 years" is that he really isn't that popular, at least relative to other "popular" artists. he's got a certain cultural cache, but he's more like the ultimate cult artist.

Words are fit rigidly to the metre

lol lex I love you but you have literally no idea what meter is if you think this about Dylan. I'll be happy to show you metrical substitutions in, hazarding a guess here, every song he's ever written.

funny thing about dylan being "the great popular artist of the last 50 years" is that he really isn't that popular, at least relative to other "popular" artists

yeah this is something i mentioned - since 2001, when i first tried him out, he has literally cropped up in my everyday life (which is v music-oriented obv) two or three times max. literally two people in my social circles give a shit about him, i think. it's not like he's fucking radiohead or something

xp i intend to listen to no further b-dyl songs in my life i have sacrificed enough years on this

but what about When Bob Dylan dies

Lex I think writing about things you love brings out way better qualities of your writing, for me at least.....also it's pretty hard to believe you came to this album and writing this piece with anything other than a takedown in mind before your heard a note

Also it's not like this album is being met without criticism in the dylan fan camp

I’m a huge Dylan fan — and I like the album, although it doesn’t compare to Love and Theft or Modern Times — but I have no problem with Lex’s review. Most critics are far too reverential when it comes to reviewing Dylan (the 5-star RS review was as ridiculous as it was predictable).

What exactly do you think the Guardian were expecting when they commissioned him?

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING HERE, BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS, DO YOU, MISTER MACPHERSON?

What exactly do you think the Guardian were expecting when they commissioned him?

― Matt DC, Thursday, September 13, 2012 10:03 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Of course! That's why the whole thing is so boring

At least the npr interns thing had the charm of young kids that genuinely seemed to engage

all the guardian has got left is trolling its ageing beardie readers, basically

The way the question is framed is kind of interesting, I think.

I mean the Lex likes Leonard Cohen so it's not as if he's entirely opposed to engaging with literate old folky dudes who can't really sing.

Still, lyrics have always been key to my love of music – the deftly drawn character sketch, the well-chosen phrase that turns a song's narrative inside out, the intoxicating love of language, all excavating emotionally resonant insights out of words and melody

The thing is lex, Dylan used to be able to do all those things. He can't any more, admittedly, but there are plenty of examples of that kind of thing in his back catalogue

Haha and Tom Waits for that matter.

i dunno, i don't mind the "guy who doesn't care about bob dylan, what do you think about the new bob dylan album" approach, but this seems more like "guy who does not care about the last 80+ years of American music, what do you think about this album that is steeped in that music". (maybe i'm wrong, maybe lex is a huge carter family fan)

and that one (1) nick cave album

guy who does not care about the last 80+ years of American music

but i love nicki minaj

Today I learned that dylan isn't a very good singer and sometimes critically overpraised....man hard lessons....gotta pick up the pieces and start all over....*throws coat over shoulder, walks away down dirt road*

Well, Nicki Minaj doesn't seem to care about 400+ years of American slavery so it all fits.

Lex, with all due respect, is about the last person on the planet I'd turn to for an informed commentary on Bob Dylan.

or indeed on any planet

Tyler, lex likes a lot of the early old school hip hop singles too, like ”the rain” by missy elliot

what a completely worthless article!!!!

It is really amusing watching people attempt eyerolling boredom when they're clearly really annoyed.

Dude in the comments box has ruined the thread by claiming Dylan used to be the vocal equivalent of Marvin Gaye and Dusty Springfield, a challop so big that even the Dylan fans are pointing and laughing.

xxp yeah haha, i meant to write american folk/blues/country/rock n roll/r&b/jazz etc. whatevs! i think it's ok for some people to not like bob dylan. even if it makes you a bad person deep down.

I am absolutely sure that lex meant to set the matter definitively to rest.

I mean I think he was (was) a great vocalist in his way, not remotely a great singer

But he works with what he's got pretty well still

I cannot listen to cohen anymore

With waits, it's like if you sing in a fake voice for so long it becomes your real voice

Dylan's focus on set design and costumes at the expense of his principals' internal motivations and emotions leaves me cold

lex, how don't set designs and costumes reveal motivations and emotions?

"Dude in the comments box" double-ruined thread by dissing Celine Dion.

i intend to listen to no further b-dyl songs in my life i have sacrificed enough years on this

that's fine, but you shouldn't say things that are demonstrably not true just because they flesh out the number of un-nice things you want to say. your remark about meter is an "either this is true or untrue" one; it's untrue, not a matter of opinion.

I can't remember where, but there's a thread on ILX where someone drops the truth bomb that hardcore stans of people with 'difficult' voices (Cohen / Waits / Dylan / Reed / Murdoch) will always go "no you don't understand, the voice is the best part!"