No worries, he also says that everybody must get stoned.

He said that stoned thing a while ago. Could he be right again?

Also, let's not let Bob forget that he's the genius who wrote, "Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed," and then used "you can have your cake and eat it, too," all in the same song.

Hey, even Up With people could beat this great gem from his canon:

"All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you."

And, never forget, Dylan's the guy who helped get Hurricane Carter out of prison so he could kill again.

Maybe Bob's turning into the Bill Cosby of rock and roll.

Sounds like Bob needs to start a subscription to Stereophile.

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Also, let's not let Bob forget that he's the genius who wrote, "Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed," and then used "you can have your cake and eat it, too," all in the same song.

Hey, even Up With people could beat this great gem from his canon:

"All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you."

And, never forget, Dylan's the guy who helped get Hurricane Carter out of prison so he could kill again.

Maybe Bob's turning into the Bill Cosby of rock and roll.

He's actually criticizing the CD medium. He's also the genious behind the lyrics of "Visions of Johanna", and behind the masterpiece album "Time out of mind". By far, the best song writer of modern times...

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He's actually criticizing the CD medium. He's also the genious behind the lyrics of "Visions of Johanna", and behind the masterpiece album "Time out of mind". By far, the best song writer of modern times...

I'm with ya, amigo, I just wanted to pull a chain or two.

I sure wish I could hear his new album the way he heard it!

Cheers.

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No worries, he also says that everybody must get stoned.

C'mon guys, the name of that tune was "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", which I believe was what the song was actually about.

RG

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No worries, he also says that everybody must get stoned.

C'mon guys, the name of that tune was "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", which I believe was what the song was actually about.

RG

What, we can only quote song TITLES?

The song is obviously about rainy day women #12 and #35...D'uh!

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Also, let's not let Bob forget that he's the genius who wrote, "Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed," and then used "you can have your cake and eat it, too," all in the same song.

Hey, even Up With people could beat this great gem from his canon:

"All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you."

And, never forget, Dylan's the guy who helped get Hurricane Carter out of prison so he could kill again.

Maybe Bob's turning into the Bill Cosby of rock and roll.

In case you missed it, Robert Baird wrote a brief blog on this related subject entitled "A Saxaphone Somewhere Faroff Played" HERE

RG

I read that entry and can relate.

Most groups of people do remain silent after someone quotes Dylan.

Same goes for Percy Shelley or Emily Dickinson or even good old Byron.

Heck, quote any poetry to a group of men and see how it goes.

Bleh. He sounds like somebody who only knows about modern music based on what's on the radio.

"Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn't make his records if you had a hundred tracks today." Did he even listen to SMiLE? Which was, IIRC, recorded with primarily 1960s technology and techniques, and sounds quite good, even on CD?

I think this is a very good confirmation of what we already know - that overzealous compression is a direct cause of reduced music quality - but this has nothing to do with CDs vs vinyl, except in that vinyl doesn't tolerate as much compression as CDs.

He also wrote, "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours..."

And, "Honey jus' give me one more chance to ride your air-o-plane."

And, "The pump don't work 'cause the vandal stole the handle"

And he jumped a string bean...a remarkable feat of agility, if you think about it, especially after a joint or two. Thanks for the memory, Buddha. Dylan could fill an anthology the size of the OED.

The real question is whether Dylan's "Modern Times" is "atrocious" or not. We already know about the balance of most "modern" music, both from the artistic and audio standpoints. Can Big Bob stem the tide to mediocrity? We'll know in less than one week.

Love him or hate him, he's never mediocre. Like Leonard Bernstein, he either scales Parnassus or falls on his ass, nothing between.

Just a quick note.

I managed to take in a Dylan show last Friday, August 18th, in Winston-Salem, NC while I was down there dropping off my younger daugther for the start of her freshman year at Wake Forest University.

As is typical of a live show Dylan on the eve of a release of some new material, he did not play anything from the upcoming "Modern Times" release. Nor will Dylan be playing anything from "Modern Times" until August 29th, the official release date. The band knows the material but Dylan won't play it until after the 29th. That's what he always has done and this time is no different.

As for the actual show, Dylan's voice is in somewhat better condition than it was last summer on his tour with Willie Nelson when even his most ardent fans had to admit that he was barely able to sing. Now he can at least sing in that thin, reedy, whiny croak of a voice. His band consists of two guitars, bass, drums, pedal steel guitar (and some organ, I believe) and Dylan on keyboards and harmonica.

The song selection was quite diverse and spanned Dylan's entire career from "Blowing in the Wind" right up to "Love and Theft's" "Summer Days" with some rare chestnuts thrown in for good measure ("Boots of Spanish Leather").

Having seen and heard my fair share of "icons" over the years I've come to classify them into roughly two groups. The first group consists of those that are there to entertain the audience and put on the show that is expected of them. Examples of these types of performers are Madonna, James Brown, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and Louie Armstrong. The second group consists of those performers who are there to present their music on their own terms and don't really care whether or not the audience is entertained. Examples of these types of performers are Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor, Bob Dylan and Bjork (depending on her mood, she could just as well be in the first group).

Notice is the above is not a critique, just an observation. I saw Ray Charles once very late his career and I enjoyed his show immensely. I've also seen Miles Davis and Cecil Taylor many times and have enjoyed their performances as well.

Bob's right, at least in that there are a lot of bad sounding recordings still being made. The question is "why". If Buddy Holly could put out great sounding music in the fifties (that btw, still sounds great on CD) then why are so many bad sounding pop recordings being turned out today? I tend to think too many people in positions to influence the quality just don't care. Artists, producers, bean counters, whoever. I guess they think most consumers don't care either. And considering that most people are satisfied with mp3 sound over cheap portables or boomboxes, they are probably right.

I bought a Sugar Ray CD that sounded so bad I thought a tube or two had blown. I've been told it's supposed to sound that way. For real!?

Issue 1008 of Rolling Stone Magazine features Bob Dylan on the cover and an interview conducted by the very talented writer Jonathan Lethem. (If you haven't read his novel "Motherless Brooklyn", you're in for a real treat.) The quote which started this thread is in this interview along with many other "soon to be classic" Dylan gems, which I won't spoil by revealing here.

As funny as this may sound, I've never found Dylan to be quite as enigmatic as many of his critics make him out to be. Dylan more often than not makes complete sense and as always has a rather good time poking fun at his detractors.

I find the key to understanding Dylan is to just take him at his word when he says that he doesn't have all the answers and is still looking, just like everyone else. This has been a constant theme throughout Dylan's interviews and writings since the 1960's when the role of spokeman for his generation was thrust upon him, a role which he never asked for nor accepted.

I'll resist the temptation to wonder if he's been listening to too much of his own "music" and "singing".

My kids loath listening to their rock/pop/rap crap CDs on my quality system. They prefer their rubbishy mini-systems or their iPod downloads. This is because the producers have specifically engineered the mastertapes to sound good on the inferior and inexpensive media available to and/or favored by teenagers. Once these 3rd-rate production values are exposed by playing on a transparent quality system the target audience (and Dylan) are able to see them for what they really are. Shoddy, compressed, and distorted transgressions of the original.

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I'll resist the temptation to wonder if he's been listening to too much of his own "music" and "singing".

My kids loath listening to their rock/pop/rap crap CDs on my quality system. They prefer their rubbishy mini-systems or their iPod downloads. This is because the producers have specifically engineered the mastertapes to sound good on the inferior and inexpensive media available to and/or favored by teenagers. Once these 3rd-rate production values are exposed by playing on a transparent quality system the target audience (and Dylan) are able to see them for what they really are. Shoddy, compressed, and distorted transgressions of the original.

How true, how true.

Case in point. A good friend of mine asked me if I could make her a copy of the song "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, which has been on the pop charts and getting radio play for the past several months. Well with the help of my local library I located a clean copy of the CD and ....(you fill in the blank (CD)). More to the point, the song's audio quality sounds pretty good when played back in one's car or on a crappy computer stereo system, however, the song is just about completely unlistenable on my main stereo system - a complete P.O.S.

By the way, I noticed this well before all these Dylan comments were published.

You have to admit though, Buddha, that Dylan should know an atrocity when he hears one having created a good many himself over the years. They're being created now for the same reason he did it - lots of people buy them any way.