Friday, May 8, 2009

"If you believe in this world, you're stuck"

At The New Ledger, Sean Curnyn [of RightWing Bob.com] approves of Dylan's new CD and, in "Bob Dylan: Keeping It Together," explains one of several reasons for his continued success:
Together Through Life, the album just released by Bob Dylan, has entered both the U.S. and U.K. charts at the number one position, and is at or near the top of the charts in numerous other countries across the world. Dylan appears to be doing something very right, in commercial terms, at the ripe old age of 68, but I question whether even he has any firm idea of what that might be. One thing for which he doesn’t get much credit, but which I think has paid off for him in the end, is his consistency. ....

I think that his consistency extends to his tastefulness (in musical terms), his instinct for spontaneous and dynamic creativity in the studio, and his particular way of looking at the world in his songs. Although all of these qualities are apparent on the new album, it is the latter one that is perhaps the easiest to contemplate in print.

In a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone magazine – following some skeptical remarks about globalism and world peace – Bob Dylan said the following:
But none of this matters, if you believe in another world. If you believe in this world, you’re stuck; you really don’t have a chance. You’ll go mad, ’cause you won’t see the end of it. You may wanna stick around, but you won’t be able to. On another level, though, you will be able to see this world. You’ll look back and say, “Ah, that’s what it was all about all the time. Wow, why didn’t I get that?”
The sentiments Dylan expressed in that quote twenty-five years ago are presented in another way in the final track of his new album, the caustic and darkly humorous song It’s All Good, which careens along with visions of crumbling buildings and suffering citizens punctuated by that dumb modern catchphrase that caught Dylan’s ear:
The widows cry, the orphans plead / Everywhere you look, there’s more misery / Come along with me babe / I wish you would / Y’know what I’m sayin’ / It’s all good!
The perspective is essentially the same as in that old interview. This worldly existence is enough to drive you mad, if that is all in which you have to believe. .... [more]
Bob Dylan: Keeping It Together | The New Ledger

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