Now You Know

 I have been reading with much interest all the comments, pro and con about the new Dylan movie, A Complete Unknown.  Many conflicting ideas and a multitude of takes, but that's to be expected.  What pleases me most is that there is renewed interest, especially among younger generations in the life and work of Bob Dylan. To discover this most prolific artist is always an adventure and a mind expanding experience.  Among the more bizarre reactions was one I read yesterday in which a young man wrote that after seeing the film Dylan seemed more concerned with getting laid than in writing and performing protest music.  I think there is a bit of projection going on there. In any event, a few folks, including myself, sent him lists of Dylan songs that are definitely social comment.  If you include songs like "Who Killed Davy Moore," there are many more than even Dylan contemporaries are aware of.  In two minutes, even the least aware Dylan fans can rattle off social comment lyrics written and performed during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War resistance years.  Enough said.  

In thinking back about those days, it occurred to me that Dylan's words and music contrasted so sharply with anything else at the time that any thinking person was hard pressed not to be blown away.  A quick look back shows us that in 1963, our transistor radios were blaring  It's My Party, My Boyfriend's Back, I Will Follow Him, Sugar Shack, and Rhythm of the Rain.  Of course, that same year Peter, Paul, and Mary's cover of Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind was on the list but well down the top 40.  Also present were some great MoTown recordings like Smokey Robinson's You Really Got a Hold On Me. 

My point here is not that the existing music was inferior to Dylan's music,  but rather completely different. When you grew up on some rather simplistic high school drama music or often sappy love songs, Dylan lyrics were mind blowing.  The world was calling this new generation and Dylan picked up the phone.  

Compare these lyrics from Oxford Town,

He went down to Oxford town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face was brown
Better get away from Oxford town

Oxford town around the bend
Come to the door, he couldn't get in
All because of the colour of his skin
What do you think about that, my friend?

Me, my gal, and my gal's son
We got met with a tear gas bomb
Don't even know why we come
We're goin' back where we came from

Or The Gates of Eden

The savage soldier sticks his head in sand
And then complains
Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf
But still remains
Upon the beach where hound dogs bay
At ships with tattooed sails
Heading for the Gates of Eden

And especially Hey Mr. Tambourine Man

Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone
It's just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind
It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you

The Times changed, dramatically.