Consider this ...
With respect to my quixotic and tasteless campaign for realistic assessment of sadly departed musical heroes, who will disagree with me that for a period of roughly ten days after his death, Willie Nelson will be a more important songwriter than Bob Dylan?
For people who like "both kinds of music-- country and western," you don't need to kill Willie to see he's more important than Dylan.
ReplyDeleteNobody in popular music in the world in space is more important than Dylan, with the possible exception of Paul (yes I know, I'm wincing myself, but look what he did between 1962 and 1970) McCartney.
ReplyDeletePresley is much, much more important than Dylan in the popular music world space.
ReplyDeleteSure, the black/white American musical divide would have been bridged, eventually, without him. But we'd still celebrate the one who did it.
The commercial/political lyrical line was crossed long before Dylan stomped on it. And the inscrutable/scrutable divide, too.
Dylan hagiography has an unfortunate tendency to ignore pretty much anyone with any awareness at all of music produced by contemporaneous artists with duskier complexions (apart from Gil Scott Heron. Now name another).
Dylan did do some rather nice work, of course. But we need to take a huge step back before we get into any sort of "greatest" discussion.
Curiously, I've seen this particular deficiency most often in British critics (I'm looking at you, Nick Hornby). They seem to regard Black American Music as something which ought to be curated by white British aficionados of "soul music", and not by any of the American negroes who have somehow managed to cobble together collections of those precious circular artifacts of a bygone recording era.
What I'm saying, I think, is that one ought to question the supposed cultural impact of a white college student who composed verbose folk music for an audience of white college students interested in folk music.
Presley's dead, and in any case the phrase Dan started with was "most important songwriter". The Beatles transformed popular music, and they did it under the influence of Dylan (also under the influence of Motown, admittedly, not to mention a great deal of weed). Importance of Willie Nelson as a songwriter?
ReplyDeleteClive James picked up "Best TV critic ever" and "brilliant, funny, twinkly-eyed man" the other day, although (HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE ALERT) he's since announced that he's not dying after all, or not right now anyway. Maybe he's holding out for "memoirist, poet, philosopher, sage", or at the very least "brilliant, funny, twinkly-eyed polymath".
Irrelevantly, for a moment there I misread the captcha instruction as "Please prove you're not an idiot". That ought to be written above comment boxes everywhere.
Och, Dylan's overrated.
ReplyDeleteI might rate Kristofferson and Parton higher as songwriters than Willie Nelson.
The capitcha seems to have a picture of a stick of dynamite, with a timer.
yes I know, I'm wincing myself, but look what he did between 1962 and 1970
ReplyDeleteYou could say much the same about Dylan.
It also happens in literature apparently; Nora Ephron, are you kidding me?
ReplyDelete