James Miller summed Bob Dylan up Best when he said the "He could irritate, and engage. He could provoke an argument, cause a furor, polarize a tight knit subculture like the folk community while making music an art form that demanded for its sincere reception something like the shock of conversion." I find that a perfect summation of Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan to me cannot be categorized or pigeonholed within a single genre or ideology. He is his own in every sense of the word and whatever that is it doesn't matter. I've always been fascinated by what happened when Dylan played his electric guitar and the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 accompanied by an on stage band. When he began to sing Maggie's Farm the crowd goes hostile shouting jeers such as "Sellout,"and "Play Folk" music. Pete Seeger becomes so incensed he threatens to pull the electrical wiring out of the wall, while srceaming and shouting. All this because he decided to play in a way that didn't fit into the "folk" ideology of its time. Dylan was inspired by Woddy Guthie, and fell into the folk music scene, touting songs that were expansive lyrical poems. But I've always felt that Dylan played songs for himself first and foremost and it was the people who listened to them that extracted meaning out of them and interpreted them in their own way regardless of what Dylan meant, consciously or not. But at his heart Dylan was still a musician, where as Pete Seeger only used music to promote a Utopian folk lifestyle. That's why Seeger was outraged that Dylan didn't play the humble folk guitar and wear the customary work shirt and blue jeans of the working man as a show for solidarity. Because it threatened what he was trying to create for himself and his followers. Its hard to understand now because their is virtually no mainstream music that has any ideology other than to sell records. And if an artists establishes themselves through one genre of music, then abandons it, like lets say Taylor Swift did with country or whoever they are embraced as reinventing themselves. And that's what Dylan did, he continued to do what he wanted and play what he wanted, regardless of whatever genre it was and if he hadn't, he would have be a footnote in folk music history, like Peter, Paul, and Mary, or The Kingston Trio. Because the ideology of folk music could only sustain itself for so long before becoming tired and played out.And ultimately that's why Dylan was able to sustain his creativity through the late 60's and 70's and beyond making in my opinion some of his best work, Buckets of Rain, Knocking on Heavens Door, Lay Lady Lay, Hurricane and my personal favorite from Wonder Boys, Things Have Changed, and the great stuff he did with The Traveling Wilburys etc. Music that transcends genres.
I think one reason why I like Bob Dylan so much is how he evokes emotion in his music. His voice although instantly recognizable, doesn't have a masterful vocal range, but he is able to pronounce and emphasize words, that gives them meaning, beyond what other artists can do. Like James Miller points out in how Like a Rolling Stone on the page is a song that just lays their, but how Dylan drags out and pronounces "How do you FEEEEL" it turns the question into an insult." So for me every time I listen to his songs I notice and interpret things differently than I did when I heard them the first time. Its like rereading a good book, or re-watching a movie and discovering more than you realize. His songs give you more to think about, whether its about life, or love, or politics or all of it and I cant say that about much of the music I hear on the radio right now.
