[Jim Moonan]

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I don't think Dylan has ever felt comfortable in his skin. I think he was very early on —pretty much when he moved to NYC — derailed from his innocence and natural artistic instincts and sent on a different trajectory.The people who so vehemently disagreed with his switch to rock knew that it meant the death of the Dylan that had been a folk poet. He managed, for a time, to stay connected to his muse (or maybe he found a new one), but it pretty much faded, to my ear, after Blood On The Tracks. But it's rare that an artist remains constantly fruitful over a long period of time. Dylan has produced an impressive catalogue that, for better or for worse, musically blueprints his life. I remember reading once that he never felt religious in the sense of being connected to any particular institutionalized faith (although he certainly explored them). Ultimately he sees music as his true religion. I like that. I think it can be expanded to be seen as art being religion and the artists as preachers (for lack of a better word). It means that I can be multi-faithful and combine genres to gain a better view of the invisible world. : )

Max, yeah I see what you mean about the sudden re-emergence of the myth-legend that is The Band. I am not nearly as tuned-in to the history of the differing versions of their role in Dylan's career as others here might be... I never knew of the conflict between Levon Helm/his wife and RR and never realized how RR-centric The Last Waltz was/is. There are always multiple versions of the truth I guess. (It reminds me of Lennon/McCartney and their struggle with each other to get their own versions of the truth out.)

Mark, thanks for the list of artists you follow. I've only heard of a few and am enjoying the discoveries. As I aged and became pre-occupied by my realities, my musical tastes went semi-dormant/stagnant. It's good now to have been roused into listening again to new artists.

I saw Dylan only once, in the early 80's —perhaps the worst period during which to see him perform. He was hip-deep in his Christianity phase and not making much sense. I went in hopes of hearing some of the songs that, even to this day, blow me away. To this day, when I hear the opening chords/notes to "Like A Rolling Stone" I practically rise out of my seat and salivate. When I first heard it, listening to "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" was like smoking opium (which I've never done but imagine to be dreamy).

James, fantastic vid of Dylan performing "Tangled Up In Blue". That song, too, has a catalytic effect on me.

Btw, I love his early folk music and still consider it to be some of the best music/poetry he's written.
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[Jim Moonan]

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I came across this interview of Dylan with a Time Magazine reporter. It's not the only time I've heard Dylan belligerent. He's barely coherent in his arguments... I don't know... I wonder sometimes...
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[James Brancheau]

He's 78 now, Mark, and I'll betcha he's still approximately the same ass he was at 20 something. Except at 78 he probably knows not to talk quite so much. Doesn't take away from what he found and gave us. A vessel, Ginsberg described him in that Scorsese documentary. I'll go with that.

[Tim McGrath]

My three favorite Dylan albums are "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited," and "John Wesley Harding." Every song on those albums is a killer. All killer, no filler. "Blonde on Blonde" has enough great material for a single album, not a double. So it's half killer, half filler. I'm still undecided about "Blood on the Tracks," which puts me in a minority, I know. After this period, when his creativity burned so bright and hot, he seems, as Jim Moonan says, to have lost contact with his muse, although he never dried up completely. Almost every album he's made has at least one masterpiece, from "Song to Woody" in the beginning to the recent "Tempest." Many have two or three or more. But it's true that he never regained the heights that he reached in the '60s. Dylan himself said as much when, speaking about that period, he admitted he had no idea where all those great songs came from. Which is an aspect of true inspiration.

[Damian Balassone]

As a Dylan tragic for near on 30 years, am enjoying this thread very much - Tim, Mark, et all, you can keep going on about Bob as much as you like as far as I’m concerned. Favourite albums Tim: I find it hard to go past the 65-66 trilogy (i.e. Bringing, Highway 61, Blonde) and mid 70s resurgence (i.e. Blood, Desire), but a few others that spring to mind are the Complete Basement Tapes (6 CDS of stuff from those 1967 sessions with the Band - just stunning, a great artist at work), Bootleg Series 8 (which covers a fair portion of the latter day Dylan outtakes/rarities i.e. 1989-2006), Modern Times (from 2006) and Infidels (from 1983) - albeit an uneven album but with that enigmatic masterpiece 'Jokerman' nonetheless. I’ve even got an unworthy piece out there somewhere in cyber space that uses the prism of the Joker/Jester/Clown to examine Dylan’s music.

[John Riley]

I read an interview the other day. The young woman being interviewed apparently has a novel out that I will never read and I'm sorry to say her name slips me. She was so unpleasant and yes women have the right to be unpleasant but it doesn't work on women any more than it works on men. Anyway, in the course of the interview, she said that she thought Beyonce should have won the Nobel Prize instead of Bob Dylan. I remember my poor, unsainted mother telling me that I was so open-minded my brain had flopped out of my head. Of course, I blew it off, but now I think I'm beginning to understand what she meant.

[James Brancheau]

I was reading closely until beyonce. I couldn't pay attention after that because apparently I had a stroke.

[Tim McGrath]

Beyonce has already received the Nobel Prize in physics.

https://humoroutcasts.com/2015/nobel...y-trouble-man/

[Jim Moonan]

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Just to add yet another twist to this thread, I prefer Bruce Springsteen over Bob Dylan. There. I said it. Not Born to Run Springsteen. Nebraska Springsteen. Greetings From Asbury Park Springsteen. Darkness On The Edge Of Town Springsteen. And the storyteller Springsteen.
If it were a matter of being stranded on a deserted island with either Dylan or Springsteen's music, I think I'd go with the Boss.
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[John Riley]

I just drove through the country listening to “Mr. Tambourine Man” and a few other Dylan songs. No one, no one, has ever written songs like those. At the same time these songs were recorded Coltrane was opening the sky with new jazz. Is there anything that matches what these guys were doing out there today? I would truly like to know.