[Nicholas F.]

Dylan is a fine lyricist and a terrible poet. I own a book on Dylan-As-Poet that makes an interesting comparison between "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Ode to a Nightningale," though. Interesting and damn near irrefutable.

[Martin Rocek]

One of the bitterest anti-war songs is Country Joe's "Fixin' to die Rag"
(though hardly great poetry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeC...eature=related

This fits the genre of satirical anti-war songs written by soldiers--there
were many from WWI; see the discussion at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fish...ongs/les01.htm of the many
versions of "I Don't Want to be a Soldier".

I think that the Irish and the Czech's, having been under foreign domination for
centuries, have a lot of anti-war songs. The lyrics to one Czech song are particularly
funny:
(Rough translation):
Johnny, if you had obeyed your mommy,
you wouldn't wearing a saber at your hip
and a black horse, you wouldn't be obeying a stranger.

[Roger Slater]

I agree that Dylan's poems aren't great, if by "poems" you mean words he wrote to be read on the page and not sung to music. But for me the "poetry" of his song lyrics places him among the great artists of history, and I'm not limiting this observation to a mere handful of his best known songs.

Nicholas, what book is that? I'd be interested, although the parallels between Mr Tambourine Man and Nightingale leap out at anyone familiar with both, and I imagine have been independently observed by countless critics and listeners.

David, I'm very, very fond of Prine and Welsh, and would hate it if my preference for Dylan were interpreted in any way as a denial of their greatness and importance, but Dylan takes it to a whole new level.

[Rory Waterman]

Nick -- by Christopher Ricks? Like you, I've never understood the Dylan-as-poet argument - though he's clearly a fine lyricist.

Tim, I love that song, but I think the finest version of it is by the Pogues.

Are you familiar with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa1nG4ezPQ0&feature=fvsr

Or if you want it with a bit o' hwyl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UvQ52A7ksM

Billy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54bNI2WRgE

You won't like this an ounce, but it's an anti-war song right enough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0KzmoXvyek

[Rory Waterman]

I meant to add this - Robb Johnson's 'The Ballad of Vic Williams': http://blip.fm/listen/Robb+Johnson::...f+Vic+Williams

[David Rosenthal]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

David, I'm very, very fond of Prine and Welsh, and would hate it if my preference for Dylan were interpreted in any way as a denial of their greatness and importance, but Dylan takes it to a whole new level.

Look, I am a lifelong Dylan fan, and I don't think there is any denying his superheroic importance. But Prine and Welch never seem to fail to knock me over, and Dylan has a lot of clunkers IMO. So that leads me from time to time to say something like, "pound for pound, I think Prine is a better poet." Then I hear "Boots of Spanish Leather" again, or "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," or "Tangled Up In Blue," or.... And then I come back to my senses. Suffice it to say, Prine, and Welch for that matter deserve a lot more attention and praise than they get.

David R.

[Bruce McBirney]

Dylan's kept on writing some fine anti-war songs from time to time after "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Masters of War." Some that come to mind are "License to Kill," "Clean-cut Kid" and the Civil War anthem "Cross the Green Mountain" (one stanza of which is a reworking of part of a Walt Whitman poem).

So far as I know, his only poem (not a song) he's ever read in public was "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie." (At New York Town Hall in 1963. It can be heard on his album "The Bootleg Series 1-3." I think there's a tinny-sounding bootleg of the bootleg on YouTube somewhere that gives the general idea.) While the poem probably doesn't conform to any formal rule prized or followed here, its cumulative power, particularly as he delivered it, may make it one of the best things he ever did. The poem can be found at this site:

http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/last...-woody-guthrie

[Wendy Sloan]

Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier" was another Vietnam War era anti-war song.

The last stanza goes something like:

"He's the Universal Soldier
and he really is to blame,
his orders come from far away no more.
They come from you and you and me,
and brother can't you see,
this is not the way we put an end to war."

[Rick Mullin]

One of my favorite "contemporary" anti-war songs is "War on War" by Wilco, with lyrics, written no doubt by Jeff Tweedy, that come close to a direct quote from Montaigne. To win, you have to lose. To stay alive, you have to die. That kind of thing.

[Wintaka]

Stan Rogers "Barrett's Privateers":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-PQbdmQRwc

I'm not crazy about this cover but since he's already been mentioned...
John Prine's "Take The Star out of the Window":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFE4p...eature=related

-o-