Posted on 05/30/2011 2:34:14 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
The times indeed are a-changin. Bob Dylan, the iconic American singer-songwriter of the 1960s, is now virtually unknown to more than one-in-three adults in this country.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of American Adults have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Dylan who turned 70 last week, while 24% view him at least somewhat unfavorably. This includes 10% with a Very Favorable opinion and seven percent (7%) with a Very Unfavorable one.
But 37% dont know enough about the author of anthems like Blowin in the Wind and Like A Rolling Stone to voice any kind of opinion of him at all. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
YAWN!!!!!!
Ping.
IBDCSP (In Before Dylan Can’t Sing Posts.)
GABRA.
Was he the guy on "Gunsmoke?"
It’s at least partly generational.
Some of these young people don’t know who Bob Dylan is, yet go on and on about “Lady Gaga”.
Whereas some oldsters know all about Bob Dylan, but don’t know what a “Lady Gaga” is or why they should want to listen to it sing.
I think the important point here is Dylan is just as popular as obama, rasmussen just put themselves out of a job.
I’ve been on the edge of my chair awaiting that poll result.
“The ants are your friends but their blowing in the wind.
The ants Sir, are blowing in the wind....”
I think he wrote “Don’t Think Twice” for The Wonder Who?
I heard he was arrested a year or so ago, down the shore. He was walking along minding his own business and some cop challenged him. She asked him his name, he said “Bob Dylan,” and she had no idea who that might be. He wasn’t carrying ID, so...off ya go!
In fairness to Dylan, he doesn't appear to have asked for any of this adulation. He just wants to write and perform his songs and be left alone for the most part. Nothing wrong with that. From all that I've read about him, aside from his skill at songwriting, he's just an average guy, although perhaps a bit naive in the ways of the real world, having been sheltered from it most of his life.
What I find amusing about some Dylan fans is that they spend so much time analyzing his lyrics. Dylan writes his songs in a stream-of-consciousness manner and they contain a lot of nonsense lyrics. His true gift lies in arrangement and melody. The lyrics are secondary to his art. He could mumble his songs (and he often does) and they will sound just as good.
“’My Back Pages’ is a bad poem. But it is a good song” - Robert Christgau.
"So I said, 'OK Bob, what are you doing in Long Branch?' He said he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. So now I'm really a little fishy about his story. I did not know what to believe or where he was coming from, or even who he was. We see a lot of people on our beat, and I wasn't sure if he came from one of our hospitals or something," Buble said.
(LOL. I could understand if it was Asbury Park, but Long Branch?)
Businessmen, they drink my wine, Blind men dig my herbs
Pffttt!!
Your comments about his art being in the arrangement and melody are so true - and largely overlooked by the lyric analysts and critics of his performance and singing style.
Dylan’s tours in the 1990s were marked by excellent musicianship - he surrounded himself with some real talent on stage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.