Sybil wrote:
>Recently, my 18 year old son posed a simple question to me for which I
>really didn't have an answer, but it did set me to thinking. We were on a
>long car trip during the holidays, and I put on a Dylan tape - Greatest Hits
>I. My son has very good taste in pop music ("Neil Young is the MAN") and he
>appreciates Dylan. But he brought up an interesting point, at least to me.
>He asked me why Dylan became "like, so famous". My erudite response...Well,
>just listen to it. Doh!
>
>I guess to a young person Dylan looks like a very unlikely rock star - not
>particularly attractive, strange vocal style, little to no personality. Was
>it right time, right place, right person? Or is there more to it? During
>Dylan's early career I was just a pre-adolescent wee thing totally consumed
>by Beatlemania, so I really don't rememer what impact he made back then.
First, he was a charismatic performer and personality and a great
songwriter, as well as a voice of moral authority; it's worth going
back to his first two albums to hear just how strong he was out of
the gate.
More important, Dylan introduced to pop music three hugely
influential ideas: 1) singing voices could sound individual rather
than conventional, 2) popular song lyrics could be compared to
poetry, 3) finesse doesn't matter. These ideas inspired countless
musicians to follow in his footsteps, including artists of
incomparable stature like the Beatles.
In addition, he established the notion of the lone-wolf visionary in
popular music - not a band, not a heart-throb front man. He became
the prototypical singer/songwriter (even though he was imitating
Woody Guthrie) and practically invented the stance that innumerable
singer/songwriters adopt today.
Best,
Ted
--
------------------
Ted Greenwald
senior editor
Wired Magazine
520 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.276.4974
