On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Barry Mazor wrote:
> Part of me still feels we were better off with the 2
> minutes 8 seconds, and I say this as a known Dylan fan.
Absolutely. Removing the time barrier has made people lazy. Now you get
songs that start with sixteen bars of empty chord changes, extra verses
that add nothing, bridges inserted just to have a bridge, endless
repetitions of choruses. The good thing about music that was oriented
toward quick singles was that everything had to make a difference. Too
bad we've lost that ethic.
(Even Dylan, when he was good and breaking the time rule, had it. I'd
say there's nothing extraneous in the 7-1/2 minutes of "Visions of
Johanna," whereas there's lots extraneous in the 8 minutes of "Idiot
Wind," done eight years later.)
Will Miner
Denver, CO
