[Myrtle]

Methinks that there’s MUCH more to this issue than what is easily perceived on the surface…..I’ll throw my two cents in.

It seems to me that the “Bob Dylan’s” of music history are both creations and reflections of the times in which they lived.

Whether you want to discuss Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Woody Guthrie, Billie Holliday, Byrd, Brubeck or Frank Zappa, I think if you look closely at their work that you’ll find that their true genius is their artistic ability coupled with their ability to use that to communicate (in music & lyrics) their experiences and those are directly relatable to the times in which they lived.

I consider myself very fortunate………I grew up during the 60’s. The richness of the proliferation of the creative forms of “pop” music that exploded on the scene from the early 60’s to the mid-70’s is unmatched in any other time that I am aware of.

I got used to it, as it was my normative experience. The drought began (IMO) when the socio-political climate in the USA began to change. IMO, it was the Watergate scandal that burst the bubble, and as a society we’ve been on a downward slide since then. It is no wonder that music has followed that trend?

Now, before someone gets their panties in their crack and tells me that I’m full of crap, what I am NOT saying is that there has been no creative genius in the music field since the mid-70’s.

What I am saying again is that the total output of such has been greatly diminished as far as we in the ‘mainstream’ have been able to access it.

The rules of the game have changed. The “Music Business” is now all about what will sell the most the quickest, and FWIW, that’s all about catering to the lowest common denominator.

IMHO, there ARE Bob Dylan’s out there and they will be heard from, much in the same way that Woody Guthrie and Dylan were.

The great melting pot that is the USA has been tepid for a while, but the temperature under it has been slowly but steadily increasing since the mid-80’s.

There is a combination of events that have fueled the fire under that pot these last few years.

My only question is when will the cauldron reach critical mass?

In any case, those are my very brief comments on the subject and I’m looking forward to how some of the rest of the Loungers see it.

Myrt………