Explain Bob Dylan to me.

[Gildwulf]

This song almost made me cry when I heard it. These are some of the most beautiful song lyrics ever written:

Love minus Zero

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.

In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.

The bridge at midnight trembles,
The country doctor rambles,
Bankers' nieces seek perfection,
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.

[ilya]

His voice vibrates at a unique and powerfully addicting frequency.

[Gildwulf]

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He's the Eminem of his generation

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LOL

[amplify]

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He's the Eminem of his generation

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You know, Subterranean Homesick Blues might be the world's first rap song.

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

[Peter Harris]

nasal

[bort411]

No one on this board writes well enough to explain it.

Look up something written by Cameron Crowe as a starting point. Also, as much as I hate it, just about the only thing Rolling Stone magazine has ever done right is unconditionally worship Bob Dylan. I'd check their archives. There has been some excellent stuff over the years.

[amplify]

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just about the only thing Rolling Stone magazine has ever done right is unconditionally worship Bob Dylan.

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and Hunter S. Thompson

[Hollywade]

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can't really see why is known as such a ridiculously talented musician

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I put his songwriting ahead of his actual musicianship. Name a really good song. It's very likely that he wrote it. Knockin' on Heaven's Door, All Along the Watchtower, Blowing in the Wind, House of the Rising Sun (I think), Mr. Tambourine Man (I think), etc.

[amplify]

He didn't write House of the Rising Sun (it's a traditional) but yeah. I think Blowing in the Wind is second all-time to Yesterday for being covered. Yesterday had like 3000 or something ridiculous though.

[ChipWrecked]

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Start with early stuff, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing it all back home. Move into Blonde on Blonde, The Basement Tapes, John Wesley Harding. Nashville Skyline. Get the mid-seventies revival, Blood on the Tracks and Desire. Enjoy a Christian album, Shot of Love or Slow Train Coming. Late period, grab Infidels and Time out of Mind. Live stuff, get The Rolling Thunder Review thing and maybe the Royal Albert hall thing.


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Excellent.

His Unplugged thing is one of my favorites.

Also the Freewheelin' thing, and the Highway 61....

Oh, hell, I could go on and on.

I would say for an introduction, Blood on the Tracks would be the one.