Dylan’s Mind Out of Time

Part of the hype surrounding Bob Dylan’s new record, Modern Times, is his fascination with a certain industry-approved singer, whom he names on the record’s first track: “I was thinking about Alicia Keyes, couldn’t keep from cryin’, . . .I’m wonderin’ where in the world Alicia Keyes could be.” And I’m thinkin’. . .THIS is the artist that floats your boat these days, Bob? Oh, boy.

Then, in a recent Rolling Stone interview, he says: “I remember what that Napster guy came up across, it was like, ‘Everybody’s getting music for free.’ I was like, ‘Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothin’, anyway.’ I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really.” I love Bob, though I know you really can’t take anything he says at face value. Still, I’m floored by the ignorance of his statement, because there are so many artists worth hearing now. I find his lack of awareness depressing.

As the Alicia Keyes thing indicates, Bob only seems to know the music of people he sees at award shows. His understanding of music today must end there. (Anybody remember Dylan had a similar fascination with Fiona Apple in the 90’s?)

Dylan’s words are the quips of a man in love with his own guile. “The stuff that trained me to do what I do, that was individually based. That was what you heard – the individual crying in the wilderness, so that’s kind of lost too. I’m talking about artists with the willpower not to conform to anybody’s reality but their own. . . .I don’t know who else does it beside myself, to tell you the truth.” Bob, I wish I could show you that there are individuals crying in the wilderness everywhere. They’re ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Bob also said in that interview, “I own the sixties.” Of course, he’s right about that. But he doesn’t own this day. Instead of being a spokesman for the luckless, the abandoned, and forsaked, he is, at this point in his career, just a spokesman for himself, and that’s too bad.