Bob Dylan Releases His Longest Song Ever.

[beefeater33]

I've been listening to this alot lately............. Boys, this ain't no drivel......... There's a wonderful message here in these lyrics. A bit of a warning and a bit of history. Johnson really was sworn in at 2:38.................. lot's of facts here. Might just be Dylan's MASTERPIECE................

 

[Bengel]

And another one out the other day

and I really like it too?

 

[puff_not_snuff]

And another one out the other day

and I really like it too?

We were already commenting on that trite drivel.

 

[Bengel]

We were already commenting on that trite drivel.

A Message from Your Friendly Neighborhood Python :: General Discussion

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[puff_not_snuff]

A Message from Your Friendly Neighborhood Python :: General Discussion

Ladies and gentlemen, Today's word of the day is: Ignore ig·nore /iɡˈnôr/ verb refuse to take notice of or acknowledge; disregard intentionally. "he ignored her outraged question" synonyms: disregard, take no notice of, pay no attention to, pay no heed to, pass over, shut one's eyes to, be...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[mso489]

Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" is similar in length, but is brilliant in not taking itself too seriously while taking on an underlying serious subject. In later versions, Guthrie kids about it being what is on the 18 minutes of tape blanked by the Nixon administration.

 

[davek]

It's possible that only old guys like myself will be touched by some of the eloquent lines in "I Contain Multitudes". It certainly contains some of the same somewhat jaded acceptance of a life's pain and joy you would find in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", for instance.

However, Dylan seems to think he can have minimal musical backing and rumble some poetry over that and that's good enough. It is good for a listen or two, but his masterpieces are *songs* where poetry and music mesh.

I'm going to rate it just like the other one. It needs a little editing of the lyrics and most definitely better musical backing. There's a masterpiece in there, but...

Cohen kinda does that beatnik, almost just recite the words, take on his stuff too, but Cohen's lyrics are tighter and even then, only his very best songs get much traction when he does them.

And covers done by others, more as songs, become the famous version. (Suzanne and Hallelujah for instance)

 

[brian64]

It's possible that only old guys like myself will be touched by some of the eloquent lines in "I Contain Multitudes". It certainly contains some of the same somewhat jaded acceptance of a life's pain and joy you would find in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", for instance.

However, Dylan seems to think he can have minimal musical backing and rumble some poetry over that and that's good enough. It is good for a listen or two, but his masterpieces are *songs* where poetry and music mesh.

I'm going to rate it just like the other one. It needs a little editing of the lyrics and most definitely better musical backing. There's a masterpiece in there, but...

I'd have to agree for the most part. While I appreciate his narrative in Murder Most Foul, it didn't seem to work nearly as well as a song as does the equally long Highlands...which I not only love musically, but has a much more refined lyrical structure for such a lengthy poetic narrative.

I thought "Multitudes" came off better as a song than MMF, both lyrically and musically.

But I must say these opinions are based on only one listen to each of them, so subject to change...

...but I'm reasonably confident in saying that neither of them come close as songs to the masterpiece that is Highlands.

 

[lightmybriar]

It's possible that only old guys like myself will be touched by some of the eloquent lines in "I Contain Multitudes". It certainly contains some of the same somewhat jaded acceptance of a life's pain and joy you would find in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", for instance.

However, Dylan seems to think he can have minimal musical backing and rumble some poetry over that and that's good enough. It is good for a listen or two, but his masterpieces are *songs* where poetry and music mesh.

I'm going to rate it just like the other one. It needs a little editing of the lyrics and most definitely better musical backing. There's a masterpiece in there, but...

Cohen kinda does that beatnik, almost just recite the words, take on his stuff too, but Cohen's lyrics are tighter and even then, only his very best songs get much traction when he does them.

And covers done by others, more as songs, become the famous version. (Suzanne and Hallelujah for instance)

Gosh what an absolutely incredible and stirring performance in that video. Brilliant song and brilliant presentation of it. Fantastic organ playing.

 

[Bengel]

I think the song that dropped yesterday is my favorite so far, and a new album on June 19. Life is good!

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

Do you suppose he's maybe channeling Grandpa Simpson's story-telling style?

 

[Bengel]

Out today, first listen in progress now
https://bobdylan.lnk.to/RARWAW

 

[davek]

Well the old men said the great big apple
Is rotten to the core
With Wall Street skimming from the till
While no one minds the store
And how could someone get so low
In a building so damn tall?
How long until there's nothing left at all?

While chunks the size of Delaware
Are falling off the poles
Our heads are buried in the sand
Our leaders dug the hole
Like junkies hooked on fossil fuel
Headin' for withdrawal
How long until there's nothing left at all?

[Chorus]
Don't you love what you got used to?
When we used to feel so free
Come and wait a while in silence, love
And watch it fall with me

 

[mawnansmiff]

It has always amazed me how Dylan managed to memorize the lyrics to his myriad songs when playing live. Quite a feat methinks.

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[canucklehead]

 

[mso489]

I sort of like the song on the album about Key West, slow tempo, lyrics emphasized. I joked that he is trying to earn the Nobel Prize in Literature. He's always interesting, and some of his songs are better than others, but he taps into the thoughts, emotions, and history of us all in a distinctive way, and actually reaches people, as most poets, novelists, and song writers don't. So it is sour grapes not to grant the man his iconic due.

 

[brian64]

LOL ... you can hear him thinking, "How the f*ck did I allow myself to be roped into doing this?"

Interesting timing this thread got bumped today. I just finished reading this piece on Dylan that some here may appreciate:

Fifteen years before publication of Solzhenitsyn’s most famous work, a 22-year-old Bob Dylan gleaned a startling truth about good and evil.

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart,” Solzhenitsyn wrote in his masterpiece The Gulag Archipelago. “And even in the best of all hearts, there remains…an uprooted small corner of evil.”

"My Back Pages": The Bob Dylan Song That Can Guide a Generation Lost in Protest

Ever the artist, Bob Dylan expressed his disenchantment with the protest movement in one of the last songs he recorded for his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. Historians say the song left many diehard fans horrified for its seeming refutation of the Jester’s earlier protest ballads.

fee.org

 

[Bengel]

Muses



Take me to the river, release your charms

Let me lay down a while in your sweet, loving arms

Wake me, shake me, free me from sin

Make me invisible, like the wind

Got a mind that ramble, got a mind that roam

I’m travelin, light and I'm a-slow coming home



Crossing the Rubicon



I feel the holy spirit inside

See the light that freedom gives

I believe it's in the reach of

Every man who lives

Keep as far away as possible

It's darkest 'fore the dawn (Oh Lord)

I turned the key, I broke it off

And I crossed the Rubicon



My own version of you



I can see the history of the whole human race

It’s all right there, it’s carved into your face

Should I break it all down? Should I fall on my knees?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me please?

Stand over there by the cypress tree

Where the Trojan women and children were sold into slavery

Long before the first Crusade

Way back before England or America were made

Step right into the burning hell

Where some of the best-known enemies of mankind dwell

Mr. Freud with his dreams, Mr. Marx with his ax

See the raw hide lash rip the skin from their backs

Got the right spirit, you can feel it you can hear it

You’ve got what they call the immortal spirit

You can feel it all night, you can feel it in the morn

It creeps in your body, the day you were born

One strike of lightning is all that I need

And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed

Shimmy your ribs, I’ll stick in the knife

Gonna jump-start my creation to life

I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years

Do it with laughter and do it with tears

 

[beefeater33]

Somehow, this song seems more relevant now..............
I'm a long time BD fan........... I still think he's telling us something here..........