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Bob Dylan’s Modern Times
Bob Dylan
Modern Times
(Columbia Records, 2006)
No one’s ever been able to nail down who or what Bob Dylan is, and there’s really no need to start trying now.
Over the years Dylan’s been called a pop poet, a prophet, a visionary, a reactionary, and a revolutionary. He’s been called the voice of a generation. Yet, Dylan has denied being any of these things, as if accepting them as fact would cause us to stop believing; to deconstruct the Dylan myth, as it were.
In the ’60s and ’70s, critics seemed intent upon debunking that myth, while simultaneously lauding Dylan’s records as contemporary masterpieces. This was back in the days of free-form journalism, when capsule reviews spiraled out into full-blown theses, when there was no rush to be pithy or clever; no need to sum up a musician’s entire existence in 100 words or less.
It was a time when Jon Landau wrote, “Blood on the Tracks will only sound like a great album for a while. Like most of Dylan, it is impermanent.” It was a time when Paul Nelson declared that The Basement Tapes were “either King Lear or nothing.”
It was a time when neither critic could make up his mind about Dylan’s music anymore than he could about the man himself. But that didn’t stop either one from trying, nor did it stop them from giving both records a stellar review.
A few Dylan records received Rolling Stone’s five-star stamp of approval: Biograph (a five-disc box set), Love and Theft, and (most recently) Modern Times. And while The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home, and Blonde on Blonde predate the birth of Rolling Stone, each is ranked among the magazine’s top 100 albums of all time.
That, of course, raises the question of whether or not Love and Theft and Modern Times are on par with the iconoclastic Dylan records of old.
I mean, sure, there’s more than one type of masterpiece. And using Rolling Stone as the scale by which to measure all-things-Dylan may mean there are some serious calibration issues that need to be addressed. But the point seems to be that Dylan has not withered with age; that the same way Jordan developed his fade away jumper to compensate for aging legs, and Ali developed the rope-a-dope to outsmart opponents he could no longer outbox, Dylan reinvented his voice and his style when the old tools weren’t working anymore.
In a 2004 interview with Ed Bradley, when asked whether he can still write songs like “Blowin in the Wind” or “It’s Alright, Ma” Dylan responded by saying, “I can do other things now. But I can’t do that.”
Those other things include morphing in and out of genres, shapeshifting brilliantly in order to match the mood and tone of each composition. They also include maintaining the razor-sharp focus necessary to still produce stellar albums more than 40 years after Dylan originally announced himself on the scene.
In his review of Modern Times, Joe Levy writes, “There is no precedent in rock ‘n’ roll for the territory Dylan is now opening with albums that stand alongside the accomplishments of his wild youth.”
While that may be true, it’s mostly because there’s never been anyone like Dylan before, and if each of us were to live another hundred years or more, it’s entirely possible we may not see the likes of him again. He was born out of a time and a place that needed him as much as he needed it. Had Dylan come along today with the same fire and vigor, would he even be Bob Dylan? Could he be Bob Dylan? There’d be no vast counterculture, no draft, no Newport Folk Festival for him to electrify, no Medgar Evers or Hattie Carroll, no generation for him to be the voice of.
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21 Comments
Bob, you surprise me. I never expected to find you worshiping at the altar of Dylan. But “every word rang true and glowed like burning coals” — “Blood on the Tracks” may be the finest album ever made. I’ve listened to it regularly for more than 30 years, and I still uncover nuances I somehow had missed. Is it fair to compare Dylan through the ages? Your sports analogies are accurate. But Dylan adapts and transforms at the same time, without losing a step. If you’ve seen him in performance lately, poised at the keyboard as if ready to leap into the fire, you know it’s not the same artist. If you were discouraged when you saw him in the 70s, during his unintelligable phase, your patience has been rewarded many times over. I often wonder what the world will be like when Bob Dylan is no longer there to lead the way for so many. Let’s hope we don’t find out anytime soon.
“Dylan as man, myth, and music will be marveled at for generations to come.”
Thanks, VH-1! ;)
I jest, I jest!
Nice piece, Bob. I think that the late-model Dylan has done some amazing stuff…I don’t think this album was it, though. It’s a GOOD album, but not the best thing ever. Critics are too quick to give him great reviews because it’s like they are sitting around waiting for him to die and want to send him off with 5 stars…you may recall that he “almost died” right before Time Out of Mind…I wonder if that really happened sometimes. Or if it was a ploy
Regardless, the other thing that’s well worth noting on Modern Times is that he literally STOLE Rollin’ and Tumblin’ and also Trouble No More and gave himself writing credit. Almost no one brought this up, but it’s just blatant, barband robbery. And it’s not like it’s the first time he’s been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
You’ll find few bigger Dylan fans than me (everyone says that, of course. SOrry for the cliche), but I lost respect for him for stealing. At least Zep took the time to update arrangements and stuff.
That said, he’s the best
Dylan, like Roberto Duran in Boxing and so many others, has gotten a free pass as his skills have eroded over the years. We want him to be the artist he was and he keeps getting stellar reviews. But truth is Desire was his last listenable LP. Agree on Blood on the Tracks as a classic LP which stands the test of time
I wonder though, how many American’s will freely forgive their icon for liberally lifting other artists material and shamefully calling it his own?
How far does denial work, here?
“he literally STOLE Rollin’ and Tumblin’ ”
From whom?
I don’t think Dylan has ever sang as beautifully, in his entire career, as he did when he recorded “Working Man Blues #2″.
So much of his early material was lifted from the 1920’s and early 30’s acoustic blues, as Dylan himself says. He said that he opened his ears, and he is influenced. The Bible, Shakespeare, Alicia keyes…whatever. All have influenced him. Take the time to read the masterpiece “Chronicles Part 1″ and read the humility of a man, like everyone of us, full of self-doubt.
His material now, though different than anything you can possibly find on radio, is as brilliant as anything he did in 1965, 1975, 1989, and 1997.
How do you classify “Love and Theft”? What kind of music is that? Swing? Americana? Folk? Blues? Rock? All of the above, and then some?
Name another artist who has done that…
Happy Traum calls him “genius”. Musically, lyrically,…
What does Dylan now call himself? A craftsman, travelling and practicing his craft. Nothing more.
I thought that maybe Blood on the Tracks was his greatest; until I heard the NY pressing “Blood on the Tapes”. I had to turn it off; the lyrics were too painful.
In 1997, I thought the lonely stalker of Love Sick was dark, but brilliant, but felt hope at the haunting Lanois sound of “Not Dark Yet”. “Mississippi” was as lyrically playful as anything he has written.
Modern Times is a masterpiece that rivals anything in his long career.
Dylan can only be fully understood by astropysicists. One part exploding sun, one part black hole, one part recurring comet, and one part planet Earth.
nice piece, i woodenta touched it
i would have been all, “what’s up with the scarlett video?”
You can’t compare Dylan through the ages. In fact, Bob Dylan as an entity doesn’t exist : it’s just an everchanging mask, a filter that alternates Robert Zimmerman’s words and thoughts in order to make them match with itself. That’s why you just can nail Bob Dylan/Robert Zimmerman down.
He BORROWED “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ ” — and produced my all-time favorite version of the old chestnut. Which is what he did with, oh, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” almost 50 years ago. When I first heard that, not long after it appeared, I knew nothing of its history; that I later learned did not and does not diminish my appreciation … it’s the process
Have you even tried listening to Street Legal, Slow Train, Shot of Love, Infidels OR his last three albums? That’s a ridiculous thing to write. Even in the ’90s creative doldrums he released Good As I Been To You an album of mostly covers which is a pleasure to listen to.
While his voice is not what it once was, he has turned that into a strength with masterful phrasing.
I was referring to wlg’s throwaway remark.
Yes, I am a thief of thoughts
not, I pray, a stealer of souls
I have built an’ rebuilt
upon what is waitin’
for the sand on the beaches
carves many castles
on what has been opened
before my time
a word, a tune, a story, a line
keys in the wind t’ unlock my mind
an’ t’ grant my closet thoughts backyard air
it is not of me t’ sit an’ ponder
wonderin’ an’ wastin’ time
thinkin’ of thoughts that haven’t been thunk
thinkin’ of dreams that haven’t been dreamt
an’ new ideas that haven’t been wrote
an’ new words t’ fit into rhyme
(if it rhymes, it rhymes
if it don’t, it don’t
if it comes, it comes
if it won’t, it won’t)
no I must react an’ spit fast
with weapons of words
wrapped in tunes
that’ve rolled through the simple years
teasin’ me t’ treat them right
t’ reshape them an’ restring them
t’ protect my own world
from the mouths of all those
who’d eat it
an’ hold it back from eatin’ its own food
(influences?
hundreds thousands
perhaps millions
for all songs lead back t’ the sea
an’ at one time, there was
no singin’ tongue t’ imitate it)
t’ make new sounds out of old sounds
an’ new words out of old words
an’ not t’ worry about the new rules
for they ain’t been made yet
an’ t’ shout my singin’ mind
knowin’ that it is me an’ my kind
that will make those rules . . .
if the people of tomorrow
really need the rules of today
rally ’round all you prosecutin’ attorneys
the world is but a courtroom
yes
but I now the defendants better ‘n you
and while you’re busy prosecutin’
we’re busy whistlin’
cleanin’ up the courthouse
sweepin’ sweepin’
listenin’ listenin’
winkin’ t’ one another
careful
careful
your spot is comin’ up soon
Bob Dylan – 1964
I think Modern Times is as good as ANYTHING he’s ever done. Stealing? P-L-E-A-S-E!!! Where do you supposed the people he “stole” from got it???
I for one have never been able to listen to Modern Times the whole way through. I’m weary of the man, for one thing. He’s a crank.
The irony is that dylan don’t give a damn about your dreams, schemes or any hot air we feel the need to spout in his direction. Truth is that whenever people think they have this old troubador in a box he loses himself, he reappears, he suddenly finds he’s got nothing to fear, alone he stands with nobody near, when a distant trembling voice, unclear, startles his sleeping ear. It’s not his/your/their fault that modern society needs you to live in a vault/box or that everything needs defining like one would define a table full stop. Bob dylan is only as original as pure thought itself, which if you spent some time looking inward you will invariably stumble upon. Throughout the ages it seems that very rare human beings come along and remind us that no matter how much your peers will manipulate your thinking, there is a part of all of us connected to bob dylans work. Forget all about stealing, it’s like saying that since i speak english i have stolen words from a book or something. For me bob dylan is the connection in our modern times which echoes back into the dawn of human history. Thanks Bob.
I actually loved Masked and Anonymous. That’s right, loved it.
Whether Time Out of Mind, “Love and Theft” and Modern Times are 4 stars or 5 is a pretty hair-splitting discussion. They are all excellent to my ears and I find it thrilling to have Dylan speaking so potently to me in the present-day, rather than listening to something he did ages ago (which I do plenty of as well).
And to the guy who said Desire was his “last listenable LP” – in what way are Slow Train Coming, Infidels, Oh Mercy, and the three recent albums (to mention but the best) not listenable? I would not like to live in a world without “Jokerman” “Man In The Long Black Coat” “Everything Is Broken” “Gotta Serve Somebody” “Slow Train” and all the songs from the last three…
For it is I who is rappin’
At your door
If it’s you inside
That hears the noise
Ain’t talkin’ from Modern Times spits blood in Bush’s face and no one seems to have noticed. It’s one of his 20 greatest songs.