“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.”
- Bob Dylan
Today is Bob Dylan's birthday. He turns 85. What can be said about Bob that hasn't already been? There are over 2,000 books written on the subject of Bob. Globally, more than a 100 universities offer courses of study on him. I've taken one myself: The Gospel According to Bob Dylan at Memphis Theological Seminary. The University of Tulsa houses The Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. The magnificent Bob Dylan Center museum is in Tulsa as well. Has it all been said? Nope.
Discussing Dylan is like discussing the universe; what do you want to focus on? You have to narrow it down: musician, poet, cultural high priest, shaman, icon, jester, riddler, mystic, author, Nobel Prize winner, enigma or that guy that mumbles and can't sing?
For my part, I'll admit that I was late arriving. He and his music had always been on my periphery, but I didn't start paying attention until I was 40 or so. That seems to be about the age that I started to notice and appreciate lots of other things too.
What do I appreciate about Bob? Well, of course I am fascinated by the transcendence of his lyrics. If you spend time with them they can be like studying Jewish mid rash or ancient texts: challenging, opaque, confusing, helpful. There is that. But, what has always intrigued me as much as anything is that Bob has done exactly what he's wanted to do, musically. He's never followed any trends, never bowed to pressure to do this or that, even early in his career. He's done something for a while and then he flips completely when he decides he wants to, from folk protest songs to electric rocker to country to Christian/gospel to blues to lounge crooner, whatever his mood. It's never mattered what's going on in music, Bob does what Bob does. If people don't like it, he doesn't care, never has. I find that uncommon in a world that gravitates to the trendy.
Bob was born before Pearl Harbor and he's still out there doing what he wants to do, even if nobody understands a word he says, literally or metaphorically.
What do you have to say about Bob?