Knock Knock Knocking on Dylan's Door

I resisted Bob Dylan for a long time.

I thought he was a wordy poet with mediocre musical skills. I found his body of work historically interesting, but I'm not often in the mood for nostalgia. I was aware that others had deified him, but I wasn't ready to worship at his shrine.

Instead, I pursued other musical interests. One of those interests eventually brought me deep into the folk and blues tradition. These old traditional songs have more to say to us and about us than the musical product filling today's airwaves. They speak more directly to me.

The deeper I went, the more I kept running into Dylan. Fifty years ago, he'd been where I was, exploring the roots. Having unwittingly absorbed his influences, I found myself more and more attracted to his music.

Last year Dylan reissued most of his albums in a remastered CD/SACD format. I bought the Limited Edition Catalog Box Set, which contains all the remastered disks, and have since been slowly absorbing Dylan. Few of his albums grab me immediately, but so far all have inexorably grown on me as I've continued to explore them. There's a timeless quality to most of his work. Far from serving as a soundtrack to the 1960s, Dylan's music serves as a soundtrack to life. I have a feeling I'll be listening to these disks for a long time.

I've particularly enjoyed two recently issued Dylan concert disks -- Bob Dylan Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall Concert") and Bob Dylan Live 1975. These did grab me immediately.

Anyways, last weekend I devoured "Rock's Enigmatic Poet Opens a Long-Private Door," in the Los Angeles Times. Music critic Robert Hilburn somehow got Dylan to explain how he writes his songs. A few choice snippets:

• "I always admired true artists who were dedicated, so I learned from them," Dylan says, rocking slowly in the hotel room chair. "Popular culture usually comes to an end very quickly. It gets thrown into the grave. I wanted to do something that stood alongside Rembrandt's paintings."
• "To me, the performer is here and gone," he once said. "The songs are the star of the show, not me."
• "I'm always trying to stay right square in the moment. I don't want to get nostalgic or narcissistic as a writer or a person. I think successful people don't dwell in the past. I think only losers do."
• "I don't think in [literal] terms as a writer. That's a fault of a lot of the old Broadway writers. ... They are so [literal]. There's no circular thing, nothing to be learned from the song, nothing to inspire you. I always try to turn a song on its head. Otherwise, I figure I'm wasting the listener's time."
• "I don't spend a lot of time going over songs," Dylan says. "I'll sometimes make changes, but the early songs, for instance, were mostly all first drafts."
• "[I]t doesn't really matter where a song comes from. It just matters where it takes you."
• "What happens is, I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it's a proven fact that it'll help them relax. I don't meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song."
• "I wrote 'Blowin' in the Wind' in 10 minutes, just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records. That's the folk music tradition. You use what's been handed down. 'The Times They Are A-Changin' is probably from an old Scottish folk song."

Alas, the interview offers no explanation for Dylan's decision to shill women's underwear.