You Can't Do Something Forever

Came across this 2004 60 Minutes interview with Bob Dylan.  At 1:30 into it Ed Bradley asks the singer about how he wrote his early songs and whether he can still do so.  The 63 year old Dylan replies:

"I don't know how I got to write those songs . . . Well, you can't do something forever and I did it once . . . I can do other things now, but I can't do that".

The lyric he recites is from "It's Alright Mom (I'm Only Bleeding)", written in 1964, and which also contains the line, "But even the president of the United States/ Sometimes must have to stand naked".

It reminded me of something he wrote in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, my favorite musician autobiography, a non-linear, episodic, probably partly fictionalized account.  The 80s had been a fallow commercial and reputational decade, until he made a comeback in both respects, with the 1989 album Oh Mercy!, containing outstanding songs like Man In The Long Black Coat, Most Of The Time, What Good Am I?, and Ring Them Bells.  In Chronicles, Dylan recounts how producer Daniel Lanois, just off producing the Joshua Tree album for U2, told Dylan he should write some songs like Mr Tambourine Man for the new record.  Dylan writes that he can't do that anymore because he's not that person anymore.  He was right and that was a good thing.  An older guy, trying to recapture that style would devolve into a caricature.

As a teenager in the 60s, I liked Dylan and continued listening into the mid-70s.  After that I lost track of him and, to the extent I thought about it, considered his old songs kinds of lame and passe.  I saw him in concert with Tom Petty in the mid-80s and he was terrible.  In the 90s I didn't listen to any of his new records, or old ones for that matter.  He'd disappeared as far as I was concerned.

But when it came to starting Things Have Changed in 2012, the title and inspiration came from Dylan's song in the 2000 movie Wonder Boys (which I recommend):

People are crazy, times are strange
I'm locked up tight, I'm out of range
I used to care
But things have changed

With that, I started relistening to his old stuff and also exploring the post-1980 work which I'd ignored.  The result is the 36th post with a Dylan tag since THC started.   You can find them all here.

I now appreciate the scope of his achievement.  Bob Dylan is a towering figure; there is no one quite like him.  It's not just the songwriting.  It's how he managed the transition over the years.  That post-80 material contains some wonderful songs, many interpreted brilliantly by other acts, particularly by female artists.  His books, Chronicles and The Philosophy Of Modern Song are top notch, as is his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.  An interesting and reflective man.

Some favorite Dylan covers by women artists:

Sarah Jarosz: Ring Them Bells

Chrissie Hynde: Sweetheart Like You

Bettye Lavette: Seeing The Real You at Last

Jenny Lewis: Standing In The Doorway

Nanci Griffith: Boots Of Spanish Leather

Mavis Staples: Gotta Serve Somebody

Patti Smith: Changing Of The Guards

Adele: Make You Feel My Love 

Susan Tedeschi: Lord Protect My Child