While away in Greece I heard that Bob Dylan had reached his 70th birthday. .Now some years ago Leonard Cohen reached this milestone and as these days I tend to listen to Cohen more frequently than Dylan that should have a greater impact, yet somehow it doesn't. Cohen always seemed older, he belonged to a previous generation, he experienced life before rock n'roll. However Cohen somehow portrayed a life that as an eighteen year old I could only admire. Living on a Greek island, writing poetry and talking in a near religious tone about sex seemed a distant dream when I first heard Sisters of Mercy.
I came across Dylan quite early. I was fortunate in that a friend's older brother was a early devotee, and I spent many an afternoon sitting in his living room in Tooting listening to Dylan Lps. The Freewheelin'Bob Dylan with tales of Oxford Town and Talking World War Three Blues had instant appeal to my inquisitive mind.
By 16 I was listening to Blonde on Blonde. Dylan broke many rules, while not at the time appreciating how he "betrayed" the folk scenr by going electric, I did understand that songs weren't normally close to twenty minutes long. How I wondered at Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. I was thrilled by the lyrical images of "I want you" and Visions of Joanna seemed to take music to a level that I'd never experienced before.
The last album of Dylan's that I remember buying as it came out was Nashville Skyline. While many struggled with Dylan sings country. I joyfully sang along with Lay,Lady,Lay and I threw it all away.
In the mid 70s Dylan reached the zenith of his influence over me, the Blood on the Tracks and Desire albums were rarely fair from our hifi. A remember sitting at a party with some work friends and putting Blood on the Tracks on the stereo and singing along to the entire album. I can only assume that I and indeed many of the others were too drunk to care, as Jeater sings Dylan has never been widely acclaimed.
We saw Dylan at Earls Court in 1978. It was the only concert that I can remember queuing through the night to get tickets, such was the demand. He hadn't played in London for years and the this era was captured with the Live at Budokan album.
From the late 70's Dylan and I drifted apart. He fell into christianity and other singer songwriters wrote of life experiences that I understood to a greater degree. There have been occasional glimpses of greatness in his later years, the album Time out of Mind tackled growing older with tracks like Not Dark Yet and Trying to get to Heaven (before they close the door).
Dylan today tours at a rate unheard of to many younger performers. I won't see him in concert again, I want to remember him as he was. Some artists grow old with you, Dylan however, for me, is timeframed. Before I wrote this I checked my ipod and realised that there were no Dylan tracks on it. He has become an important memory, a part of what we have become, but somehow he has drifted into my past and not been carried with me into the present and probably not the future.
I came across Dylan quite early. I was fortunate in that a friend's older brother was a early devotee, and I spent many an afternoon sitting in his living room in Tooting listening to Dylan Lps. The Freewheelin'Bob Dylan with tales of Oxford Town and Talking World War Three Blues had instant appeal to my inquisitive mind.
By 16 I was listening to Blonde on Blonde. Dylan broke many rules, while not at the time appreciating how he "betrayed" the folk scenr by going electric, I did understand that songs weren't normally close to twenty minutes long. How I wondered at Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. I was thrilled by the lyrical images of "I want you" and Visions of Joanna seemed to take music to a level that I'd never experienced before.
The last album of Dylan's that I remember buying as it came out was Nashville Skyline. While many struggled with Dylan sings country. I joyfully sang along with Lay,Lady,Lay and I threw it all away.
In the mid 70s Dylan reached the zenith of his influence over me, the Blood on the Tracks and Desire albums were rarely fair from our hifi. A remember sitting at a party with some work friends and putting Blood on the Tracks on the stereo and singing along to the entire album. I can only assume that I and indeed many of the others were too drunk to care, as Jeater sings Dylan has never been widely acclaimed.
We saw Dylan at Earls Court in 1978. It was the only concert that I can remember queuing through the night to get tickets, such was the demand. He hadn't played in London for years and the this era was captured with the Live at Budokan album.
From the late 70's Dylan and I drifted apart. He fell into christianity and other singer songwriters wrote of life experiences that I understood to a greater degree. There have been occasional glimpses of greatness in his later years, the album Time out of Mind tackled growing older with tracks like Not Dark Yet and Trying to get to Heaven (before they close the door).
Dylan today tours at a rate unheard of to many younger performers. I won't see him in concert again, I want to remember him as he was. Some artists grow old with you, Dylan however, for me, is timeframed. Before I wrote this I checked my ipod and realised that there were no Dylan tracks on it. He has become an important memory, a part of what we have become, but somehow he has drifted into my past and not been carried with me into the present and probably not the future.
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