Bob Dylan — Happy 84th!
Wait a minute. It seems like it was just yesterday Bob Dylan was turning 50. I was thinking, as I wrote a tribute to him, man, he’s getting old.
Now, 50 seems young.
This Saturday, Dylan turns 84, and he’s still playing concerts. This summer, he’s on the road with Willie Nelson, and they play three dates this July. One in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. You can still get tickets.
The first time I crossed paths with Dylan was in the 6th grade, 1966, when the junior high music book we sang from included Blowin in the Wind and Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man.
At only 25, Dylan was already a legend.
From there, we went our separate ways until I picked up Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits II in my junior year of high school, 1971. From then on, I was hooked, with the 8-track plugged into the tape deck, with the Minnesota native wailing — Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again — with my ‘66 Mustang convertible top down, cruising to Virginia Beach to soak up the rays, was there any better time for a teenager to be alive?
No.
Granted, the Viet Nam War dampened that period of time to some degree, but as far as music was concerned, it was an epic period, and Dylan could rhyme a verse like nobody else.
From Tangled Up in Blue:
Early one morning the sun was shining
I was laying in bed
Wond'ring if she'd changed it all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough
And I was standing on the side of the road
Rain falling on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through
Tangled up in blue.
Born a Jew in Hibbing, Minn., with the given name Robert Zimmerman, Dylan was born to write songs (he took his stage name from the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas).
Dylan, a poet with a guitar, a piano, and a harmonica singing “Tangled up in Blue” and “Hurricane” and “Desolation Row,” there are too many songs to recount, considering he’s been an official songwriter now since his first album, Bob Dylan, came out in 1962.
His first album contained only two original songs. By the time his second album came out a year later, most of the songs were his own, including Master’s of War, A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, and he was well on his way to becoming a living legend before the age of 24.
Always ahead of his time, Dylan was one of the first white people to march with the blacks in the south over civil rights. He was one of the first Americans to speak out against the Viet Nam War, and he wrote songs that pointed out the stupidity of wars in general — John Brown, for example:
And I thought when I was there, ‘God, what am I doing here?
Just tryin’ to kill somebody or DIE tryin'.’
But the thing that scared me most, when my enemy came up close,
I saw his frightened face looked just like mine.
In a 2004 interview, Ed Bradly, RIP, from 60 Minutes, asked Dylan where he came up with his songs. So many. So much talent in both music and lyric.
Dylan said it wasn’t him.
I mean, he said, and I’m paraphrasing, how could I come up with these lyrics at 23, which he turned into “It’s allright, Ma, I’m only bleeding?”
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Bradley asked Dylan why he was still playing the road, so to speak. At the time, 2004, Dylan was 63.
“You’re still out here doing these songs, you’re still on tour…”
"I do,” said Dylan, “but I don’t take it for granted.”
Then why are you still doing it? Bradley asked.
“Well, it goes back to that destiny thing. I made a bargain with it a long time ago, and I’m holding up my end.”
Bradley asked him what the bargain was.
“To get where I am now,” said Dylan.
Bradley smiled and said, “Should I ask who you made the bargain with?”
Dylan laughed a little. “With the…you know, with the Chief Commander.”
Bradley laughed, too: “On this earth.”
Dylan: “On this earth and in the world we can’t see.”
Later, some crazies would insist that Dylan was talking about Satan, not God; but based on his spiritual songs, his other comments made over the years, he’s only recognizing what can only be described as his God-given talent.