General Music Chat

... Bobby Zimmerman was certainly good but the best ? The best to you perhaps and that is good.

Thanks,I agree.

I do here by declare that I believe Bob Dylan is the best lyricist that there has ever been.
Don't ask what song I like the best,I can't answer that.Yes,even better than the infamous Lennon/McCartney.

its not enough to tell us that.. can you tell us why?

That's easy,He is the best.Why?because he is the best.

Yeah Joe I agree Bob is the best songwriter in your opinion.

Its not my opinion, but I respect whoever you think is.

Thank you JW we agree to disagree.

My all time favorite is Tangled Up In Blue! Brilliant song! Brilliant lyrics! Brilliant story! The thing about BD is his ability to paint a picture in your mind with song. That to me is his genius! You don't have to be a great singer, great guitar player or any of that. You just have to be able to touch people's souls thru song!

I believe we have someone who gets it.I totally agree with that.How's that steer J.

For me the real sign of a genius songwriter is that so many people can interpret your music so differently yet they all sound great. The Byrds, Hendrix, Manfred Mann, Bryan Ferry and many others took Dylan's music and made it their own. As far as his singing, he may not be great but he sings from the heart, which is a whole lot better than being a great singer and saying nothing.

I could not have put it better I don't know why you and Jeff argue so much you both have always got a good view of things.

Dylan is a great songwriter and his lyrics are very imaginative - as others have said his stuff is best when interpreted by others ....
I guess my fav lyricist is Robert Hunter

Robert Hunter is very good I like all the stuff He did with the Greatful Dead.tiger Rose one of my favs.

At one time did Bob have a "ghost writer"?

At first nobody really cared about him.

Then for a short time everyone loved him

Then for a long time everyone hated him.

Now everyone is split on this dude.

RG He's 6 yrs older than me and I liked him when I first heard him and I like him now.Saw him 2 yrs ago and he reaffirmed to me that know matter who with or how I'll always be out playing somewhere

IT'S the Rolling Stones. I'm not in love with one song they have written... But where else can you get a poolside album written in a couple of beers that sells. A million years later they are still producing. I agree with all the artists you guys have pointed out. They are great.

But the Stones... Think about it.

Keef is the man with me.

Although...

Who other than Dylan would write something like 'Tombstone Blue?"

I remember in my one and only attempt at education, scrawling on many a desk, "The Sun's not yellow - it's chicken!"

Oh yeah - and "Can you find me a hole to get sick in?"

Who else could have written "Memphis Blues Again?"

Yeah Dylan was and is, great.

Talbot

Keef is the man with me.

Although...

Who other than Dylan would write something like 'Tombstone Blue?"

I remember in my one and only attempt at education, scrawling on many a desk, "The Sun's not yellow - it's chicken!"

Oh yeah - and "Can you find me a hole to get sick in?"

Who else could have written "Memphis Blues Again?"

Yeah Dylan was and is, great.

Talbot

Mike I don't have to say anymore,I Think that you have made it clear for everyone."Steal a little and they through you in jail,steal a lot and they make you a king".

I do here by declare that I believe Bob Dylan is the best lyricist that there has ever been.
Don't ask what song I like the best,I can't answer that.Yes,even better than the infamous Lennon/McCartney.

its not enough to tell us that.. can you tell us why?

That's easy,He is the best.Why?because he is the best.

Not very helpful..but I guess I'll just have to accept that answer.

Paperdog,I appreciate that.Saw the sitar,do you play it in your set.

Paperdog,I appreciate that.Saw the sitar,do you play it in your set.

I intend to , just as soon as I learn how to tune it properly...

Bob D's lyrics were certainly meaningfull and well-crafted (at times).
Heard 'Hurricane' on my way home from the OM last night. Based on a true story, but well done. Saw BD and company do it in Montreal in 76.

Pistols shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out "My God they killed them all"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbing the register I hope you understand
I saw them leaving" he says and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda sh*t was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not SHOW up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said "Wait a minute boys this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law ?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?"
"Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim".

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work he'd say and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DA said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand ?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Mike, to me that is an example of a poor Dylan lyric. It's painful to listen to him try and shoehorn the words into the musical phrases. It's like he was so determined to tell the story that he forgot (or didn't want to) make the lyrics fit the music. Oh well, just my opinion.