Expecting Rain

I'm seriously not trying to be a jerk here. Really I'm not. Keep that in mind.

Your implication that you have heard the ENTIRE WORKS of Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf (and by claiming audience to those we can assume you've heard the others that include Son House, Blind Willie McTell, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, etc.) and then your proceeding inclusion of Dylan - specifically his last 3 proper albums - into that same category seems crazy to me.

Dylan can never and will never come close to creating music like Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf, or any of those blues elders. It's not his fault; it's just the way it is. That music, to me, is impenetrable and I really wish folks would finally accept this. You think hearing these famous musicians will help unlock Dylan's recent output? If anything, listening to Patton, Johnson, and Wolf will make you see just how far from the blues Dylan is and always has been.

There are musicians out there that do their best to channel these once-human-now-supernatural singers and players, but no one can truly capture the music and how it used to be. This is just plain old common sense to me; artists nowadays simply don't have inside them what these bluesmen had. There have also been so many advances - mainly economical and technological - since the greats started departing this world. Those blues singers, whether found in a bar room in Chicago or a juke joint in the Delta or in the field hammering away at a stone while chained to twenty others, were being swallowed up by the world around them and that came out in their shitty amplifiers and rusty harmonicas and it sounded absolutely brilliant. Why? Because it was real. It was true. Some say that anybody can sing the blues. That's just not accurate and awfully insulting. Now, all artists can do is hope to immitate that same broken-down blues sound and attitude. However, that hope only reveals them to be trying.

There's a reason why Tom Waits isolates himself in rural California and surrounds himself with pre-WWII machinery and other curious objects - he's trying to get back to that ghostly force that inspired that old music. Is he successful? It depends on opinion I suppose. I love the music of Tom Waits - I really do - but I'm not so far up my ass to not realize that he knows exactly what he's doing when he records outside in a dusty field with some chickens or on the sidewalk with bones. Recently, Mellencamp went on and recorded his No Better Than This album with one microphone to try and replicate the Sun Studio and classic blues sound. I'm not grouping Johnny Cougar with the greats, but this is just another example of a modern artist trying to get back to what once used to be. Does Dylan do this? Sure he does. It's why he lifts songs, riffs, etc. from the public domain. Is he successful? Again - it's up to opinion; I say he's not as successful as he could be or as successful as others think he is. Don't get me wrong (I think I say this phrase more than any others in this forum), I dig Dylan and I prefer ModBob over ClassicBob. I like his sound and his broken-into-a-million-pieces-and-unable-to-be-repaired voice. But I will never concede to the idea that he's in the same league as Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf, and all those stone giants. And I will never subscribe to the idea that Dylan's voice (even though I may enjoy it tremendously) does what Muddy's did. And I will never raise my fist and proclaim Dylan to be an amazing singer. He's a peculiar singer yes, but his voice is not some force of nature like some around here illustrate. He possibly could be if he was more sincere. Let me explain what I mean by this.

As I stated above, musicians can only hope to immitate that blues sound and that blues attitude. Those (musicians, music critics) who have a good grip on the blues know that you can't have one without the other. Bob could have that blues sound if he stripped his six-piece (or five-piece) band or whatever he's playing with nowadays, but he'll never have that attitude. That sincere blues. That blues that comes from the heart and the blood. That feeling we hear and feel when we listen to Howlin' Wolf or Sonny Boy Williamson or Etta James or Billie Holiday or Hank Williams. Why? Well. Who are you going to believe - a black guy whose only salvation from working all day is playing guitar all night or a some white punk from Minnesota? Who are you going to believe? A black guy with a voice created by life or a white guy with a voice destroyed on purpose? This is very similar to a recent post of mine in regards to the difference between being a poet and being poetic. Dylan - along with Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Tom Waits, etc. - can be bluesy. They can play bluesy music and sing bluesy lyrics. But they cannot truly sing the blues.

And before anybody says "So, Mr. Delvis Crasho, no white guys should be allowed to sing the blues?" allow me to retort. Sure, they can try and that's all it will be. Trying. But more power to 'em for taking on the impossible and preposterous task. They can go on ahead and beat on their guitar like Jack White and claim affiliation with Son House and others; but I'm not going to take them all that seriously and I will most certainly snicker - judgingly - at those that do.

On another note, I'm hoping the new album will be made up of Edith Piaf songs sung in French. This is the next logical step in my opinion since Bob's voice could remain broken and still mysterious (unless you know Francais).

Yeah!!!
I've been away for a couple of weeks and i just heard the news! Woooooooooooohooooo!
I knew Bob was up to something . Didn't i tell you ?
It's good to be expecting rain again , and it's a-hard rain's gonna fall!!!

lol
welcome back, Tragos.

Tragos... never do that again... don't just go off without telling us... we've been at our wits end... I'm witless. We have all been worried sick about you!

We're only angry at you because we care... still, welcome back... did you get me anything?

seconded!!

Is this an advertsing blurb off the BD site?? If so it sounds awesome, I'm can't wait...

that is as much of a compliment to mr dylan as it is a criticism i suppose. he's never been interested in reproducing the past, but grabbing it with a fish hook and dragging it in tooth and nail to the present. packaging in it in a contemporary sound, with contemporary content, that recalls the past. much different than the Waits' immersion/recreation initiatives.

in dylan's chronicles, he seems to admit making the same observation about not being able to do with his voice what other performers around him were able to do, of whom he was envious. that's when he dropped the woody impersonating and began doing his own thing. his own thing seems to be working in its own regard pretty well.

although he did say 'nobody could sing the blues like blind willie mctell,' he never said, 'nobody but blind willie mctell could sing the blues.' an important distinction.

also, by your elimination of the possibility that the human imagination could be more powerful than an actual physical setting, it seems you would write off this performance as a pale facsimile. which, is missing something entirely incredible, i think. <please don't listen to it with crappy speakers>. besides, weren't the songs written and performed by people in tough, seemingly unchangeable circumstances, who dreamed of better things to come?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woX--_Nr9GM

"Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't."
~Etta James

He might be ModBob but there is zero that is modern about his music. If you really think what I've bolded above, then thats the funniest thing I've read in a long time. What the fuck year do you live in man? Bob Dylan isn't interested in reproducing the past?

Mmm, Love & Theft, Modern Times, Together Through Life, Christmas In The Heart.

Christmas In The Heart, for chrissake man. The cover alone.

Fuck me. Fu to the ck me.

Folks, we're gonna need a bigger boat.

i didn't even comment on how successfully he did this. you are free to say he fails in every regard, but it's hard to argue that he was not attentive to the change of contemporary sound in the eighties and that probably lead to a great deal of trouble in his records, which he blamed on sound producers and everybody in the world. in a way he was right, because music was doing some pretty sucky things. he finally said f - this and picked up the acoustic guitar again...

in retrospect, i should not have said never, he sometimes is. oops. i guess taking the positions of 'never' or 'always' seems misrepresent most situations, eh benny?

and right now i live in one of the music capitals of the US, where i see plenty of pathetic little 30 and under bands selling out shows that are calling themselves indy folkies or something, recalling the past even though they grew up in a well-manicured city on the west coast. i don't know what ancient past they are recalling, since their product sounds like a cheap reproduction of CSN or ELO. for examples see: http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folkmusic ... ieFolk.htm (those are not obscure names, here in the states)

With time out of mind and Love and theft, dylan swoops in to leave a blueprint for others to follow, before he moves on to the next plan...

and really, i'm only saying that 'repackaging' is a closer approximation than 'reproducing', is that really out of line?

p.s. i should tell you, Warren Piece is sitting on my lap....

Fantastic!!



I would just like to add that I don't think anybody, not even the old blues singers have a monopoly on pain. The fact that many people try but don't succeed, doesn't mean that no one can. It's just that not many do it well. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe because a lot of people start singing for the wrong reasons. Maybe because they lack emotional depth.

thank you very much, that you expressed precise one of my bad visions of the next album. You touch the fears before the release and make clear how a disappointment can look like. But although there´s many realism in your description, just this shows what´s not included. Dylans vanity for example. You express all the benefiting things because you conceal them. So now I´m more happy about the next album than before.

The thesis sounds convincing enough on first sight. However, the above would indicate that the true qualifier of what constitutes true blues is the presence of absence of economic duress. There is some merit to this. The blues is born of hardship. People like Dylan can not share directly in the experience of duress and lack, or discrimination, so hence their blues is only blues outwardly. If that.

I believe the argument is flawed though. First, I think it's a matter of opinion whether the blues can credibly evolve. I believe the blues has evolved to some degree, though it may have lost much of its lean and hungry bite. If it had not evolved, the blues would have effectively died after the depression. According to some, no doubt it did. According to others, the glory of the blues age was to continue throughout the 40's, 50's and even 60's.

More importantly though, the blues is about suffering. As a truly great artform, it cannot be owned by a single demographic. Great blues speaks of lost love, rejection, alienation, death and despair. Dylan, Clapton and others can write their own volumes on loss and heartbreak as well as Waters and McTell. Ultimately, the issue is how experience affects the human heart. Whether that experience is economic or emotional in nature should not be a defining factor.

No offense...but that's the biggest bundle of BS I've heard on this site. He always wanted to sound this way....he stared the dark night of the soul in the face and returned to tell the tale...a voice that comes from deep within an understanding of what it means to be living in world of darkness...the most human voice you will ever hear in Rock 'n' Roll.

If you want to romanticize Bob to death...fine. But seriously, where the heck are you coming up with all this dribble? Must say...ya got a great imagination. Again...no offense.

That said...looking forward to the new album

Sure Can't Wait For That New Album

By Golly Gee Willikers

Well I have listened to these entire works and what you have just said is ridiculous. I have nothing against Dylan's current voice and if people actually enjoy it then that's great but to suggest it resembles anything like Howlin' Wolfs voice is quite strange to put it mildly.

Well, there's this long standing myth that Bob has always wanted to sound this way...like the old bluesmen of the past that he so admired. That its done on purpose. S*it...if he's always wanted to sound this way...then why didn't he start singing like this...20-30-40 years ago?

I know its crazy. I guess people love to dream up theory's to disguise the fact that his voice is shot. I'll take a new Bob Dylan album no matter what it sounds like but I won't try to convince myself his voice works anymore. He can sound ok on a one off performance here and there but there's no hiding the fact that if he wasn't Bob Dylan then he would be just some weird old wino busker people circle around in the street laughing at.

On some level...under the right conditions, Bob can, at times, pull it off. But to compare Bob's current vocal style to Howlin' Wolf, to me, is absurd. It's an insult to the qualities that Howlin' Wolf's voice had to offer.

Thank you for the kind, well written response, friend. I realize there are holes in my argument. That's fine with me - I never really intended it to be bulletproof. I was just voicing an opinion.

Tallyho.

well, i was excited last week when i heard the news about the new album, but now i'm going to duck low and wait for the whole affair to blow over. i will come out when it is safe to like bob dylan again.

You should still be excited, and everybody here loves Bob...so you can come out now

In my view, Dylan's chief quality as a singer has always been his timing and phrasing, and not the sound of his voice. Sometimes his voice is great, sometimes it's horrible. All fine by me, as long as those other qualities are there. A few random examples could be some of the 74 shows, where his voice is rich and clear, but his singing is quite mechanical and predictable. On the other side, we have all the nice versions of "Ballad of a Thin Man" from 2011, where his voice is a mess, but the phrasing is quite brilliant, giving the song life and suspense. As long as he's inspired and has been able to come up with good songs, I can't see why the coming album shouldn't be a good one.

I actually can't wait for the new album. I made the mistake of saying it's the best news all year to my girlfriend who only weeks earlier announced she was pregnant

Congratulations!!

Jesús