[ April 19, 2024 ]
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Robert Spencer here. Pamela asked me to contribute a Bob Dylan post for tonight’s Friday Night Music entry, in honor of his Nobel Prize for Literature, and since Bob Dylan lyrics are essentially the Greek chorus for my life, I am happy to oblige.
One of the ironies of this Nobel Prize selection, which is richly deserved in my opinion, is that the thoroughly Leftist Nobel committee may not realize that Bob Dylan is not quite the Leftist icon he is usually assumed to be. For decades he has shrugged off or outright rejected the “Voice of a Generation” moniker; he left protest songs behind in the early Sixties with “My Back Pages” (“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”); in Chronicles he says, in an apparently deliberate attempt to mock the Left’s sacred cows, that in the Sixties his favorite politician was Barry Goldwater; when his contemporaries were finding religion in Hare Krishna (good old George Harrison) and Islam (sinister Cat Stevens), he became that bane of the Left, a born-again Christian; he then declared, in “Neighborhood Bully,” his proud and unapologetic Zionism and support for Israel; and above all, his entire career is an exercise in gathering, preserving, and extending a live tradition, that of American music in all its essential forms, from blues (Together Through Life) and folk (all the early stuff) and gospel (Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot of Love) to country (Nashville Skyline) and rock (all through) and even to jazz (“If Dogs Run Free”) and Tin Pan Alley (Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels). He has shown his respect for tradition and consciousness of his place within it from the blues quotes in his early songs to his album Self-Portrait to his magnificent Theme Time Radio Hour radio series, as well as to all the various genre-spanning of his albums.
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That is a quintessentially conservative action: remembering what is past rather than rewriting it to suit oneself; respecting history rather than despising it and thinking oneself superior to one’s forbears; bringing out of the past what is good and making it new again; gathering from the air a live tradition, and from the fine old eye an unconquered flame. His entire career is a tacit affirmation that America is good, and worthwhile, and something to be proud of, her bards and poets and songwriters a source of wisdom and insight — something worth preserving, and defending, and fighting for.
And so as your erstwhile rival Paul Simon might say, here’s to you, Mr. Dylan. Nowadays when literature is so drearily politicized and focused on the ephemeral, few are more deserving than you are of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Everyone will be talking about “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Like A Rolling Stone” in connection with the Nobel Prize; here is one that is less well known: “Changing of the Guards,” from the 1978 album Street Legal.
This is a live version that is a bit frenzied for my taste; I’ve got nothing against frenzy, and certainly nothing against Bob radically altering his songs live, but the studio version of this song from Street Legal is preferable, just not available on YouTube. Nowadays when the corrupt hegemony of the political and media elites is being challenged, and those deeply threatened elites are screaming at us to get back in line and shut up and take the medicine they have prepared for us, one stanza from “Changing of the Guards” seems particularly a propos:
“Gentlemen,” he said
“I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
“I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
“But Eden is burning, either get ready for elimination
“Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards”
Sixteen years
Sixteen banners united over the field
Where the good shepherd grieves
Desperate men, desperate women divided
Spreading their wings ’neath the falling leavesFortune calls
I stepped forth from the shadows, to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down
She’s smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
On midsummer’s eve, near the towerThe cold-blooded moon
The captain waits above the celebration
Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid
Whose ebony face is beyond communication
The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaidThey shaved her head
She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo
A messenger arrived with a black nightingale
I seen her on the stairs and I couldn’t help but follow
Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veilI stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending ’neath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to youThe palace of mirrors
Where dog soldiers are reflected
The endless road and the wailing of chimes
The empty rooms where her memory is protected
Where the angels’ voices whisper to the souls of previous timesShe wakes him up
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking
Near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks
She’s begging to know what measures he now will be taking
He’s pulling her down and she’s clutching on to his long golden locks“Gentlemen,” he said
“I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
“I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
“But Eden is burning, either get ready for elimination
“Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards”Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords
The Truth Must be Told
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15 Comments
7 years ago
Although I have never been a Bob Dylan fan, I approve of endorse and otherwise think it is a good idea that he be recognized for the icon that he is.
7 years ago
Reply to
JT
nobel prizes are nice coffee table ornaments, they mean nothing, but to some they do tend to impress.
7 years ago
I sense the change from ‘folk poet’ happened at Newport when some fat lefty woman pronounced, ‘He’s yours’.
Just imagine?
He then tore the place up with the ‘new electric Dylan’ and never looked back at these leeches again. The sound by todays standards was pretty woefully thin but they were learning the ropes around Leo Fender’s trailblazing Telecasters, Strats and amps.
Unfortunately whilst he was seeing a future, these proto-Marxist academic radicals were decidedly harking for a past which never existed.
They wanted simple seafaring shanties and tales of worker oppression, he wanted a brave new world of surreal interplay, allusion and metaphor.
I remember it all happening and the joy it gave to me, a young man, growing up and absorbing this massive and radical change.
This is what youngsters miss so much today. Then it was real and groundbreaking, now they merely follow the leader and melt like the snowflakes they are at the slightest challenge.
Then the doctrines were attacked and orthodoxy mocked. Now they’ve got a new orthodoxy and like the puppets which Dylan mocked they dance like little, jiggling marionettes on the end of a globalist, progressive string.
‘Something is happening and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr Jones?’ sums it up perfectly.
7 years ago
Reply to
logdon
The sound wasn’t ‘woefully thin’ because of the equipment.
It was because of the recording gear.
All the guitars and amps from that era are highly sought after because of their great sound.
7 years ago
Reply to
Logic PrObe
You picked the wrong one in your reply.
I have been playing and guying guitars and amps for thirty five years and must have had hundreds pass through my hands.
I am aware of the quality of vintage equipment and still stand by my statement.
The recent wave of vintage was in essence started by Clapton when he bought a dozen fifties Strats at the Sho Bud store in America.
He paired them with Marshalls which produced a far fatter tone.
Fender amps work better when on either on full volume or with a pedal. And not all Fender amps are the desirable big tone Twins or Bassmans.
No doubt the recording gear was also at fault but it wasn’t just that.
Techniques have changed and you’ll find an effects pedal or two in front of those old amps.
7 years ago
I have several of his CD’s and would never give them up. There is a certain respect and pride when you hear the name Bob Dylan. He has some beautiful work in those songs. Imagine, composing those. Whew!
Congratulations to Bob. You worked hard for yours. Obama just played golf and went to fund raisers for his.
7 years ago
Bob Dylan songbook – almost 800 pages, over 300 songs:
7 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3CEvbi5_Sc
CRANK IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TRUMP 2016!!!!!!
7 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSZvHqf9qM
TANGLED UP IN BLUE!
TRUMP 2016!!!!
7 years ago
Here’s a cutie for ya:
7 years ago
I was listening to a great ‘cover’ of “I’LL BE YOUR BABY TONIGHT” and realized that back in the 1940’s at the height of Tin Pan Alley that Bob Dylan song could easily have been a classic hit. That is range.
7 years ago
I didn’t know Bob Dylan defied the Left and supported Barry Goldwater among other things. Good for him! You can’t go wrong with his music and his lyrics contain sage advice.
Here is my contribution for the week.
It’s the video “I’ll Listen” by Ana Criado. I like its surreal affects especially at 2:34 with the Paris landscape/Eiffel tower in the background.
7 years ago
Good post Mr Spencer .. but I gotta’ ‘dylan headache’ from reading the verses,
tryin’ to figure out what the hell he’s saying .. he’s still got me covered ..
“Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn, come in .. she said
I’ll give ya’ shelter from the storm..”
7 years ago
Many musicians that I like are probably leftists. Ditto for actors/actresses. They’re like politicians – they can afford to pay for security guards, gated communities, etc so many will go out and push for gun control – taking the guns from us little people. Although most of them also own guns but will not admit it. It’s too bad – they speak about things they know nothing about when it comes to politics. But, I still like their music and films. Just have to realize that in real life many of them are basically idiots. Not sure what Bob’s politics are and don’t really care; but I do like his music.
DONALD! DONALD! DONALD! DONALD!
TRUMP 2016!!!!!
