What made me realize that I was onto something concerning Dylan was some interviews I saw where he basically said “I don’t get what all of these people who are fanatics about me are talking about. I don’t know what those songs are about.” There are a lot of important people who are very influential but they themselves aren’t that great in hindsight. Dylan is interesting but he’s not the Beatles. Everyone is influenced by them and even though they were influenced by Dylan it’s usually in a way that’s a little embarrassing – like in “You’ve got hide your love away”. It’s a shame so many artists copied his vocal delivery like in Steely Dan’s “Reelin in the Years.”

Dylan is considered great b/c the Boomers projected greatness onto him. They made him the poetic symbol of their generation. To compare him with Lennon just isn’t applicable. Lennon wrote “Woman is the nigger of the world”. No one in rock history has the balls to do that – to believe it and to say it. No one – and Lennon actually knew what his songs meant – they’re personal, they’re about himself – they aren’t stoned stream of consciousness blah blah about who knows what. Springsteen is overrated too. He wrote a few pop songs but his Dylan stuff is very boring with the exception of “Born to Run” which although lyrically like Dylan has all of the pop elements that made Born in the USA so listenable years later. Springsteen can write a pop song and that’s a good thing. He can keep his preachy liberal elitism to himself.

If Dylan had any balls he would’ve been like his hero Woody Guthrie. Guthrie’s songs aren’t abstruse – they hit you in the gut and although he was liked by a certain class of people, the middle class had no interest in discussing class-ism. Just like they didn’t have any interest in Lennon once he brought up sexism. Dylan and Springsteen never grew as artists. Springsteen went pop and gave up all of his Dylanisms lyrically, Dylan himself regressed into a very boring Christianity obsession. Dylan should’ve stuck with poetry and not ventured into music. He’s a cool cat and I like but I don’t love him. “Blowin in the Wind” is not “Imagine.” When you think about the differences between those two songs you’ll understand why one is played during the ball drop at new years and why one is only sung by bleeding hearts. Who’s the real revolutionary?

Dylan isn’t worthless by any means but I just can’t listen to it.