The Voice of A Generation, Bob Dylan. Part One; "One Too Many Mornings" Introduction and the Early Voice of Protest and Folk
"...I wanted to write songs unlike anything anybody ever heard, and these themes were fundamental." -Bob Dylan, 4 June, 2017 Nobel Prize speech
Introduction:
Dean Martin, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Freddie Mercury, without a doubt lie on the list of musicians with notable pristine voices that have been carried down through generations. But what if the voice of our time wasn't a four range vocalist, or a Beatle? What if the voice that carried us through decades, war, drug hallucinations, fashion trends that have come gone and come back again, was a "hillybilly singer" from Hibbing, Minnesota? One who rode to New York on the influence of Buddy Holly, Woody Guthrie and Herman Melville. Bob Dylan, known for his nasally singing voice and folksy style has a voice that could do just as much, if not more, than those who could croon like Sam Cooke.
What do I mean by voice? When we mention voice in music we often think about the sound of ones actual vocal vibrations; Whether that noise be pleasurable and welcoming or a vexatious sound calling for a hook. In this article we will be discussing Bob Dylan's sound as well as focusing on the literary meaning of voice. Voice, in literature, is the writers way of telling the story. This is done in multiple ways; tone, dialogue, punctuation, character development, and all other fundamental aspects of the piece. Voice is how the reader gets a sense of the writers style, who they are and what they are trying to convey throughout their body of work. Writers use their voice to construct a story or prevail an idea with their own ego or alter-ego.
I couldn't tell you the first time I heard Bob Dylan. I can't begin to explain the warmth and security I feel when I hear his music, especially certain songs that carried me through difficult times in my life, like "Caribbean Wind" and "I'll Keep It With Mine". I wasn't around during the Dylan-reign. I didn't get to experience Bob Dylan periodically. Instead I got the curiosity sparked in me through hearing his name, becoming infatuated with The Beatles, and discovering him on my own - because Dylan is not allowed to be played around my mom. I often say "The Beatles were my infatuation but Bob Dylan dug my grave" when asked about my favorite musician. My twin sister use to joke around saying "I'm the Tom Petty of this relationship and you're the Bob Dylan" due to my school notebooks covered in poetry, lyrics and drawings while just climbing onboard this Bob Dylan rollercoaster; which left screams monotone but thoughts prophetic.
To me, Bob Dylan was a saint, and no picture exemplifies that better than Bob Dylan Greatest Hits album from 1967 (pictured to the right). Writing this article is no easy feat for me. How does one write anything on someone who has written some of the greatest work of all time. Someone who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature. Someone who is only human, which is why his work is relatable, strong, and bold. Human, which I know a little bit about being which is why I dare to write a piece about Bob Dylan. Human, just human which is why Bob Dylan doesn't think he deserves the title of "Voice Of A Generation". The following is an interview between NPR's Steve Inskeep and Bob Dylan, aired October 4, 2004. link here.
Understandable reason why Bob Dylan might not see himself as the Voice of The Generation, it's a lot of pressure and a title to put on oneself. It's a feeling of "I already have the title, I now have to live up to it with everything I do." or "Hey, I already have the title what am I working towards now?" or "s/he are better than I am, give them the title". No matter how Bob feels about the situation, he is undeniably a voice that has constructed the way we think about story telling, writing and listening.
The following series will dissect different aspects I have chosen to showcase Bob Dylan as a voice. Starting with the following on his beginnings with folk music and protest songs- heavily focusing, but encouragingly straying from, The Freewheelin' album. For this album is not arguably an album that holds many songs that voiced movements; it was (one of, if not) the album. This series will freewheel itself and not stay restrained to the sleeves of the album, but still walk the same the road to show how Bob Dylan's writing showcased during a time of protest in the Civil Rights movement and war, like Vietnam. It will continue to show how he moves out of protest songs and mastered himself as a literary genius and Voice of a Generation, whether he likes it or not. Hopefully showcase how we are still using Dylan's early work to cope today, shown in this article and his writing styles talked about later.
Early Voice, Folk and Protest:
When Bob Dylan first came on the scene he had found himself engulfed in the Greenwich Village folk community. With just his acoustic guitar, harmonica and cap he'd wander from room to kitchen, couch to stage and scrambling for money. He sang in cafes, bars, and local scenes with songs that hung above the pre-hippie subculture atmosphere coupling ideas of social commentary, war protest, love and the many stages and objects of it. America was in the time of political and social reform with the young JFK in office, promising a new dawn in America- only to find himself caught in a Cold War, affair, and national debt. The civil rights movement raging with every boycott, footstep and dream. Trying to make sense of it all, Bob Dylan began writing what would become some of the most resonating protest songs.
Before we dive into dissecting some of Dylan's songs, we must first have a short understanding of folk music and its relationship with protest. They were married. A long- grueling marriage that has seen war debt, war damage, war aftermaths. Poverty, political (it's all political), religious rages and conflicts. A marriage that has burdened the sights of harsh hands of abuse and blistered hands of labored men and have confronted suffering and rallied suffrages.
There's a saying that goes, "behind every great man is a great woman". Protest and folk where that man and that woman. Where there was something to be protest about, there was a folk singer singing about it. Whether this came in spirituals or sea shanties often transformed in a folksy styling or in the voices of Hutchinson Family Singers, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, or more current with Steve Earle. But why folk? Because folk songs had a deeper meaning, a story and history to it. Now this is not knocking on other protest songs like "Mississippi Goddamn" by Nina Simone. It is not folk song, nor folk-esque, but GOD DAMN, it's a protest song and a great one at that! Folk music had a sorrow, and a mournful way of making a listener reflect on the words more than on the beat. It was authentic to the message.
The 1960s saw the second revival of traditional folk in America;
So what made Bob Dylan of all people rise to fame with protest songs? Like many before him and surrounding him Dylan embodied folk; in the sense that folk music was authentic and throughout time delivered messages, such as cries of plantation workers, union workers, movements. Dylan was authentic. His opinions have been heard in various ways throughout his work and in body language. He wasn't one just singing about the wars going on or rallies for equal rights, he was part of the fear and marching towards Washington. However, Bob Dylan's songs were at a different level than those around him. They offered crisp images through simplistic faces. His songs were stories that went on for upward of ten minutes keeping a rhythmic pattern while following a beginning, climax, and end format. A Bob Dylan song wasn't just heard, it was felt, seen, smelt and tasted. His voice didn't hold, but it was folk if you weren't Joan Baez you weren't really counting on your voice to be honest. You don't listen to Dylan to listen to Dylan, you listen to Dylan to hear him. Below will be taking a closer look at a few songs I've chosen to describe Dylan as a protest writer and singer.
The album, The Freewheelin' introduces the listeners of all genres and interests inside and outside of music to ask themselves a series of questions; "How many times can the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?" or "how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?".
"Blowin' In the Wind", stands triumphantly over and over again as a song defying prejudice, war, and injustice. During the 1960s it was favored amongst civil rights groups, perhaps because the tune comes from the African American spiritual, "No More Auction Block". Coming from a spiritual gives the song a heightened bond with hope.
Michael Grey, critic and writer of Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (Pages 66-67), relates "Blowin In The Wind" directly with a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1–2);
The song continued to carry with the time as a few years later the country was facing the Vietnam War. Protest throughout times have mimic Dylan's words of white doves sailing. The song replaced Shakespeare in textbooks (which instead of causing peace cause controversy, but is it too much to call Dylan the Shakespeare of our time, or is that too much "Beatles bigger than Jesus?"- a fight a relevance toward audience).
Another song that the country grasped onto during country rivalries and war hardships was, "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall". Originally taking shape as a poem just a month before the Cuban Missle Crisis. This poem turned song posed a question-answer pattern on the ideas of pollution, society, and schism. Rain falling in sheets, a heavy, blinding down pour, for the grey cloud we suffer in a world of evil. The song was often referred to with the fear of nuclear war but as we have thrusted forward over the past decades we see that the lines and symbolism still remains true with what's being seen today. For example;
"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children" as mentioned, the United States would later enter the Vietnam War, drafting young men at the age of 18. Decades later, in another country, we would hear stories of child soldiers in Rwanda. Later, in fact current, we have a system in schools of teaching innocent (blue-eyed sons?) to hold their hands high above their heads, empty and fingers spread wide as they walk out of schools because of an active shooter; most who have turned out to be a fellow classmate.
The Following is a video (Via Youtube) of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" link here)
"Masters Of The War" a song that sends chills down anyones spines but maybe it's not a chill and just a rush of energy surging through the body, lighting a fire inside calling out to those war infatuated bigots of the world. "Masters of The War" is a song penned by Bob Dylan that he has described as,
The Freewheelin' album was like a refreshing shower over a barren desert when it came to the song and anthems it provided. Enough water to make a lasting cactus blossom, replenish the wander lost by the North Star, but weary to not saturate the dry, heated plains with too much additives like downpours and puddles. In other words, these time testing songs didn't need riffing guitars or machinery to make them memorable and get attention. They were simplistic ideas manipulated and arranged by the mind of a common man with an imagery scribe. But the Civil rights and activism didn't stop there. The Freewheelin' album, 1963 had brought Dylan to light and let's say lightening strikes once and when it electrocuted the earths core on August 28, 1963 it brought a roaring thunder of marches and footsteps with it while Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and an entourage of musicians, protesters, preachers, and more marched towards justice.
The following (Via Youtube) is "Pawn In Their Game" performed by Bob Dylan at the March on Washington, 28 August, 1963. Link here.;
The year is now 1964. A letter, nay a plea, nay a confrontation set to music by Bob Dylan to Senator and Congress to please heed the call - for the Times They Are A Changin'. "Times They Are A Changin'" was the title track to Dylan's next album. The song written primarily to be an anthem to rattle and shake whatever loose object was in anyone's brain and snap it into place to fight for the rights for everyone around us. It's as simple as the phrase itself. However, Bob Dylan as a song writer has a way to captivate us in a way by hooking into the song with a call to the powers. Using intense imagery details of "it will shake your windows and rattle your walls" for people of power may hold a title but the world around them are quaking. Threats like "you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone" and "The line is drawn/ the curse it is cast. The slow one now will later be fast", shoot daggers and darts to speed up and get with it if you want to survive the motion that sweeping. The song encourages writers and critics to join the fight, use voices. What Dylan was writing what was everyone was trying to say but he said it in pictures.
The Times They Are A Changin' and so was Dylan. The sixties crept in with The British Invasion, pop, and war. Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" was a revelation. Up until that point most radio waves were polluted with two to three minutes long about love lost and founds, ballads and doo-wop. "Like A Rolling Stone" was cynical, was song that felt like it lasted forever, at least for Beatles member Paul McCartney.
Citations:
Introduction:
Dean Martin, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Freddie Mercury, without a doubt lie on the list of musicians with notable pristine voices that have been carried down through generations. But what if the voice of our time wasn't a four range vocalist, or a Beatle? What if the voice that carried us through decades, war, drug hallucinations, fashion trends that have come gone and come back again, was a "hillybilly singer" from Hibbing, Minnesota? One who rode to New York on the influence of Buddy Holly, Woody Guthrie and Herman Melville. Bob Dylan, known for his nasally singing voice and folksy style has a voice that could do just as much, if not more, than those who could croon like Sam Cooke.
What do I mean by voice? When we mention voice in music we often think about the sound of ones actual vocal vibrations; Whether that noise be pleasurable and welcoming or a vexatious sound calling for a hook. In this article we will be discussing Bob Dylan's sound as well as focusing on the literary meaning of voice. Voice, in literature, is the writers way of telling the story. This is done in multiple ways; tone, dialogue, punctuation, character development, and all other fundamental aspects of the piece. Voice is how the reader gets a sense of the writers style, who they are and what they are trying to convey throughout their body of work. Writers use their voice to construct a story or prevail an idea with their own ego or alter-ego.
I couldn't tell you the first time I heard Bob Dylan. I can't begin to explain the warmth and security I feel when I hear his music, especially certain songs that carried me through difficult times in my life, like "Caribbean Wind" and "I'll Keep It With Mine". I wasn't around during the Dylan-reign. I didn't get to experience Bob Dylan periodically. Instead I got the curiosity sparked in me through hearing his name, becoming infatuated with The Beatles, and discovering him on my own - because Dylan is not allowed to be played around my mom. I often say "The Beatles were my infatuation but Bob Dylan dug my grave" when asked about my favorite musician. My twin sister use to joke around saying "I'm the Tom Petty of this relationship and you're the Bob Dylan" due to my school notebooks covered in poetry, lyrics and drawings while just climbing onboard this Bob Dylan rollercoaster; which left screams monotone but thoughts prophetic.To me, Bob Dylan was a saint, and no picture exemplifies that better than Bob Dylan Greatest Hits album from 1967 (pictured to the right). Writing this article is no easy feat for me. How does one write anything on someone who has written some of the greatest work of all time. Someone who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature. Someone who is only human, which is why his work is relatable, strong, and bold. Human, which I know a little bit about being which is why I dare to write a piece about Bob Dylan. Human, just human which is why Bob Dylan doesn't think he deserves the title of "Voice Of A Generation". The following is an interview between NPR's Steve Inskeep and Bob Dylan, aired October 4, 2004. link here.
INSKEEP: Why does it bother you when people sometimes refer to you as a voice of your generation?
DYLAN: I think that was just a term that can create problems for somebody, especially if someone just wants to keep it simple and write songs and play them. Having these colossal accolades and titles - they get in the way.
INSKEEP: You're saying it made it harder for you to just do your job.
DYLAN: Yeah, absolutely.
INSKEEP: I guess it's your fault 'cause you went and wrote all those lyrics that a lot of people think speak to them.
DYLAN: (Laughter) Yeah. And that's OK. When it becomes a problem - like, when we get known outside of our field, then we're known by people who don't really know - who've never had any experience with what we do. Or we're just names.You know, sometimes a person's reputation can be far more colossal than the influence of the person. I don't pay any attention to it anymore. So I was trying to reconstruct the feeling of what it does feel like to have anything like that thrown at you, where you're expected to be something that you just flat-out know you're not.
Understandable reason why Bob Dylan might not see himself as the Voice of The Generation, it's a lot of pressure and a title to put on oneself. It's a feeling of "I already have the title, I now have to live up to it with everything I do." or "Hey, I already have the title what am I working towards now?" or "s/he are better than I am, give them the title". No matter how Bob feels about the situation, he is undeniably a voice that has constructed the way we think about story telling, writing and listening.
The following series will dissect different aspects I have chosen to showcase Bob Dylan as a voice. Starting with the following on his beginnings with folk music and protest songs- heavily focusing, but encouragingly straying from, The Freewheelin' album. For this album is not arguably an album that holds many songs that voiced movements; it was (one of, if not) the album. This series will freewheel itself and not stay restrained to the sleeves of the album, but still walk the same the road to show how Bob Dylan's writing showcased during a time of protest in the Civil Rights movement and war, like Vietnam. It will continue to show how he moves out of protest songs and mastered himself as a literary genius and Voice of a Generation, whether he likes it or not. Hopefully showcase how we are still using Dylan's early work to cope today, shown in this article and his writing styles talked about later.
Early Voice, Folk and Protest:
 |
| Photo by Joe Alper. Bob Dylan 1962. |
Before we dive into dissecting some of Dylan's songs, we must first have a short understanding of folk music and its relationship with protest. They were married. A long- grueling marriage that has seen war debt, war damage, war aftermaths. Poverty, political (it's all political), religious rages and conflicts. A marriage that has burdened the sights of harsh hands of abuse and blistered hands of labored men and have confronted suffering and rallied suffrages.
There's a saying that goes, "behind every great man is a great woman". Protest and folk where that man and that woman. Where there was something to be protest about, there was a folk singer singing about it. Whether this came in spirituals or sea shanties often transformed in a folksy styling or in the voices of Hutchinson Family Singers, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, or more current with Steve Earle. But why folk? Because folk songs had a deeper meaning, a story and history to it. Now this is not knocking on other protest songs like "Mississippi Goddamn" by Nina Simone. It is not folk song, nor folk-esque, but GOD DAMN, it's a protest song and a great one at that! Folk music had a sorrow, and a mournful way of making a listener reflect on the words more than on the beat. It was authentic to the message.
The 1960s saw the second revival of traditional folk in America;
"Revival (noun): b. a new publication or presentation of something old " -Merriam Webster Dictionary"Revival" a word sharing similar meaning to the words, "rebirth", "rejuvenate", and "resurrect" would replenish and restore hope and lucidity in some peoples mind, for a little bit.
So what made Bob Dylan of all people rise to fame with protest songs? Like many before him and surrounding him Dylan embodied folk; in the sense that folk music was authentic and throughout time delivered messages, such as cries of plantation workers, union workers, movements. Dylan was authentic. His opinions have been heard in various ways throughout his work and in body language. He wasn't one just singing about the wars going on or rallies for equal rights, he was part of the fear and marching towards Washington. However, Bob Dylan's songs were at a different level than those around him. They offered crisp images through simplistic faces. His songs were stories that went on for upward of ten minutes keeping a rhythmic pattern while following a beginning, climax, and end format. A Bob Dylan song wasn't just heard, it was felt, seen, smelt and tasted. His voice didn't hold, but it was folk if you weren't Joan Baez you weren't really counting on your voice to be honest. You don't listen to Dylan to listen to Dylan, you listen to Dylan to hear him. Below will be taking a closer look at a few songs I've chosen to describe Dylan as a protest writer and singer.
The album, The Freewheelin' introduces the listeners of all genres and interests inside and outside of music to ask themselves a series of questions; "How many times can the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?" or "how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?".
"Blowin' In the Wind", stands triumphantly over and over again as a song defying prejudice, war, and injustice. During the 1960s it was favored amongst civil rights groups, perhaps because the tune comes from the African American spiritual, "No More Auction Block". Coming from a spiritual gives the song a heightened bond with hope.
Michael Grey, critic and writer of Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (Pages 66-67), relates "Blowin In The Wind" directly with a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1–2);
"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Oh mortal, you dwell among the rebellious breed. They have eyes to see but see not; ears to hear, but hear not."In other words, "Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?".
The song continued to carry with the time as a few years later the country was facing the Vietnam War. Protest throughout times have mimic Dylan's words of white doves sailing. The song replaced Shakespeare in textbooks (which instead of causing peace cause controversy, but is it too much to call Dylan the Shakespeare of our time, or is that too much "Beatles bigger than Jesus?"- a fight a relevance toward audience).
Another song that the country grasped onto during country rivalries and war hardships was, "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall". Originally taking shape as a poem just a month before the Cuban Missle Crisis. This poem turned song posed a question-answer pattern on the ideas of pollution, society, and schism. Rain falling in sheets, a heavy, blinding down pour, for the grey cloud we suffer in a world of evil. The song was often referred to with the fear of nuclear war but as we have thrusted forward over the past decades we see that the lines and symbolism still remains true with what's being seen today. For example;
"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children" as mentioned, the United States would later enter the Vietnam War, drafting young men at the age of 18. Decades later, in another country, we would hear stories of child soldiers in Rwanda. Later, in fact current, we have a system in schools of teaching innocent (blue-eyed sons?) to hold their hands high above their heads, empty and fingers spread wide as they walk out of schools because of an active shooter; most who have turned out to be a fellow classmate.
The Following is a video (Via Youtube) of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" link here)
"Masters Of The War" a song that sends chills down anyones spines but maybe it's not a chill and just a rush of energy surging through the body, lighting a fire inside calling out to those war infatuated bigots of the world. "Masters of The War" is a song penned by Bob Dylan that he has described as,
"I’ve never really written anything like that before,” he recalls. “I don’t sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn’t help it in this one. The song is a sort of striking out, a reaction to the last straw, a feeling of what can you do?” - The Freewheelin' linear notes.Perhaps a style that was new to him, but he wrote it with such defiance that Dylan could "see through your mask". The song went on to be an anthem through the nuclear war threats and fear and soared through the Vietnam War. Look at the state we are currently in today, the lyrics still house sanity for those fighting against the insane war instigators.
The Freewheelin' album was like a refreshing shower over a barren desert when it came to the song and anthems it provided. Enough water to make a lasting cactus blossom, replenish the wander lost by the North Star, but weary to not saturate the dry, heated plains with too much additives like downpours and puddles. In other words, these time testing songs didn't need riffing guitars or machinery to make them memorable and get attention. They were simplistic ideas manipulated and arranged by the mind of a common man with an imagery scribe. But the Civil rights and activism didn't stop there. The Freewheelin' album, 1963 had brought Dylan to light and let's say lightening strikes once and when it electrocuted the earths core on August 28, 1963 it brought a roaring thunder of marches and footsteps with it while Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and an entourage of musicians, protesters, preachers, and more marched towards justice.
The following (Via Youtube) is "Pawn In Their Game" performed by Bob Dylan at the March on Washington, 28 August, 1963. Link here.;
The year is now 1964. A letter, nay a plea, nay a confrontation set to music by Bob Dylan to Senator and Congress to please heed the call - for the Times They Are A Changin'. "Times They Are A Changin'" was the title track to Dylan's next album. The song written primarily to be an anthem to rattle and shake whatever loose object was in anyone's brain and snap it into place to fight for the rights for everyone around us. It's as simple as the phrase itself. However, Bob Dylan as a song writer has a way to captivate us in a way by hooking into the song with a call to the powers. Using intense imagery details of "it will shake your windows and rattle your walls" for people of power may hold a title but the world around them are quaking. Threats like "you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone" and "The line is drawn/ the curse it is cast. The slow one now will later be fast", shoot daggers and darts to speed up and get with it if you want to survive the motion that sweeping. The song encourages writers and critics to join the fight, use voices. What Dylan was writing what was everyone was trying to say but he said it in pictures.
The Times They Are A Changin' and so was Dylan. The sixties crept in with The British Invasion, pop, and war. Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" was a revelation. Up until that point most radio waves were polluted with two to three minutes long about love lost and founds, ballads and doo-wop. "Like A Rolling Stone" was cynical, was song that felt like it lasted forever, at least for Beatles member Paul McCartney.
"It seemed to go on and on forever. It was just beautiful ... He showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further."- Paul McCartney, Behind The Shades Revisited....And this series will go a little further as well. Will pick up right here, with a new phase on Bob Dylan in the next article. Mid-late sixties. His voice in shaping the British Invasion, country music, going electric and what that meant, and more into the literal voice and imagery.
Citations:
- Ahmed, Saeed. “Bob Dylan Songs That Changed the Course of History (an Incomplete List).” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 Oct. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/entertainment/dylan-songs-history-trnd/index.html.
- Bob Dylan. The Freewheelin', John Hammond, Studio A, New York.
- Bob Dylan. “The Time They Are A-Changin'.” The Times They Are A-Changin', Tom Wilson, Columbia Studios, New York, 24 Oct. 1963.
- Kraaijvanger, Janou. Bob Dylan as Political Dissenter.
- Nettl, Bruno. “Folk Music.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/folk-music.
- Rolling Stone. “10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs.” Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/10-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-152077/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-159663/.
- “The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia.” The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, by Michael Gray, Continuum, 2008, pp. 66–67.
