Bob Dylan Revisited
Without Prejudice
He loved Woodie Guthrey, idolised him. He was a simple folk singer that song of the working man in the dust bowl of the depression years, and the rights of workers. And Dylan did the same. To get the core of the songs he broke them down into simple stanzas and words. Belaboured like a mad man over getting it right. And at that time the world needed a voice, someone new and original and Bob Dylan became that voice.
He was weird enough to be interesting as he sat with his guitar and cap and harmonica in a brace below his chin. His voice was nasal and a little whiny but his music was heaven. He sang of change as change was sweeping the world. "The answers my friend are blowing in the wind ", he sang songs of Freedom and protest and his style and persona became the icons of protest and change. The youth of America heeded the call.
They took to the streets in protest to stop the war in Vietnam. We had finally come of age where TV's instead of just showing I Love Lucy were showing people being killed in Vietnam. Slaughtered in Vietnam and that bodies of young boys were being shipped home to families in boxes. Young beautiful boys.
It was wrong. So wrong. And the students and the youth all around the world asked for change, demanded change, there was to be nothing like it. Kennedy had been shot, his young pleasant smiling face blown away by a mad man. We grieved for Jackie and her two babies but more than that we grieved for the ideals he stood for. We had felt he could make a difference and he was gone.
That only made people more aware that evil was alive and well and living in the hearts and minds of mad men. If Kennedy could be shot, so publicly and so shockingly then the world had gone mad and the people grew restless. No more trusting of authorities or "The Man" to help or do the right thing. We lost our innocence that day in Dallas and forever after the baby Boomer generation was never to be the same.
Protest gatherings swelled, no more Mr and Mrs America who seemed apathetic and weak, seduced by their new affluent lifestyle in the burbs. We were young and idealistic and we knew that change was coming, could feel it, smelt it and Bob Dylan was spearheading our thoughts of Freeedom. No more pap on the radio of "Will he still love me tomorrow? ". We wanted death and ire and anger and protest as that was what would ring the changes.
Dylan began as a folk singer and offended the snobby Folk singer world by his use of electronics. They must have been mighty jealous of his fame and meteoric rise. His words which were like food to the soul. In one line he could capture the hearts and minds of the youth of the western world. He was not bound by convention, he was as fresh as the air and we breathed it in. Breathed in change and the answers that were blowing in the wind.
We breathed in his complete disregard for what "The Man" wanted to hear, he was seemingly not bound by fat Wall street cats that wanted him to conform. Hippies were wandering the streets of Height Ashbury promoting Peace and Love and Ban the Bomb. And they were right. They were on drugs however and that the middle classes could not stand.
But Dylan no matter how much he doesn't want to be famous for it was the change we wanted. Our innocence was gone along with JFK, we wanted what we wanted and all things were about to change. People were no longer the huddled "masses", they were individual that could protest about evil and decided to do so even if the cost was great. They rallied in numbers big enough to be heard. We weren't all dope smoking Hippies. We were the world and we knew that we would stand for what we believed in.
The strength in numbers became our power. we had seen Martin Luther King leading the protest charge for equality in the U.S We saw the numbers swell with protest and that Freedom Marches worked and wrought change. People mattered, not just the select few in Government that thought they knew all the answers for the rest of us. We marched in the streets of Melbourne to stop the War.
My brother, a soldier, went to Vietnam and after that hardly ever spoke of it. Ever. It was too ugly too grim, too bad. It cost him his marriage and years of his life that he could never get back. It was futile and puerile and he never wanted to talk of it. Leaving it in the past. He said the US army were using a lot of drugs, speed, heroin, were young and in trouble and certainly didn't need to be there. It was madness, it had to be stopped. It wasn't Australia's War, it wasn't the Americans War. It wasn't anyone's war.
Love Janette
He loved Woodie Guthrey, idolised him. He was a simple folk singer that song of the working man in the dust bowl of the depression years, and the rights of workers. And Dylan did the same. To get the core of the songs he broke them down into simple stanzas and words. Belaboured like a mad man over getting it right. And at that time the world needed a voice, someone new and original and Bob Dylan became that voice.
He was weird enough to be interesting as he sat with his guitar and cap and harmonica in a brace below his chin. His voice was nasal and a little whiny but his music was heaven. He sang of change as change was sweeping the world. "The answers my friend are blowing in the wind ", he sang songs of Freedom and protest and his style and persona became the icons of protest and change. The youth of America heeded the call.
They took to the streets in protest to stop the war in Vietnam. We had finally come of age where TV's instead of just showing I Love Lucy were showing people being killed in Vietnam. Slaughtered in Vietnam and that bodies of young boys were being shipped home to families in boxes. Young beautiful boys.
It was wrong. So wrong. And the students and the youth all around the world asked for change, demanded change, there was to be nothing like it. Kennedy had been shot, his young pleasant smiling face blown away by a mad man. We grieved for Jackie and her two babies but more than that we grieved for the ideals he stood for. We had felt he could make a difference and he was gone.
That only made people more aware that evil was alive and well and living in the hearts and minds of mad men. If Kennedy could be shot, so publicly and so shockingly then the world had gone mad and the people grew restless. No more trusting of authorities or "The Man" to help or do the right thing. We lost our innocence that day in Dallas and forever after the baby Boomer generation was never to be the same.
Protest gatherings swelled, no more Mr and Mrs America who seemed apathetic and weak, seduced by their new affluent lifestyle in the burbs. We were young and idealistic and we knew that change was coming, could feel it, smelt it and Bob Dylan was spearheading our thoughts of Freeedom. No more pap on the radio of "Will he still love me tomorrow? ". We wanted death and ire and anger and protest as that was what would ring the changes.
Dylan began as a folk singer and offended the snobby Folk singer world by his use of electronics. They must have been mighty jealous of his fame and meteoric rise. His words which were like food to the soul. In one line he could capture the hearts and minds of the youth of the western world. He was not bound by convention, he was as fresh as the air and we breathed it in. Breathed in change and the answers that were blowing in the wind.
We breathed in his complete disregard for what "The Man" wanted to hear, he was seemingly not bound by fat Wall street cats that wanted him to conform. Hippies were wandering the streets of Height Ashbury promoting Peace and Love and Ban the Bomb. And they were right. They were on drugs however and that the middle classes could not stand.
But Dylan no matter how much he doesn't want to be famous for it was the change we wanted. Our innocence was gone along with JFK, we wanted what we wanted and all things were about to change. People were no longer the huddled "masses", they were individual that could protest about evil and decided to do so even if the cost was great. They rallied in numbers big enough to be heard. We weren't all dope smoking Hippies. We were the world and we knew that we would stand for what we believed in.
The strength in numbers became our power. we had seen Martin Luther King leading the protest charge for equality in the U.S We saw the numbers swell with protest and that Freedom Marches worked and wrought change. People mattered, not just the select few in Government that thought they knew all the answers for the rest of us. We marched in the streets of Melbourne to stop the War.
My brother, a soldier, went to Vietnam and after that hardly ever spoke of it. Ever. It was too ugly too grim, too bad. It cost him his marriage and years of his life that he could never get back. It was futile and puerile and he never wanted to talk of it. Leaving it in the past. He said the US army were using a lot of drugs, speed, heroin, were young and in trouble and certainly didn't need to be there. It was madness, it had to be stopped. It wasn't Australia's War, it wasn't the Americans War. It wasn't anyone's war.
Love Janette
