Odds and Ends Essays, Blogs, Internet Discussions, Interviews and Miscellany

Jeffrey Side
Tim, I’m reading all your posts and will gather my responses in one forthcoming post.
Jamie McKendrick
His relation to a tradition of song is something I believe Dylan also holds dear, and that informs the words as well as
the music. He often gets spoken of as an absolute singularity, and the Nobel merely adds to that, so for me the image
of him singing beside Blind Willie McTell is really important. I mentioned two of his most obvious and often noticed
influences earlier-Woodie [sic] Guthrie and Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. But Dylan from the
very start has been astonishingly eclectic and I think that has contributed to the breadth and durability of his appeal.
Earlier, Mark [in the discussion previously referred to] (I’m not quoting exactly) argued that he was always a better
artist than the “folkies” were. I take this, in part, to be a reference to the1965 Newport Folk Festival where he was
benightedly booed by a section of the audience for going electric. But the American folk tradition which obviously
and crucially includes Blues, and I would say Jazz as well, is one of the glories of world, not just US culture, so seeing
Dylan within it is not in any way to diminish him.
Jeffrey Side
Tim, not all of your posts were addressed to [should be: “refer to”] me, so I’ll respond to those that don’t as well as
to those that do. I’ll put my responses beneath quoted passages by you.
‘There has been a tendency in these conversations towards an unwillingness to separate off parts-if someone was
to praise Dylan’s guitar playing on The Good Is Gone album [he means Good as I Been to You] that would not be a
belittling of his vocal performance or the strength and mystery of the songs (which were all traditional of courseagain
with spare and suggestive narratives and imagery which far outshine a good deal of finicky literary poetry that
pretends to be doing similar). Of course with someone like Dylan it all becomes one, and is supposed to, and I have
never denied that-for me it’s just not the point’.
Personally, I’m willing to separate parts of Dylan’s art. There are, indeed, distinct elements of it in play. Each can be
appreciated separately in my view, but it is the gathering together of them in one performance that makes them
effective. I’ve read his lyrics on the page, and though they do have striking turns of phrase, and utilise poetic
ambiguity far more effectively than much of modern mainstream written poetry does, the naked text on the page
seems sparse and dry. Maybe this isn’t the case with all his lyrics-how could it be; he’s written so many of them,
that many will compare favourably with written poetry when read as texts. His lyrics are, indeed, poetic and do
contain poetic elements like metaphor, allusion, symbolism etc. It is only that the placement of the words and
phrases on the page, don’t read as smoothly, as, say, Eliot’s ‘Prufrock’. To say this, isn’t denying that they are poetic
or literary, etc. just that they don’t read as pleasingly as they sound when sung. A poor comparison (I can’t think of a
better one) is that between the performance of a play and the text of the play being read as a story. Or the watching
of a film with the sound turned down and the colour (if it is in colour) removed. Both art forms need their other
elements to fully be effective, as does Dylan’s art.
‘If you look at my reasons for backing up the Dylan thing you should see that my argument is not dependant on this
lyric/poem thing’.
Can you explain this? I must have missed that part of the discussion.
‘I think you are right on that Jeff. If Dylan was on the Nobel committee Dylan would not have been given the prize.
But that’s just his opinion, I or anyone else can have another’.
I’m not against him having a Nobel-though I know you aren’t saying I am. I’m just stating that for the record. He
does, indeed, deserve to have one. I do regard what he does as being “literature”, as that term accommodates (or
perhaps should) all art forms that operate with words, and songs do.
As I said to Jamie, a few years ago I would have been in full agreement with you. But I don’t see Dylan as needing to
be defended anymore regarding his needing to be recognised as a “written poet”, as I don’t see written poetry being
superior to song.
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