Jamie, a few years ago, I would, no doubt, have disagreed with you, but I think my views then were essentially born out of my need to defend Dylan from the charge that he was not a serious artist; a charge that had been levelled against him by many people in (or associated with) avant-garde and mainstream poetic circles.
The irony is that Dylan would probably look at my defence as being meaningless, as I don’t think he even sees what he does as being essentially equivalent to written poetry. He would see himself as a performer and singer first.
On Sat, 29 Oct 2016 at 13:56 Jamie McKendrick wrote:
I'm talking too much on this list so I'll keep this one brief. That would be a yes to your question, Jeff, but I'd prefer for the moment to leave it a little more suspended than an outright comparison because there are so many elements in Dylan's songs that I appreciate, and some of those have a lot to do with poetry. If this looks like havering, it's because I want to formulate something a bit more interesting than a statement of my aesthetic preferences (riveting as that may be). Tomorrow when I have some time I'll do what I promised and take an example from Dylan's songbook and try to say a bit more about this.
Just to add, I think I've understood Tim's points. If he hasn't quite understood mine, that's probably my fault as I've been trying to say several things at once and have been having to defend my already dodgy argument from misrepresentation. I don't think the issue maps out at all neatly along some kind of mainstream-avant divide. With conservative mainstreamers being haughty about popular culture and the avant-garde embracing it, or equally vice versa. I think the question touches on issues that equally concern
whatever tendency and may even be a fragile bridge between them.
Anyway I'm happy you see what I've been trying to get at with regard to the differences in song and poetry.
Jamie
|