Ah, I see where you're coming from now, Sean, since this and your following email make things a lot clearer.  I confess -- shows the limits of my knowledge of both the blues and Dylan -- that I hadn't encountered the term "Delta Blues" as referencing specifically Mississippi Blues singing before.  Memphis Blues?  Was the harmonica local to this brand of the blues?  I always wondered where it came from in those pictures of Dylan, and him singing, and now I know.  

Would Blind Willie McTell count as a Delta Blues singer?  (I've a particular reason for asking that, since somewhere I talk about "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues", and I'd like to get it right.)

Lots of stuff if you google "delta blues" on youtube, that I hadn't known about ...

Teach me to throw sarcastic remarks around, when they can come back and bite you -- "Learn something new every day."  I did, and I've you to thank.

I much prefer it when you're telling me things I don't know, than when you're simply sounding off.

:-)

Best (with thanks, again)

Robin

PS -- I'd guess we'd both agree, on this if nothing else, that Bobby Gentry is much more than a one-trick pony, even if she *is* tagged with the Tallahassee Bridge. But her Delata isn't, to my ear, coming out of the same tradition as Bob Dylan's Delta, which was why I was so snitty earlier.   R.

On 14 October 2016 at 20:57 Sean Carey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I recall Bobby with affection & indeed Billy Joe jumping off that bridge in "Ode To Billy Joe". A fine singer songwriter who may be only remembered for one track. Dylan's claim to the Delta is curious but he is not alone. Singing the blues is valid but not by a major global icon & Kayne West was judged by fans overhere & in Ireland as unworthy of being the headline act at Glastonbury in 2015. I realise Glasto is MOR fare but West fully merited his headline status. Yet in a word textual context Kayne has surpassed Dylan in his lyric range & no mean feat given his time in the business.

What I liked about Kayne was his huge range of subject matter plus no frills or fuss nor did he play to the gallery. For me that is modern & his finger is on the button of popular culture. To me at least now West & other rap artists merit a lot more respect. Dylan got it in his day & on stage West is well worth an eye for poets. Too many readings are dull affairs while many poets who claim "to perform" have little new to say. A lot are in real terms quite conservative with no cutting edge or new insights. 

A while back Hazel Smith wondered where were the David Antin's in modern poetry? Antin born in 1932 hit New York like a rocket in his Deep Image days. I still love his poems & of course the talk poems. In fact I find no real flaws with David's work in an overall context. Hazel's own interview with David is on par with Charles B's longer interview. 

sc

Turn that frown upside down

On Friday, 14 October 2016, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Sean:

          " ...  just another poor boy in the delta."

I really, really don't get this.  What exactly  does the delta have to do with Bob Zimmerman a.k.a. Dylan?  Are you thinking of Bobby Gentry, who *did* come out of the Southern Folk Tradition? ( "Mississippi Delta Days" sorta hints at this.)

Dylan started off from a completely different tradition, Black Blues, as is shown in his often (on his part) acknowledged debt to Blind Willie McTell.

Confusing Southern Folk with Black Blues  is ... well, I won't say it.

Still, learn something new every day:

          " ...  a man who has wealth beyond belief"

I hadn't realised that Dylan had been (like a current contender for CEO America)  born rich, when he was paying homage to Blind Willie singing the blues.

Have you thought of passing this interesting snippet of information onto Dylan's biographers, who seem to have somehow missed it.

On the other hand, I do agree that his best work is from his earlier period.  Bobby Gentry and Barry Blue both chose, at a certain point of their respective careers, to switch tracks, whereas Dylan carried on.  Who's to say which is the better choice?  The grey mare being the better choice ...

Robin

On 14 October 2016 at 14:36 Sean Carey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

In a few words a man who has wealth beyond belief but puts himself across as just another poor boy in the delta. A man nobody knows much about whose lyrical powers ran out decades ago.

Like Bruce Springsteen playing a hardhat on a construction site or Bono supporting every cause that is popular. These guys should write about their real lives which mean songs about being rich and famous.

sc

Turn that frown upside down

On Friday, 14 October 2016, Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I don't really know what most of what you say below Sean has to do with him getting the prize. You seem to be saying that he shouldn't get it on moral grounds. I have no idea who 'the real' Bob Dylan is, any more than I know owho the real anybody is. The prize is for his work, and how deeply important that work has been for so many people - it's got nothing to do with him as a person.

On 14 Oct 2016, at 13:12, Sean Carey wrote:

The most ridiculous & an absurd choice Kent. A man whose quest for profit knows no bounds. A man who plays the poor boy in the delta but is rich beyond belief. A man who wrote Volume 1 of his autobiography with an eye on the Nobel Prize. A man whose only honest interview was in Folkway s magazine in the 1970s. A man whose political beliefs are totally unknown. A man who has carefully cultivated a persona & paid little attention to his adoring fans. A man who has done more touring than studio work. A man whose finest work ended with "Blood On The Tracks". 

By no means the worst writer to win the prize but also another male winner of same & there are many worthy females who have done a lot better than "Tarantula". The first volume of his autobiography should have been titled " Mom Pop and Apple Pie" as it totally avoided reality. The Dylan biographers do not probe the man and to use Wilson's quip on Joyce's biographer "Cain by Abel".

Just my view but one grows weary of media humbug on Dylan now running for 50+ years.

sc

Turn that frown upside down

On Friday, 14 October 2016, Kent Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

So is Dylan the most inspired choice the Nobel committee has ever made, or the most ridiculous one?

(It has to be one of those.)