Confessionalism still goes on but not in a Berryman or Lowell context & looking back on that genre now it had virtues. Many poets of the younger generation are quite open on their lives & times & Andrea Brady i.e. does not hold back or Sutherland. They do it in a very post Prynne mode of poetics with Brady probably much more open than Keston. Contrast Brady's work on motherhood to Eavan Boland's "Night Feed" & despite the time lapse the total honesty is startling. Sutherland even in his SM orientated work does not reach this level of honesty. Clouding the poems with political discourse avoids the core issues he is exploring. This is very obvious when one sees him read on film or in person.
At a major festival many moons ago Dylan insisted on being paid in hard cash which contrasted to many other iconic artists on the weekend bill with him. His letting down of Phil Ochs in his times of hardship can never be defended. Ochs merited far better in his time of homelessness which many have never experienced. Of course nobody with chemical problems is easy to handle but Phil was not a violent man. While his dodging of Dominic Behan who rightly confronted his lifting of "The Patriot Game" is a blemish on Dylan.
Why Dylan or Springsteen cannot write about their real positions in society I do find irksome. Ok as Tim said fables & yarns make up a lot of their lyrical output but that is no excuse. Indeed both men could learn a lot from rap artists who shoot from the hip & don no masks. Often performing poets are simply playing the theatre card but few pull it out. Many are rooted in conservative poetic role models from eras now history. Many modern celebrity icons make no excuses for their wealth & fame & do full interviews. They account for their bank balances in a very honest manner & I welcome it.
We all are very quick to assume all political figures should account for everything plus thinking every TD or MP is only in it for the money. In real terms a post political era started a fair few years ago when all politics became a brand. But can anyone explain Dylan's political views or his attitude to any current issue? Did he call himself Bob Dylan after Dylan Thomas or Matt Dillon? Does Bob pay taxes or contribute to any charity? Has Bob opened up his many mansions to migrants or housed any homeless person? Was the motor bike crash a real event or an escape from the burden of fame? What is Bob Dylan's attitude to women given his lyrical tirades against women he claimed to love?
With a Lowell or Berryman there would have been no problem with these ?s or indeed Norman Mailer no fan of Bob Dylan. His quip on if Dylan is a writer Norm was a basketball player has shades of Antin on Lowell.
Anyway there we go on Bob Dylan.
Cheers
sc
On guys or gals who hung out in the Rat Pack era they never hid the fact they were making a fortune. They mixed with rogues as well as angels in Hollywood or Vegas. Dylan seems to avoid any "friends" since he retreated to New York State. His skill in avoiding the MSM & popular media is unique in my memory for such a major star.
Turn that frown upside down
On Saturday, 15 October 2016, Jeffrey Side <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Sean, to say that Dylan should only write songs from a rich person’s perspective because he is rich assumes that poetry is always confessional. This idea of the confessional and “sincere” poet as being the ideal of what a poet should be, only really came into predominance with Wordsworth, so it is a relatively new concept in poetry. To use it as the measure for acceptable poetry or songs is, I think, a little too constraining. As Tim said in an earlier post: ‘Dylan is often a story-teller, but there is always an emotional bind between the story and his delivery of it’. Besides, it would be very boring (and alienating for non-rich audiences) if rich songwriters only wrote songs that reflected their current lifestyles.
On 14 Oct 2016, at 25:09, Sean Carey wrote:
In "Time Out Of Mind" we have the theme of a broken hearted song writer down on his luck. If any other equally megarich artist did this he would have had little sympathy. I would accept the young bluesmen or women writing such lyrics but not Dylan.
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