[QUOTE]Originally posted by RobertK:


It depends upon who's doing the lionizin'...

There's great... then there's great.

Also, for the past forty years or so, too many circles of critics have made the political stands of the individual as important (perhaps even more important) than the art itself.

This is a nice dodge, but it is a cop-out (good hippie word, huh?). When critics support your ideas, you hold them up as paragons of wisdom. When critics do not support your views, you dismiss them. You can't have it both ways.


I think most who admire him fall under the category of being more enamoured with the sound of words rather than their actual meaning.

This is rather condescending, isn't it? Perhaps you just don't "get" Dylan. There is no crime in that, of course. Most of Dylan's lyrics are quite clear to me. There is no doubt that he uses words as sounds from time to time. Lots of good writers do that. Think "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Arlen and Harburg had a ball with word sounds in "Wizard of Oz."

And speaking from a strict music/composition standpoint, he's third-tier, a league off.

Oh, boy. I knew you would wade around until you stepped in a hole that would put you in over your head.