All kidding aside, Ande asked us for our opinion, so here's mine.

Dylan's lyrics, to me, are just that...lyrics. I say this because they are released to the public on musical recordings. Some are topical, some are traditional. He's not my favorite lyricist, but he's written songs that are among my favorites.

My favorite lyricist is a fellow named Richard Dobson. He's a little more "down to earth" than Dylan...Nanci Griffith called Richard the "Hemingway of country music."

Dylan's emergence in the sixties causes him to be connected with that era, but he's sold well since.

Will he go down in history as a poet of consequence? Perhaps, but I tend to doubt it. Do I find his music on par with the greats? No, I think it's at best, pretty good. But his singing, however has had an amazing impact on Western popular music. John Lennon, John Prine, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty, to name a few, were all directly affected by his singing style. Hardly a writer's night goes by without someone sounding Dylanesque ("Dylanesque" itself is a commonly used description for a type of singing, phrasing, and songwriting.)

Some of his lyrics were politically and socially descriptive. These days of American political acrimony beyond, I believe, even those of the sixties...perhaps unmatched since the eighteen sixties...any assesment of his work will often be seen through the filter of ideology. Perhaps the future will be kind to him as it has been to Stephen Foster, whose work was conversely thought racist and tolerant, or Richard Wagner, whose opinions were long fused to his musical legacy.

Or maybe not.

All the Best,
Mike

------------------
Mike Dunbar Music

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music