The last “pure” rock and roll band, according to Bob Dylan
The issue with and benefit to movements throughout music is that they end. Their end ushers in new sounds and styles crucial to the art form’s development; however, it also means that what someone once loved about music eventually dissipates. Bob Dylan has been on the receiving end of this shift in the landscape as folk music steadily lost all meaning in New York, given the artists no longer represented what the music did.
The anti-folk movement came on the heels of the folk movement, which was losing relevance. Artists like Beck, who were struggling, couch surfing, and essentially living inside the hard times depicted in folk music, couldn’t get a gig because all of the slots were filled by millionaires like Bob Dylan, who were no longer an accurate reflection of the songs they were singing.
One of the most prominent genres constantly shifting in sound and style is rock music. It’s tough to describe a band as rock now because there are so many variations of it. When you look at artists in the 1960s, such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Who, what they stood for, looked like, and sounded like is a lot different from ‘80s bands, such as Twisted Sister, Poison and Guns N’ Roses. However, they are all still considered rock bands.
The ’80s was a controversial time for rock music, as many purists felt that bands were becoming more style-over-substance. Bob Dylan predicted this change when he talked about the shifting landscape of music in general.
“Rock and Roll ended with Phil Spector. The Beatles weren’t rock and roll either. Nor the Rolling Stones. Rock and roll ended with Little Anthony and the Imperials. Pure rock and roll,” he said.
He went on to talk about music throughout the 1970s and how he doesn’t see it as rock music but instead as a period when music is trying to heal itself. He also confirms that by the time the ‘80s come around, bands won’t have anywhere to hide. In this sense, he is predicting the movement of the ‘80s as people stopped looking deep within themselves for things to write about and instead centred the tone of a lot of rock music around party culture.
“The 1970s, I see as a period of reconstruction after the ’60s, that’s all,” he said, “That’s why people say: well, it’s boring, nothing’s really happening, and that’s because wounds are healing. By the ’80s, anyone who’s going to be doing anything will have his or her cards showing. You won’t be able to get back in the game in the ’80s.”
As someone who would eventually be on the receiving end of how music changes and makes it hard for artists to adjust, it’s interesting to see Dylan talk so openly about how rock music changes and predict how it would contort for good. The ‘80s welcomed a brand new era, one where people did not have to have their cards or show or hide them behind the bland style of their music.
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