“Like a comet”: The artist Bob Dylan claimed was from another galaxy
Some of the biggest rock stars in the world are the ones who don’t even seem human. Sure, there might be some that have the power to shape the world by sounding like a regular Joe, but the true power that a stage gives someone has been used to the fullest extent by artists who want to be larger than life. There might be the showman types like David Lee Roth or the tortured artists like Kurt Cobain, but Bob Dylan was always in a category all his own when he stepped out with a guitar in his hand.
Looking through some of his finest performances, Dylan had a brilliant way of making music that was both poignant and sarcastic all at the same time. There was no clear division between the lines that were meant to inspire and those that were trying to poke fun at people, but Dylan probably wouldn’t have had to change too much of his delivery to let people know exactly what he was thinking on some of his best material.
Then again, cutting his teeth as a folk singer in the vein of Pete Seeger was never his calling. The genesis of rock and roll had lit a fire in Dylan the same way it did in other kids around his age, and listening to people like Little Richard gave him the kind of fury in his music that wasn’t always seen in the Woody Guthries of the world. So when he went electric, it should have been considered the next logical step, but that’s not what happened.
Anyone who had come on board the Dylan hype train was suddenly grossly offended by what he had to say, but it wasn’t anything different from what he was doing before. He had always told people to try and defy the status quo whenever possible, and that kind of rebelliousness came from him idolising those who were considered freaks in their day, like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.
Although Presley was heralded as ‘The King’ by many, Dylan felt that Jerry Lee Lewis belonged in a class all his own. Little Richard was the first piano-bashing wild man who put a little more punch in his delivery, but Lewis’s performance felt the musical equivalent of being hopped up on caffeine. Richard had the androgyny to back him up, but Lewis’s relentless energy playing ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ was nothing short of spellbinding, especially when he kicked his piano stool when he played and beat the hell out of his instrument.
Even though Dylan was far more subdued than Lewis would ever be, he had the utmost respect for his otherworldly skills, saying, “Rock and roll made you oblivious to the fear, busted down the barriers that race and religion, ideologies put up. That was the feeling at the time. Jerry Lee Lewis came in like a streaking comet from some faraway galaxy. Rock and roll was atomic-powered, all zoom and doom. It didn’t seem like an extension of anything, but it probably was.”
And while Dylan was not going to beat the hell out of his instrument or light his guitar on fire like Jimi Hendrix, hearing him sing during his electric period gave a more animated performance than before. When listening to him sit behind the piano to play ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’, you can see him physically morph himself into something new, almost like he’s a rabid dog that’s just been let loose for the first time.
People used to hearing him with an acoustic guitar may have been perplexed, but this was what rock and roll was all about. He only wanted to make something that would entertain the audience, but the power of rock and roll always comes from some primal force rather than through pure entertainment.
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