“It’s a dedication”: The musician Bob Dylan thought embodied poetry
Life is the only currency that art truly understands. You can’t fake struggle in the hope of pouring poignant lyrics of the human experience into your music, it will instead by spat back out for its lack of authenticity. It’s predominantly why great music has risen in deprived areas or in periods of intense strife. So why is it Bob Dylan is widely regarded as the greatest lyricist of all time?
By no means did he come from American aristocracy, but by the spectrum of comparison within the country at the time, his upbringing didn’t take place under the heavy foot of oppression. But there was an innate curiosity within Dylan that inspired him to wander uncharted paths in search of enlightenment. In the early stages, that meant hitchhiking across the Midwest to New York and absorbing every mood on the broken ground of America’s favourite city.
Dylan let life run through him, and never hesitated from embracing its harsh realities and as such became the master poet he was. It’s a lifestyle not all artists were willing to share and he knew it. Even the likes of Van Morrison, who himself had crafted a well-respected legacy as a lyricist, claimed Dylan was the greatest.
But when asked about how he felt about the adulation he received for being the world’s sharpest lyrical mind, he was quick to express his dedication to the lifestyle. “It’s within me to put myself up and be a poet, but it’s a dedication,” He said. “It’s a big dedication. Poets don’t drive cars. Poets don’t go to the supermarket. Poets don’t empty the garbage. Poets aren’t on the PTA. Poets, you know, they don’t go picket the Better Housing Bureau, or whatever. Poets don’t… Poets don’t even speak on the telephone. Poets don’t even talk to anybody. Poets do a lot of listening and… and usually they know why they’re poets!”
Ultimately, there are some glaring flaws in his overall summation of the lifestyle, for it didn’t take many top-selling albums for Dylan to lean into the glamour of celebrity living. But regardless, the quality of his work never really dropped off for it and only goes to prove that whatever seed of authenticity he sowed before his breakout into global success, grew into something everlasting. Regardless of where he lived, what shows he played and how elaborate his rider was, his words were always those of a true poet.
As he continued, Dylan’s point was somewhat at odds with the sort of life he pursued. He said, “The world don’t need any more poems, it’s got Shakespeare. There’s enough of everything. You name it, there’s enough of it.”
But as he himself sang, “The times they are a-changing‘,” so the world will continuously need fresh voices. As immortal as Shakespeare and Dylan’s words are, there’s no limit to the bounds of lyrical innovation.
And in the ever-changing times we currently find ourselves in, I have no doubt that the world will need another rambling poet like Dylan, ready to rid themselves of life’s temptations to instead transcend society with their art.
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