Off the Shelf: Bob Dylan

Sorry for the hiatus.  My non-blogging life got a bit out of hand.  But I'm back with a long overdue Off the Shelf installment: Bob Dylan (told you it was a chewy one). 

I randomly selected from Ye Olde CD Shelfe The Best of Bob Dylan, a disc I picked up while going through a mild Bob Dylan phase (actually I picked up at least 3 Dylan discs during that time).  I've touched on the genius of Dylan already; very briefly in one of the Billy Joel/We Didn't Start the Fire variations, but I think I can give you a bit more.

The Best of disc features many of the greatest hits (as you would expect from something with "best of" in the title) from Dylan over the course of his career.  The liner notes are quick to tell us that it's impossible to put all of Dylan's greatest songs onto one single disc, which is true, but this one is still a good representation his work, starting with Blowin' in the Wind, passing through All Along the Watchtower, and briefly into his more recent work. 

Dylan made waves with a stream-of-consciousness, politically charged, confessional style of folk music.  One the songs that really caught my attention was Hurricane, co-written with Jacques Levy in 1975.  The song describes, in true folk-song narration, the accusation, trial, and imprisonment of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was a friend of Dylan.  Carter was accused of robbery and murder, in accomplice with two other accused men.  The initial trial gave him a guilty sentence, but Dylan, among other supporters, felt that the trial was racially charged, and so, in protest to what he felt was an unfair trial and sentence, wrote the song.  He was forced to re-record it to avoid potential lawsuits concerning the details about the actions of the other two men in the trial.  The song eventually stirred things up enough to get Carter a second trial.  In 1988, all charges against Carter were dropped.

I couldn't help but notice how many Dylan songs end up as hit cover songs by other artists.  Watchtower has been covered countless times, from the "definitive" cover by Jimi Hendrix to my favourite cover by the Dave Matthews Band.  Knockin' on Heaven's Door was covered most notably by Eric Clapton, but also by Guns N' Roses, Booker T and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  Blowin' in the Wind was made a hit by Peter, Paul & Mary (not to mention all the renditions sung around campfires, by church groups, and by protesters protesting anything.)

Truthfully, this entry will not be as complete as I'd like it to be.  The story of Bob Dylan is just too big for me to take in right now.  But I'll keep turning it over in my brain, like a rolling stone.