Bob Dylan huh?

[Yegolev]

I still like Bowie better.

That's like saying you like lobster better than asparagus.  They are completely different types of music. 

Yes, pretty much.

[Fraeg]

Since it seems like an open field for random opinions on this thread


Townes Van Zandt>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Dylan

Lyrically, and singing.  Townes drank himself into the grave, but even towards the end he still sounded good.  I saw Dylan in the late 80's (89ish?) and he was god awful, I hate to think of what he might sound like now. 

[Grimwell]

I like Jake E. Lee more than any other Ozzy guitarist.

/amidoinitright?

[schild]

I still like Bowie better.

That's like saying you like lobster better than asparagus.  They are completely different types of music.  

Yes, pretty much.

Yea, and Lobster is better than Asparagus. Not really rocket science.

Bowie makes Dylan look like an amateur hack that happened to trip over some clever wordsmithing every once in a while.

Edit: As for Bowie being squandered talent, lol. That said, I just like to go with the feeling that Peter Murphy (the closest solo career I can find to Bowie, at least in that brand of music) finally caught up with and surpassed Bowie with Deep and only got better with Holy Smoke and Cascade where Bowie started to just tread water.

[Nebu]

Music fits moods... just like food.  I love Bowie, but only when I'm in the mood for Bowie.  Dylan just fits a certain "mood". 

Maybe it's an era thing.  Hell, I can't even explain why I like Dylan any more than I can explain why I hate anime. 

[schild]

You guys hate Dylan.  Great.  It's a personal taste thing.

I wish it were that simple. He's one of those folks who has fans that hit you over the head with how amazing he is and when you finally get around to listening to it, it's like wtf. I'm perfectly willing to assume that if you weren't alive at his peak there's absolutely no way to really relate to his shit - and I'll concede that. But the potheads and people trying to pretend they were born in a different generation make him out to be a shiny golden god when really he just sounds like a burnt out hippy with a mouth full of marbles. In a decade I'm sure some of the kids youngsters today will think Cobain was some kind of fucking Virtuoso and I can't wait to tell them that they would've been wrong in 1995 too.

Edit: You edited to make the point I was making! /snarl

[Ingmar]

To be fair there's a big difference between what he sounds like *now* and what his early recordings sound like. He's actually pretty understandable in a lot of the studio stuff, even some of the later things.

[hal]

I like Dylan.. a lot. Is he an incredible singer?  Hes a damn fine songwriter. Tell ya a story,  a true one, but a story all the same. My dad was dieing of cancer my kids (daughters) were like 13 and 9. I chose to take the 13 year old as she would not need much support and might actually help as I went to visit him for the last time. Nashville to Cape Coral FLA. We get close to Chattanooga and I look over and she is sitting stiff (daddy is the stern one mommy is the lenient one. That's just how we roll) so I tell her I need some help with the lyrics of a song. I have never figured them all out. Subterranean Homesick Blues we sang it over and over for the next 12 hours. If you don't have it get it. If you do have it play it. It is right up there with country joe and the fish with hell no we won't go. It is what 1967 felt like at least in my experience. Ya, I like Dylan a lot. Favorite album? Blood on the tracks. Is he a great singer? Hell of a song writer and made great sense at the time.

[schild]

Is he an incredible singer?  Hes a damn fine songwriter.

Is he a great singer? Hell of a song writer

Saying it twice doesn't make him more listenable. Once again though, you were alive back then.

Also:

made great sense at the time.

great sense at the time.

at the time.

[schild]

Subterranean Homesick Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2af69xt0VKE

[Grimwell]

This is analogous to how I feel about Dylan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits

You have to really be into music on level that is deeper than the consumer to appreciate either of them. Any hits they have had to their own name are accidents and not manufactured. They aren't in it to be big stars. Both have amazingly deep reserves of talent and when others reinterpert their work... it comes out far better to the average person's ears.

Oddly, I put Billy Corgan in the same category. He writes far better music than he plays.

[stray]

Oh, I think Billy is an amazing guitar player (and producer), right there in the albums. It's the singing that I know isn't always accessible to people (maybe that's what you're referring to as well).

I'm with you about Waits..

[Selby]

I like some of Dylan's work.  Most of it I find to be a bit rambly and boring, but different strokes and all that.  I wasn't even close to being alive when he was in his prime, yet I can still see why some people love him.  Many artists are hit and miss live though.  If there is one thing I hate, it's sitting through a CD performance after having paid $$ to see the band live.  Moby was bad about that, his performance was just downright awful.

[Sky]

I love me some Tom Waits, and thanks to Stray for turning me onto him. We then had a librarian that unfortunately moved back to Long Island that gave me a couple of his albums. Definitely an acquired taste, fiancee doesn't get it.

On harp playing. Junior Wells, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jerry Portnoy, James Cotton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nisxh5PPFBA (Junior is also one of my favorite singers and played with Otis and Buddy, two of my favorite guitarists)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx606E2OzPE (love the sound Cotton's getting in 66, shades of blues rock to come)

[Yegolev]

I'd like to think Waits is an acquired taste but good, so that I can continue bagging on Dylan.

I kinda wish Corgan would stick to writing.  I don't remember Zwan being any good.

[HaemishM]

Waits is most definitely an acquired taste, but I actually think he should go down as a better songwriter than Dylan - and this is coming from someone who likes Dylan for what he is. I don't own any Dylan albums and think the best songs of his were recorded better by someone else (All Along the Watchtower by Hendrix smokes any other version). Waits' songwriting just has so much more range, intelligence and innovation. The motherfucker created his own instruments to play some of that shit. Dylan is a good wordsmith - Waits is a fantastic wordsmith and a crafter of music.

[Broughden]

In a decade I'm sure some of the kids youngsters today will think Cobain was some kind of fucking Virtuoso and I can't wait to tell them that they would've been wrong in 1995 too.

Edit: You edited to make the point I was making! /snarl

Oh that shit already happens with Nirvana and Cobain. People think he was some fucking rock god. 


And Billy Corgan is another whiny sounding fuck who should stick to writing and never be let near a microphone ever again.

[Fargull]

The correct way a Dylan song should be heard...

Course, I am a little biased on that mark.

[Sky]

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/04/50-best-bob-dylan-covers-of-all-time.html

[NowhereMan]

I like Tom Waits but frankly I think he makes the single best drunken morose sorrow drowning soundtrack ever.

[Sheepherder]

Oh that shit already happens with Nirvana and Cobain. People think he was some fucking rock god. 

Metallica.  Black album.  Every time somebody says that Enter Sandman is their best song God pinches off a kitten's head with his sphincter.

[stray]

I don't understand why some of you care about whatever other people like. If other people think Dylan or Cobain are "rock gods", then so be it. It's like you think there are facts behind it all or some shit, and that you know them, and others must too. When it's all bullshit actually, like or dislike. There are no facts, and one's own tastes should be enough to worry about (imho). Don't mean to be preachy, but goddamn. Personally, I reserve pure hate for the most automated dance type of tracks. It's only a step up from pressing demo on a Casio keyboard. But I still don't give a fuck if someone likes them. Sounds like a waste of time and stress.  

[schild]

I don't understand why some of you care about whatever other people like.

You can't account for bad taste, but you sure as shit can make fun of it.

[stray]

Ah, carry on then. As long as it makes you feel good. 

[stray]

Hey speaking of Metallica, am I alone in thinking Death Magnetic is pretty damn good?! 

Cynanide is groovy

[Merusk]

You are not, sir.  I mentioned it in the other music thread, but I think everyone else here has given up on them.

Oh that shit already happens with Nirvana and Cobain. People think he was some fucking rock god. 

Metallica.  Black album.  Every time somebody says that Enter Sandman is their best song God pinches off a kitten's head with his sphincter.

Yes, folks do that with both bands.  Which sucks as Enter Sandman was, IMO, the WORST track on the Black album.Nirvana's over-hyped existence has been covered here before.

[Selby]

Hey speaking of Metallica, am I alone in thinking Death Magnetic is pretty damn good?!

I don't like James' voice.  That alone turns me off to most of it.  Other than that, it's all right.  Had it come out a few years ago, it would have been a different story but I'm so far removed from the world of Metallica that I just don't really care for them too much anymore (even the older stuff).

[Grimwell]

Hey speaking of Metallica, am I alone in thinking Death Magnetic is pretty damn good?!

I don't like James' voice.  That alone turns me off to most of it.  Other than that, it's all right.  Had it come out a few years ago, it would have been a different story but I'm so far removed from the world of Metallica that I just don't really care for them too much anymore (even the older stuff).

This.

In the late 80's I would lose house working through their songs and learning the bass lines. Now? I wish I'd chosen Megadeth.

[stray]

"Hello Me, this is the Real Me"? 


But yeah Dave Ellefson(sp) was definitely the more skilled bass player for sure... Vs Newstead, I mean.

[Grimwell]

Older. I'd rather know the fingering for "Peace Sells..." and now am too graceless to accomplish it. :)

[Evildrider]

Oh that shit already happens with Nirvana and Cobain. People think he was some fucking rock god.  

Metallica.  Black album.  Every time somebody says that Enter Sandman is their best song God pinches off a kitten's head with his sphincter.

And Justice For All was the last great Metallica Album.  Ride the Lightning being my personal favorite.  

I was never a big Nirvana fan personally.  I thought Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were definitely superior.

[Nebu]

And Justice For All was the last great Metallica Album.  Ride the Lightning being my personal favorite.  

I thought they were trying too hard on that album.  I prefer Master of Puppets for my Metallica fix. 

[stray]

Kill em all!

...which some of these newer songs sound closer to in a way. Stripped down, tight, but groovy metal riffage. Not so reverb heavy and spacious as Master and Lightning either. Metallica.. Iron Maiden.. bands like that.. I enjoy them when they're in your face more. :P Not to mention there's a nice blues tinge to many tracks on Kill Em All (and why I like that song above too.. that's a Metallica I haven't heard in a long time)..


And Justice for All is cool, but I don't like the deafening bass noise when you crank it up.

[Selby]

And Justice for All is cool, but I don't like the deafening bass noise when you crank it up.

What, there's bass on that album?  ;-)

[Arnold]

I like Mellencamp alot, but he's boring in concert for me. We saw the Allmans "open" for Tom Petty a couple years ago, Tom is the same kind of artist. I like a marriage of songs and music, Tom and Jphn are "songs" guys. You'll hear the hits, and a few interesting deep catalog choices, but nothing you can't get from a cd player. You go see someone like Widespread Panic (opening for the Allmans this year), and you get music but not much in the way of songs, turns into boring jams (though elevated while Jimmy sits in with them). A band like the Allmans, you get great songs and incredible musicianship with everything being malleable, the live versions often being far superior to the recorded versions. I like any band that puts musicianship to the fore while still playing good songs to showcase it.

Ah you think like me.  I am impressed by a band that accurately replays music represented on record (usually with ~27 backing musicians), but not necessarily entertained.  As you commented, I could have enjoyed the CD (or even a "live CD"!) from the comfort of my own home, for much cheaper, for basically the same experience (unless you want to get slammed on the front rail to get up close and personal).

On the other hand, you've got the shitty jam bands that go on and ON and ON and ON... ... ... ... CHRIST WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO ENTERTAIN???  You mentioned Widespread Panic, but one of my roommate's buddies insists on playing one of his bootlegs of String Cheese Incident EVERY FUCKING TIME he comes over.  Same shit. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I like something that Greg Allman said.  He said that they were not a "jam band", but were a "band that jams", and they tend to pretty well balance the jamming and the song playing.  I'd throw Deep Purple in the same category. 

I'm not a huge country fan, but I like some of the older stuff and I think Willie Nelson's band does a real nice blend of playing hits and allowing band members to shine in solos.