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Bob Dylan Should

Burn Out

TABATHA LUNDHOLM Arrs Epiror anp Aps MANAGER

In regards to the age-old question of whether it’s better to burn out or to fade away, three’s one man who no one’s ask- ing: Bob Dylan.

Yes, Robert Zimmerman himself is one man who has, ap- parently, done both. Think about it, Bob Dylan is probably his own worst nightmare. This back to when he was just starting out, peddling his songs in bars and cafes, sitting in the park and writing brilliant songs that were about the change the face of the world and music forever; playing his shows for pennies, eight people in the audience.

Now he’s selling out arenas, in many major brand-name commercial advertisements, and rarely releases anything that’s new and fresh. Sure, people get old and lose that spark, and they can’t possibly live up to the standards of their former glory, but come on! iPod, Victoria Secret, Ford? Maybe Rock ‘n Roll is dead, folk is dead, but Bob Dylan keeps on ticking along. He has both burnt out (his songs lack almost everything that made us love him in the first place: political poignancy, musical harmony, stirring lyrics...), and he has almost com- pletely faded away into the dangerous zone of Washed Up Musicians. Sure Bob Dylan will never be Britney Spears, but still, he’s beginning to lack moral fibre.

Any political words Bob Dylan now spurts seem contrived, his musical harmony is computer generated, and the gift Bob Dylan made a name for himself with is now framed in a gold- plated contract with the next mass-marketed commercial ad- vertising company.

Why does he do it? Boredom, money, fame? Or maybe be- cause he feels that this is the only way to relate to today’s audi- ence. Maybe it’s charity! Our generation and the generations to come will never know Mr. Bojangles, and Mr. Tambourine Man isn’t going to come over and sing us any songs. So all

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we can do is hunt down Blonde on Blonde on vinyl, and put the TV on MUTE and watch Ford try to sell a truck. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if next we saw Bob Dylan in an Anti- Drug commercial, telling kids that there really was no double meaning to Rainy Day Women #12 and 35, and that drugs are bad.

He burnt out, that’s for sure. And he’s fading fast because everyone who loved him, I mean really Joved him are doing their best to ignore the iPod colours and Victoria Secret mod- els. All we have are old albums, books, and the stolen mem- ories of a time we were never in, but would give anything to

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go back to.

Think back, way back, to the first Dylan song you ever heard. Mine was “Hurricane,” and it changed my whole life. Such a message in a song in my little fourteen year-old pop-soaked world completely shell-shocked me. Sure it wasn’t really the first time I had ever listened to a Dylan song, but it was cer- tainly the first time I heard it.

Think of the people Bob Dylan has inspired: Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles just to name a few. Half of the people out there haven’t heard any of his new music because they know there’s no point. Modern Times, his latest album

” released in 2006, will never compare to The Freewheelin’ Bob

Dylan, or Bringing it All Back Home. “All Along the Watch- tower” is never going be defeated as a moment in rock history by some current contrived Dylan song.

Think of the people that did burn out: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Syd Barret, John Lennon, and’even the recent-ish Kurt Cobain. These brilliant song writers all had something to say, said it, and were gone. Would it have been better off if Bob did that, too? Or are we all hoping against hope that he’ll wake up one morning and put pen to paper, writing some new brilliant song that’ll revive the long-dead music of the 60s. Or maybe he’ll continue to do commercials and in ten years will die in his sleep. They’ll probably play “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” or “Blowin’ in the Wind” at his funeral.

Which is better, to burn out or to fade away? And why doesn’t Bob Dylan just pick one so we can get back to our turntables, drop the needle on “Tangled Up in Blue,” and think about how to make time machines to go back to a time where tickets to a show were $3 at the Carnagie Hall in New York. Or when he would play festivals that would last three days and the Beatles were raving that Dylan was the next genius of their time. I’m just one flux capacitor away and I’ll be on my way back to 1964.

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