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Has Bob Dylan declined as a song writer?

Malcolm_XMalcolm_X Posts: 93
edited June 2007 in Other Music
For the first time in my life I'm starting to become a hard core Dylan fan. I have some of his really early albums, and I bought the unplugged, but has his song writting gone down hill? Like his early stuff seems way deep, and I heard some of Modern Times, and the lyrics don't seem very deep to me.
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Comments

  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    They're deeper.
  • Malcolm_XMalcolm_X Posts: 93
    Are you sure, his early stuff seems all about metaphore
  • pjoasisrulepjoasisrule Posts: 3,412
    No but his voice is crap now
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

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  • adam42381adam42381 Kernersville, NC Posts: 2,515
    pjoasisrule wrote:
    No but his voice is crap now
    Because he had the most beautiful voice in his prime!
    I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me.
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  • pjoasisrulepjoasisrule Posts: 3,412
    adam42381 wrote:
    Because he had the most beautiful voice in his prime!

    I didnt say he did but at least he didnt struggle through songs then
    Alpine Valley 2000
    Summerfest 2006

    "Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?" -Lisa Simpson
  • red mosred mos Posts: 4,953
    He is still an excellent lyricist, but live shows as far as vocal delivery are hit and miss.
    PJ: 10/14/00 06/09/03 10/4/09 11/15/13 11/16/13 10/08/14
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  • LiftedLifted Posts: 1,836
    i'm not gonna come out and say that he is a better songwriter now, but i will say he has definitely not lost his touch. this is the greatest songwriter of all time in my opinion and he is still making relevant records to this day. Modern Times was one of the albums of the year of '06 and "someday baby" from that album ranks up there with some of the best songs ever written in my opinion. of course he has a completely different sound now than he did in the 60's and 70's, and yes his voice has deteriorated a bit, but the quality of the music is still there. this guy will be writing beautiful songs until he calls it quits..............that being said i can understand someone like you who is a fan of the early stuff thinking he's lost it a bit, because the new stuff is completely different music, so obviously it won't appeal to everyone who liked the early stuff. still though, if you appreciate great music, i would think it would be hard to not recognize the quality of his new work.
  • bird jambird jam Posts: 107
    The answer to your question is no.
    Liberace was great on the piano but he sucked on the organ.
  • direwolf74direwolf74 Posts: 1,622
    No way. Modern Times and Love & Theft are both brilliant, and Time Out of Mind is one of my favorite records of all time.
    "I try my best to chug, stomp, weep, whisper, moan, wheeze, scat, blurt, rage, whine, and seduce. With my voice I can sound like a girl, the boogieman, a Theremin, a cherry bomb, a clown, a doctor, a murderer. I can be tribal. Ironic. Or disturbed. My voice is really my instrument."

    -Tom Waits
  • LedZepFanLedZepFan Posts: 1,009
    i would argue that we are in a Dylan revival...I enjoy Modern Times just as much if not more than albums from the 60s and 70s

    I think there are three Dylan peaks-the mid 60s Rock era, the mid 70s with Desire, Blood On the Tracks and the Rolling Thunder Revue, and now
    I've faced it, a life wasted, and I'm never going back again.

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  • sadprofessorsadprofessor Posts: 1,034
    Dylan went to hell in the 80's, but the last three records have been a fucking renaissance.
    The Man has a branch office in each of our brains, his corporate emblem is a white albatross, each local rep has a cover known as the Ego, and their mission in this world is Bad Shit.
  • merkinballmerkinball Posts: 2,262
    direwolf74 wrote:
    No way. Modern Times and Love & Theft are both brilliant, and Time Out of Mind is one of my favorite records of all time.

    I'd agree with that. I wasn't so sure about Modern Times when it came out, but its really grown on me. Workingmans Blues in particular is my favorite track on the disc, great vocal delivery.

    Not too many other artists that have changed their sound as successfully as Dylan either. His lyrics are changing to fit the type of music he's writing.
    "You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could.

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  • BetterManningNYGBetterManningNYG Posts: 777
    merkinball wrote:
    Workingmans Blues in particular is my favorite track on the disc, great vocal delivery.

    mine too...


    in response to the initial question, i would say that dylan has not declined as a songwriter.

    modern times was his 32nd studio album, and that's a list that includes (arguably) some of the greatest songwriting albums of all time.

    to come out with 32 albums and still be highly relevant is an amazing achievement. i don't think there's another musician in the world who could possibly hope to accomplish something like that (except for johnny cash, but he didn't write nearly as many originals as dylan).

    i would even go so far as to say that maintaining relevance after all these years is as impressive an accomplishment as anything he's done throughout his entire career (which is certainly saying a lot).


    "I asked Fat Nancy for something to eat,
    She said, 'Take it off the shelf -
    As great as you are a man,
    You'll never be greater than yourself.'
    I told her I didn't really care.
    High water everywhere."
    --Bob Dylan, High Water (for Charley Patton)
  • keyser_sozekeyser_soze London, England Posts: 205
    he was never as good as neil young anywho!
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