52 Years Ago Today - Music History

[R_of_G]

http://dylanstubs.com/pictures/1961/GERDES_Poster.jpg

On April 11, 1961 Bob Dylan played his first major gig in NYC, an opening slot for John Lee Hooker. You know the rest.

[sunvalleylaw]

Wow, opening for John Lee Hooker. Cool. I never knew that.

I am a fan of a lot of Dylan songs, but never got into him so much as a performer. That said, my current favorite of his performances of one of his songs is "Tangled Up in Blue".

I never watched all of that big PBS show about him. Maybe I will try to sometime, just for the historical perspective of it.

[Tig]

:cool: Cool!

It makes me feel old even though I wasn't alive then.

[Zip]

I'm with the lawyer, never been a fan of his. The guy sings worse than my pet fish, and he's crazy as a mule on a ferris wheel. But he's launched/helped a thousand careers, and he's every bit as good of a writer as John Prine. A big part of history, for sure.

[sunvalleylaw]

I want to be clear, I don't mean to be overly critical of Mr. Dylan's performances. Part of it is a "you had to be there" thing, for me anyway. I was too young to be part of his original rise, and had "How Many Ways" beat into my head by nuns at my grade school who wanted us to learn the song to perform. other than that, I was hardly consciously aware of Dylan until much later, when I was not into any folk music at all. But I bet if you were part of that scene or that time, you could help but be moved by what he was doing, both in his writing and performing. R_of_G is too young to have been part of that scene too, but he must have experienced Dylan's performances in a way that intrigued him. Historically very significant.

Also, I ended up being a Neil Young fan, long after the the train had left the station. The interplay between Dylan and Young is also very interesting. Neil's voice is also an "acquired taste". It is interesting I became more a Neil fan than a Dylan fan. I don't want to derail the thread on a Neil vs. Bob thing, but I just was intrigued by that thought as I typed.

[R_of_G]

I want to be clear, I don't mean to be overly critical of Mr. Dylan's performances. Part of it is a "you had to be there" thing, for me anyway. I was too young to be part of his original rise, and had "How Many Ways" beat into my head by nuns at my grade school who wanted us to learn the song to perform. other than that, I was hardly consciously aware of Dylan until much later, when I was not into any folk music at all. But I bet if you were part of that scene or that time, you could help but be moved by what he was doing, both in his writing and performing. R_of_G is too young to have been part of that scene too, but he must have experienced Dylan's performances in a way that intrigued him. Historically very significant.

Also, I ended up being a Neil Young fan, long after the the train had left the station. The interplay between Dylan and Young is also very interesting. Neil's voice is also an "acquired taste". It is interesting I became more a Neil fan than a Dylan fan. I don't want to derail the thread on a Neil vs. Bob thing, but I just was intrigued by that thought as I typed.

If the law thing didn't work out, you'd have made a fine diplomat. :)

I can easily separate Dylan the songwriter and Dylan the performer, and I know that there are opinions on both of those that are far ranging. Personally, I love both aspects of the man's work.

Of course his voice is an acquired taste, but so are Howlin' Wolf, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, etc. All are singers that I love, because in the majority of cases, I prefer to hear the songs sung by their writers than by a band with a "lead singer" with a trained voice that can perfectly hit every note. That's not an across-the-board thing, but I tend to prefer the authenticity of the writer's voice.

[piebaldpython]

If nothing else, Dylan is proof positive that playin' a git will get you "popular with the ladies" who are way out of your league. :poke