Which Album a Song is on.
The new edition of the lyrics, Lyrics 1962–2002 , unlike the original Writings and Drawings and the later Lyrics 1962–1985 , is apparently not goingto include Dylan’s Some Other Kinds of Songs . . ., or his other poems and miscellaneous prose, so for these I give references to the earlier collections.
The discrepancies between the printed and the other versions (whether officially released, studio out-takes, or bootlegged from performances) are notable. Sometimes they are noted in the
commentary here. Clearly they are of relevance to Dylan’s intentions or changes of intention, and I have to admit that sometimes one performance decides to do without an effect that another
has, and that I had thought and still think exquisite – for instance, the plaiting of the rhymes at the end of If Not For You . Oh well. I think of Shakespearean revision. Sometimes I
read (or rather, listen) and sigh and wish.
Songs, Poems, Rhymes
Songs, Poems
Dylan has always had a way with words. He does not simply have his way with them, since a true comprehender of words is no more their master than he or she is their servant.
The triangle of Dylan’s music, his voices, and his unpropitiatory words: this is still his equilateral thinking.
One day a critic may do justice not just to all three of these independent powers, but to their interdependence in Dylan’s art. The interdependence doesn’t have to be a competition,
it is a culmination – the word chosen by Allen Ginsberg, who could be an awe-inspiring poet and was an endearingly awful music-maker, for whom Dylan’s songs were “the culmination
of Poetry-music as dreamt of in the ’50s & early ’60s”. 16 Dylan himself has answered when asked:
Why are you doing what you’re doing?
[ Pause ] “Because I don’t know anything else to do. I’m good at it.”
How would you describe “it”?
“I’m an artist. I try to create art.” 17
What follows this clarity, or follows from it, has been differently put by him over the forty years, finding itself crediting the words and the music variously at various
times. The point of juxtaposing his utterances isn’t to catch him out, it is to see him catching different emphases in all this, undulating and diverse.
WORDS RULE, OKAY ?
“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second.” 18
“It ain’t the melodies that’re important man, it’s the words.” 19
MUSIC RULES, OKAY ?
“Anyway it’s the song itself that matters, not the sound of the song. I only look at them musically. I only look at them as things to sing. It’s the music
that the words are sung to that’s important. I write the songs because I need something to sing. It’s the difference between the words on paper and the song. The song disappears into
the air, the paper stays.” 20
NEITHER ACOUSTIC NOR ELECTRIC RULES, OKAY ?
Do you prefer playing acoustic over electric?
“They’re pretty much equal to me. I try not to deface the song with electricity or non-electricity. I’d rather get something out of the song verbally and
phonetically than depend on tonality of instruments.” 21
JOINT RULE, OKAY ?
Would you say that the words are more important than the music?
“The words are just as important as the music. There would be no music without the words.” 22
“It’s not just pretty words to a tune or putting tunes to words, there’s nothing that’s exploited. The words and the music, I can hear the sound of what
I want to say.” 23
“The lyrics to the songs . . . just so happens that it might be a little stranger than in most songs. I find it easy to write songs. I have been writing songs for a long
time and the words to the songs aren’t written out for just the paper, they’re written as you can read it, you dig? If you take whatever there is to the song away – thebeat, the melody – I could still recite it. I see nothing wrong with songs you can’t do that with either – songs
The new edition of the lyrics, Lyrics 1962–2002 , unlike the original Writings and Drawings and the later Lyrics 1962–1985 , is apparently not goingto include Dylan’s Some Other Kinds of Songs . . ., or his other poems and miscellaneous prose, so for these I give references to the earlier collections.
The discrepancies between the printed and the other versions (whether officially released, studio out-takes, or bootlegged from performances) are notable. Sometimes they are noted in the
commentary here. Clearly they are of relevance to Dylan’s intentions or changes of intention, and I have to admit that sometimes one performance decides to do without an effect that another
has, and that I had thought and still think exquisite – for instance, the plaiting of the rhymes at the end of If Not For You . Oh well. I think of Shakespearean revision. Sometimes I
read (or rather, listen) and sigh and wish.
Songs, Poems, Rhymes
Songs, Poems
Dylan has always had a way with words. He does not simply have his way with them, since a true comprehender of words is no more their master than he or she is their servant.
The triangle of Dylan’s music, his voices, and his unpropitiatory words: this is still his equilateral thinking.
One day a critic may do justice not just to all three of these independent powers, but to their interdependence in Dylan’s art. The interdependence doesn’t have to be a competition,
it is a culmination – the word chosen by Allen Ginsberg, who could be an awe-inspiring poet and was an endearingly awful music-maker, for whom Dylan’s songs were “the culmination
of Poetry-music as dreamt of in the ’50s & early ’60s”. 16 Dylan himself has answered when asked:
Why are you doing what you’re doing?
[ Pause ] “Because I don’t know anything else to do. I’m good at it.”
How would you describe “it”?
“I’m an artist. I try to create art.” 17
What follows this clarity, or follows from it, has been differently put by him over the forty years, finding itself crediting the words and the music variously at various
times. The point of juxtaposing his utterances isn’t to catch him out, it is to see him catching different emphases in all this, undulating and diverse.
WORDS RULE, OKAY ?
“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second.” 18
“It ain’t the melodies that’re important man, it’s the words.” 19
MUSIC RULES, OKAY ?
“Anyway it’s the song itself that matters, not the sound of the song. I only look at them musically. I only look at them as things to sing. It’s the music
that the words are sung to that’s important. I write the songs because I need something to sing. It’s the difference between the words on paper and the song. The song disappears into
the air, the paper stays.” 20
NEITHER ACOUSTIC NOR ELECTRIC RULES, OKAY ?
Do you prefer playing acoustic over electric?
“They’re pretty much equal to me. I try not to deface the song with electricity or non-electricity. I’d rather get something out of the song verbally and
phonetically than depend on tonality of instruments.” 21
JOINT RULE, OKAY ?
Would you say that the words are more important than the music?
“The words are just as important as the music. There would be no music without the words.” 22
“It’s not just pretty words to a tune or putting tunes to words, there’s nothing that’s exploited. The words and the music, I can hear the sound of what
I want to say.” 23
“The lyrics to the songs . . . just so happens that it might be a little stranger than in most songs. I find it easy to write songs. I have been writing songs for a long
time and the words to the songs aren’t written out for just the paper, they’re written as you can read it, you dig? If you take whatever there is to the song away – thebeat, the melody – I could still recite it. I see nothing wrong with songs you can’t do that with either – songs
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