Letters, oh we get letters

Well, as I kinda figured it might, my expression of pain that the mere existence of Bob Dylan had led to hideous folksingers setting up shop outside my window at 12:30 at night has attracted the attention of a Dylan-worshipper.

That's not my sarcastic name for him or her, BTW, it's what they called themselves:

DYLANWORSHIPPER said...
Maybe if you listened to the WORDS you'd understand his appeal.

Maybe. Although, when a man makes one's living as a MUSICIAN, it doesn't seem too off-base to care about his MUSIC at least as much as his WORDS, if not more. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Never let it be said I can't admit that.

At times like these, I like to consult my musical betters, people whose credentials as songwriters are luminious. So let's go to the words of Paul Simon, who in 1983 was asked (from the book Rock Lives by Tim White):

Who...do you believe has been a positive inspirational figure in rock?

"Dylan. He made us feel at a certain time that it was good to be smart, to be observant, that it was good to have a social conscience. These are all things that are out of fashion now. Real art remains when the fashion changes, but art can run conjuctively with fashion. Both can occasionally be quite intelligent at the same time."

Blessed with the hindsights of adulthood, what's the smartest thing you ever heard anybody in rock and roll say?

[Long pause, small smile] "Be-bob-a-lula, she's my baby."

Or to put it another way, in the words of Sir Duke, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.