there are such things<\/a>, you know) but it seems to me that Dylan is one of the great prophet-poets of our era, at least. Let me try to make a (very abbreviated) case. <\/p>\nFirst of all, Dylan was the forerunner, if not the (reluctant) de facto leader, of one of the most successful mass movements of the last century. 1962\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blowin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the Wind,\u00e2\u20ac? it has been argued, ushered in, or at least catalyzed, the peace movement in the early sixties. In addition to being one of the first songs to politicize rock and roll (and with it, youth culture), the text of that song helped facilitate the unification of the cresting black civil rights movement and the nascent white anti-war movement by equating militarism, authoritarianism, and racism. It’s not in the history books, but Dylan and his acolytes performed during the 1963 March on Washington, better known as the setting for Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. <\/p>\n
But even apart from its real world effects on culture and politics, Dylan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work fares quite well as prophetic texts. In his classic book, The Prophets<\/em>, Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel writes:<\/p>\nWhat manner of man is the prophet? A student of philosophy who turns from the discourses of the great metaphysicians to the orations of the prophets may feel as if he were going from the realm of the sublime to an area of trivialities. Instead of dealing with the timeless issues of being and becoming, of matter and form, of definitions and demonstrations, he is thrown into orations about widows and orphans, about the corruption of judges and affairs of the market place. Instead of showing us a way through the elegant mansions of the mind, the prophets take us to the slums. The world is a proud place, full of beauty, but the prophets are scandalized, and rave as if the whole world were a slum. They make much ado about paltry things, lavishing excessive language upon trifling subjects. What if somewhere in ancient Palestine poor people have not been treated properly by the rich? So what if some old women found pleasure and edification in worshiping “the Queen of Heaven”? Why such immoderate excitement? Why such intense indignation?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think this description fits Dylan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work quite well. Songs like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Masters of War\u00e2\u20ac? condemn the powers that be in the harshest terms imaginable. Songs like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hard Rain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s A-Gonna Fall\u00e2\u20ac? and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Times They Are A-Changin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac? foresee coming upheaval and calamity, and tell us to change our ways. There are more hopeful songs (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the Ship Comes In\u00e2\u20ac?), and songs that speak of visions (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Visions of Johanna\u00e2\u20ac?). And there are songs that simply witness and bemoan injustice (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll\u00e2\u20ac?; \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hurricane\u00e2\u20ac?). <\/p>\n
Dylan, of course, would protest this kind of analysis. I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It Ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Me, Babe\u00e2\u20ac? is all about. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always claimed to be nothing more than a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153song and dance man.\u00e2\u20ac? And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen D.A. Pennebaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ur-documentary Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Look Back<\/em>, you know Dylan could be petulant and condescending and small-minded. So perhaps he shouldn’t be given the noble label of “prophet” — perhaps he’s just a clever enough writer to keep his songs enigmatic and challenging. Perhaps I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just trying to justify the fact that I went to a rock concert on a Sunday. You tell me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last night, after helping get the kids to bed, I went to a Bob Dylan concert. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been to a rock concert on a Sunday before, but I made an exception for Dylan. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to pass up seeing him on several other prior occasions because of finals, work, or because the show was on a Sunday. But I just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring myself to miss him again. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t regret it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn","category-music-and-poetry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}