Bob Dylan - Santa Fe

Oh Bob. What can you do with this guy. The myth of Bob Dylan is so ingrained in the musical conscience it is hard to separate the music from the man. I am sure that if I was alive in the sixties my perception of Bob would have been completely different, but that was over forty years ago. The politics and atmosphere of the sixties have long since receded, so all that is left now is the music.

Hey, I think Bob has made some great music, but there is a lot of great music out there. Only Bob has people going through his trash, a library of books about him and several CD box sets of his leftovers. I think politically and socially Bob deserves all this attention. He had a dramatic impact on society sixties and the course of history in America. Hearing Bob's music in the sixties must have been an amazing experience that I will never have. He must have been the closest thing to an oracle you could have in modern times.

But listening to Bob now is a different experience. He writes some great songs and he writes songs I don't enjoy so much. It is interesting to see how much modern music is influenced by Bob, but sometimes I get more out of the music he influences than his music.

One thing I love about Bob's music is that he writes so many different types of songs. that it may as well be different singers. So I have picked a song by Bob that reminds me of driving across the country to live in northern New Mexico. My future wife and I would belt this song out as we drove through the wide expanse of middle America. We were not even sure what the heck the lyrics were but that did not stop us from singing along with gusto. From what I can gleam there is no deeper meaning in this song, take that AJ Weberman.

Lyrics of Note (As I heard them):

Santa Fe
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do
Santa Fe

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Future Bob Reading: (I have read way too much about Bob and most of it was not very rewarding, here are a few I liked)

1) Paul Williams three volume Performing Artist books are some of my favorite music criticism ever. Made me love Bob's music even more.

2) There is also an insightful essay by Ian MacDonald called "Wild Mercury: A Tale of Two Dylans". It is reprinted in _The People's Music_ essay collection.

3) Bob Dylan: The Early Years: A Restrospective edited by Craig McGregor. For what it is worth this is the first book I read about Bob, before the shelves seemed to be clogged with books about Bob. It is 35 years old but has a great collection of articles about Bob in his heyday. Not as comprehensive as some Bob books but a nice overview.