Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Sort of, but not really.
Everyone has been talking about Angelo M. Codevilla's essay in The American Spectator titled “America’s Ruling Class — and the Perils of Revolution." In the essay, Codevilla contrasts America's "ruling class" with its "country class."
A few days ago, Brendan Bernhard added his two cents to the growing conversation around Codevilla's essay. Bernhard says that we already know who represents the "ruling class" (aka the establishment):
Look at any movie and TV screen, open any newspaper or magazine, and the A-list names and candidates will come tumbling forth like clothes out of a dryer opened mid-cycle.
But what about the country class? Who represents it?
I found Bernhard's answer to be most pleasing: Bob Dylan! Reading Bernhard's take on Dylan ("while Dylan may not be conservative in the conventional sense — he’s sui generis, if anyone is — he is definitely not a member of the “ruling class” as described by Codevilla"), I instantly thought about the conversations we've been having on Ricochet, like Claire's post about talking to reasonable people who disagree with us.
I have no idea what side of the political spectrum Dylan falls on: he's nothing if not enigmatic. But that's what I love about him (aside from his music, which I love too). He's eccentric. One of a kind. He's a partisan for no fools and he slips the stereotypical knot that would tie him to the Left.
Bernhard explains:
In the mainstream media, Dylan’s image is still rigidly defined by the social upheavals of the 1960s, though he rid himself of those shackles when he was only 26. To be precise, he divorced himself from the increasingly leftist, anti-American politics of his own generation when, in 1967, he moved to a house in upstate New York to record the Americana-drenched Basement Tapes with The Band. Soon after that, while free love made love to riots and psychedelic stalks burst from a million brain sockets, he married, started a family, and wrote more good songs, few of which had revolutionary applications, although “Dear Landlord” will surely always have a place in city-dwellers’ cramped, rent-obsessed hearts.
As Bernhard continues his column, his description of Dylan left me with an asymmetric picture of Dylan performing at a Tea Party rally:
Dylan is an old-fashioned patriot who wears cowboy hats, loves Texas as much as Greenwich Village, and spoke warmly to Rolling Stone of George W. Bush, whom he’d met when the latter was governor of Texas, while also wishing President Obama well.
Though Dylan is of the country class, I don't think he sympathizes with political activism of the tea partiers, or of the left for that matter (But it's still fun to think about him at a tax day protest, singing, “You don’t need a weatherman / To know which way the wind blows.”)
He once told a critic, for instance, "Me, I don’t want to write for people anymore--you know, be a spokesman. From now on, I want to write from inside me …I’m not part of no movement… I just can’t make it with any organization…”
Shouldn't that be what we all aspire to--to being individuals, rather than automatons? Being part of a movement, an organization, or a party can lead to group-think, a toxin that traditional conservatives have always loathed.
For rolling like a stone down his own path, I categorize Dylan as a reasonable, if erratic, person who may, and probably does, disagree with me and you, and each one of us, on various points. And a good thing too. How boring would this world be if we didn't all disagree with each other at least some of the time?
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Jun '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Video: Bob Dylan, doing his best to resist being labeled:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2veEZK8pRQ
Aug '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
This is about as concise a litmus test for categorization along the modern left/right spectrum as we can come up with. And it should surprise no one when certain blocs answer that collective action is better... namely, the leftists who want to run every aspect of our businesses and our lives. (except for sex and free speech, of course!)
I would word it a little differently, depending on the target questionee:
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
I think the old anti gov hippies are coming around and seeing straight again. Arlo Guthrie is talking like a tea party'er also now.
Aug '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
How delightful. He's an original thinker and one of the great artists of the 20th Century.
Dylan's autobiography makes fascinating reading, and he comes off as an authentic rugged individualist of American tradition. In the early '60's he worked in coffee houses and lived basically off of friends in Greenwich Village. For inspiration, Dylan spent hundreds of hours in the basement of the New York Public Library going through old newspapers, reading about real life in the 1800's . A deep and compassionate connection with America, and its unique hardships, was formed.
Dylan deeply dislikes in-crowd mentality and conformity. His best friends in those days were Bobby Darin and Tiny Tim, with whom he spent a lot of time.
He always has wanted to avoid being used and pigeonholed. In the mid-'60's he resisted being associated with protesters and radicals of all kinds. He's his own radical.
When he went electric in '67, the firestorm of anger he endured - generated largely by the Stalinist Pete Seeger, who accused him of betraying the "purity" of folk music - further alienated him from his generation.
His son now sings and plays guitar. Good looking kid.
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
What a great tidbit, River -- thanks for sharing it. I've actually been looking for something great to read, so maybe I'll pick up Dylan's autobiography now that I see your ringing endorsement of it.
BlueAnt--thanks for that really insightful breakdown. If you distill conservatism down to its purest elements, I think what you are left with is 1. individualism and 2. tradition. In my mind, the great creative tension of an artist is to assert his individualism within the creative tradition that he's working from--not assert his individualism by obliterating that tradition, which is too often what has happened with artists over the last century or so.
Taking the above definition of a conservative--an individual working within and respecting a tradition--I think there's a case to be made for Dylan's conservatism.
Edited on Sep 19, 2010 at 11:04amMay '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
I love Dylan's music too. The thing is that he never claimed to be a leader of a political movement. He has said at various times over the years that he thinks of himself as a "song and dance man." People always laugh but I always thought he was serious. He is a great singer, and a great songwriter. That's it and it's a tremendous compliment.
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
How boring would this world be if we didn't all disagree with each other at least some of the time?
Oh, I just totally disagree with that.
Stupid.
Aug '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Could there be a more apt or cogent description of this country's current state of malaise than Dylan's"They're selling postcards of the hanging/They're painting the passports brown/The beauty parlor is filled with sailors/The circus is in town..."
If we continue on the path Obama is so determined to drag us down, I believe it would be appropriate to replace our national anthem with "Desolation Row".
Aug '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
My pleasure, Emily. I know you'll love it. I'm inspired to refer to one of his greatest songs, which, heard in its entirety, is an artwork of genius. The imagery is like Picasso or Dali, and word flow is as great as Poe.
It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying
Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying
So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing.....
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Shoshanna: Could there be a more apt or cogent description of this country's current state of malaise than Dylan's"They're selling postcards of the hanging/They're painting the passports brown/The beauty parlor is filled with sailors/The circus is in town..."
If we continue on the path Obama is so determined to drag us down, I believe it would be appropriate to replace our national anthem with "Desolation Row". · Sep 19 at 11:30am
Desolation Row happens to be one of my favorite, if not my favorite, Bob Dylan song--but I don't think it will replace our national anthem any time soon! Rather than describing our country in a state of malaise, I'd say that there is a lot of energy, especially among conservatives, in the air. And that's cause for optimism!
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
River:
So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing..... · Sep 19 at 11:41am
Love this!
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Like A Rolling Stone Lyrics
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
Sounds awfully Tea Party to me....
Jun '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Emily, you write of ins and outs, individuals and collectivists, but what you fail to connect to is context. We as individuals may accept a collectivist mentality when it comes to certain political aspirations while being strongly individualistic. Indeed, every individual is forced into collectivism when he decides to live in society. It is the paradox of the unfashionable who, because of their disdain for fashion, are forced to follow fashion. Thus an individual in society sworn to disdain collectivism must himself become a keen observer of the collective so as to protect his vaunted individuality. In a general sense the problem with the ruling elite in any society is that this group does not include and will never include everyone. Democracy offers a simulacrum of but not de facto acceptance into the ruling class.
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
This is my fav.... Of war and peace the truth just twists Its curfew gull just glides Upon four-legged forest clouds The cowboy angel rides With his candle lit into the sun Though its glow is waxed in black All except when 'neath the trees of Eden. The lamppost stands with folded arms Its iron claws attached To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail Though it shadows metal badge All and all can only fall With a crashing but meaningless blow No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden. The savage soldiers sticks his head in sand And then complains Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf But still remains Upon the beach where hound dogs bay At ships with tatooed sails Heading for the Gates of Eden. With a time-rusted compass blade Alladin and his lamp Sits with Utopian hermit monks Side saddle on the Golden Calf And on their promises of paradise You will not hear a laugh All except inside the Gates of Eden. Relationships of ownership They whisper in the wings To those condemned to act accordingly And wait for succeeding kings And I will try to harmonize with songs The lonesome sparrow sings There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden. The motorcycle black madonna Two-wheeled gypsy queen And her silver-studded phantom cause The gray flannel dwarf to scream As he weeps to wicked birds of prey Who pick up on his bread crumb sins And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden. The kingdoms of Experience In the precious wind they rot While paupers change possessions Each one wishing for what the other has got And the princess and the prince Discuss what's real and what is not It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden. The foreign sun, it squints upon A bed that is never mine As friends and other strangers From their fates try to resign Leaving men wholly totally free To do anything they wish to do but die And there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden. At dawn my lover comes to me And tells me of her dreams With no attempts to shovel the glimpse Into the ditch of what each one means At times I think there are no words But these to tell what's true And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden.
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Hey! How did you get 409 words into a post?
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Dylan's also one of the only artists to write a pro-Israel song: "Neighborhood Bully".
"Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad"
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
I've mentioned this before, but....
Like a Rolling Stone was released in 1965. Up until then, popular music for the Boomer generation had been dominated by silly love songs and surf music. Even the British Invasion, up to that point, was pretty much bubble-gum.
It was a Neil Sedaka, Lesley Gore, I Wanna Hold Your Hand world.
And then came Dylan, with a song waaaay longer than Top 40 would ever allow. And with angry, cynical, anti-establishment lyrics.
My brother and I literally sat transfixed for an entire afternoon and evening, playing Like a Rolling Stone over and over and over.
We were just kids in a redneck town with not much understanding of the sophisticated New York world in which Dylan circulated.
But ignorant as we were, we were absolutely certain that this song meant something very, very profound - and that the world would never again be the same.
And you know what?
We were right.
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Cas--Thank you for your thoughtful post! I agree with your analysis, but I think that there is a distinction between living collectively in a society, which for us occurs by necessity, and thinking as a collectivist, which occurs by choice.
Jul '10
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed.
Not me, man...I'm with Marlon Brando:
"What are you rebelling against?"
"Whatta you got?"
Re: Bob Dylan: A Tea Partier?
Kenneth:
We were just kids in a redneck town with not much understanding of the sophisticated New York world in which Dylan circulated.· Sep 19 at 12:49pm
Kenneth - it goes to show how connected to the country class Dylan is!