Tangled up in Pynchon

[Joe Allonby]

And now at length:

It is important to remember that Dylan is first and foremost a
songwriter with great technique. By 1974, he had had a lot of time to
work on that technique. It's no surprise that he got better at it,
whereas lesser rock 'n' roll singer/songwriters fell off after their
twenties because of their reliance on personal experience that
naturally becomes less dramatic and angst-ridden with age. Dylan's
well didn't run dry not because his personal experience was somehow
superior, but because his technique was.

I like to point something out to people who analyze lyrics but don't
write them. When Arnold Schwarzenegger shoots somebody in a movie,
nobody actually dies. Don't assume autobiographical content just
because the word "I" appears in a narrative song. Songwriters are
writers. It may be a parable or allegory, or it may just be an
entertaining story, but sometimes they just make shit up.

I will refrain from invoking images of Pat Buchanan in his underwear again.



On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 8:54 AM, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to be associated with the remarks of the previous poster.
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 7:50 AM, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi foax
>>
>> Long time, no post. I see the P-list digests are *still* screwed up. What gives, I wonder?
>>
>> Noticed the Dylan mention, and couldn't resist chipping in....
>>
>>
>> << Mark Kohut  wrote: I don't know music but I do know that "Tangled Up In Blue" is about Bobby and Joni Mitchell, who did BLUE (an album). >>
>>
>> Whoooooooops! Don't think so. In fact the connections (such as they may be) between 'Tangled' and Joni's 'Blue', have been, at best, hugely overplayed. Peronally, I don't think the claim that Dylan's song was named for 'Blue' rings even half-way true.
>> If you're interested, here;s a little piece I did for popmatters, on 'Tangled':
>>
>> http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/125123-every-one-of-them-words-rang-true-the-defiance-of-time-in-tangled-up
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>> J
>>
>>
>>
>>
>