You Can't Sing, But I Like Yer

My brother always said "if you don't like Dylan it's because you've not found the right Dylan yet". In 2006 I found out what he meant.

Prior to that, I'd always thought he was an overrated street poet with a bad voice. I thought the same about Johnny Cash too, then one day in 2006 I had a road to Damascus moment and thereafter I loved them both. Weird.

Maybe it's an age thing, your tastes change and suddenly the things you appreciate are different. I wouldn't drink cider now, but at 17 I thought it was great, and that wine was rubbish. Ditto Dylan and, oh I don't know, Phil Collins or something.

Either way, I'm taking the piss no longer...

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Dylan says he is no prophet - his disciples disagree

He was the spokesman for a new generation in the early 60s when his poetic songs expressed the feelings of youth’s across the world, but Dylan has told CBS’ 60 Minutes that he was no prophet. His followers however disagree, arguing that Dylan had a unique ability to reach out and touch people.

“We were just individual voices wailing in the wilderness” one individual told us “then Bob provided a rallying point and we realised we were not alone, there were others like us, and that between us we could change the world.”

Dylan has always denied that his message was revolutionary, arguing that "My stuff -- (they) were songs, they weren't sermons," he tells 60 Minutes. "If you examine the songs I don't believe you're going to find anything in there that says that I'm a spokesman for anybody or anything really."

Others however disagree with him and have told Mr Damian that the former folk singer is their Messiah. These same followers are now urging Dylan to rise up and reclaim his crown from modern day impostors such as Eminem and Sting.

For Dylan these claims cause considerable embarrassment, to the extent that he has always tried to distance himself from those who have taken his message to an extreme.

We tracked down one group of disciples who talk about their lives in terms of years BD (Before Dylan) and AD (After Dylan).

To these people Bob, or Mr Tambourine Man as they reverently call him, is their soothsayer to the dangers of modern day living.

“He said the times were a changing, and they did. He said there would be blood on the tracks and their was. Our message to others is How does it feel to be without a home like a complete unknown like a rolling stone? Join us, and you’ll never need to know.”

The group who live in a make shift caravan site in the middle of the Utah are now waiting for the next great prophesy from their God. “We know that the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, but noise pollution in the city is such that you’d probably never hear it. Only in the desert can Bob really speak to you.”

They may have a long wait, the group who don’t have television, or indeed a radio, just some old 8 track cartridges of early Dylan albums will have missed their hero’s admission to 60 Minutes that:

"I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No. To be honest I only became a musician to get laid."

Didn’t we all.

(Originally published here.)