27 / MY DYLAN

I was thirteen and, as manna, Bringing It All Back Home fell into my hands. It was a vinyl LP with a suggestive sleeve from where Dylan was holding a cat and looking sideways at me . I did not understand a word, but from the first note, I knew it was exactly the sound I was waiting for. There was something in his delightful bad voice, something in this country-rock he had invented, something in the rhymes, in the intensity of his singing which connected directly with my very deep. And there, in this imprecise space, remains since then in the company of Dostoyevsky, chocolate ice-cream, and a few other good things of life.

 So, Dylan became such a personal matter to me, while he had already reached the generation’s icon level. Despite the fact that Dylan hates being seen as a mass leader, his influence in 1960s and1970s society’s changes is indubitable. Many people say that Dylan was a revolutionary voice, however, he only wanted to let his footprint in music and poetry, as he did, of course.

Following the Woody Guthrie’s trail, Dylan arrived to country music to renew it. His poetry gave a new dimension to the US’s traditional music from the beginning of his career. Even more, in 1965, Highway 61, was the confirmation of the fusion of folk music and rock that he had showed in his polemic performance in the Newport Folk Festival.  From this moment till now, Dylan’s experiments in music have been continuous.

People like control their idols; they like to see them, solid as rocks, showing some true as modern demigods or irreproachable models from the top of somewhere. That is the reason why many people do not understand or even accept Dylan. In fact, Dylan is nothing but a man who has walked his own road. Contradictions and radical changes of the course of his ideas and conceptions have surprised to everybody more than once. This is not inconsistency; this is just freedom and independence. There is only a constant thing in his life: searching and art. Although Dylan is known as a very influential singer-songwriter, he is a writer and painter as well.  As far as I am concerned, I do not need superheroes or prophets to follow or adore; I like human beings who inspire me sometimes and sometimes not.

Big Hunter of Answers Dylan has found a few questions and he asks them to me, to everybody, with the grace of genius.