Hearing Dylan

There is a famous scene in the movie White Men Can’t Jump when Woody Harrelson puts on a Jimi Hendrix tape in the presence of Wesley Snipes.  After a hilarious back and forth between the two, Snipes’s character (Sydney Deane) says to Harrelson’s character (Billy Hoyle):

“Look man, you can listen to Jimi but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference man. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him.”

This quote is clearly intended to be a comical dose of BS, but there’s some truth to the underlying theory.  There’s a difference between passively listening to a song and actively hearing what a song is about  (I actually think that the words should be switched since listening connotes a deeper appreciation to me than hearing, but I’ll stick to the Sydney Deane theory for purposes of this post).  This holds true for any song by any artist.  But after re-watching Ed Bradley’s 2004 interview with Bob Dylan, I’ve once again been reminded of how fascinating this man was and continues to be.  In my mind,  listeners of Bob Dylan have much more to lose.

John Lennon once said, “The first time you hear Dylan, you feel like you’re the first person to discover him.”  I really can’t agree with that more.  You feel almost compelled to tell everyone about it, a la this post.  But much like Sydney Deane, I would attach special meaning to the word hear.  I was probably aware of two Dylan songs as a kid: “Hurricane” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”   Notwithstanding the fact that I loved those songs, they didn’t completely reach me.  Maybe I was too young, but I think they also weren’t the right songs.  People would often tell me how much of a genius Bob Dylan is, the way I often do now, but I would simply shrug it off, as my friends often do now.  I just hadn’t truly heard Dylan.  As it turns out, the key to hearing Dylan is not through “Like A Rolling Stone” or “Hurricane” (even though Rolling Stone magazine dubbed the former the greatest song of all time).  You have to turn to the early folk and protest songs.

I finally decided to pull the trigger in 2004.  I was living in Paris at the time and I needed something to listen to on the metro ride to Charles DeGaule International Airport where I was to meet four of my friends who were flying in to visit.  I asked my buddy Justin if I could pick out a CD from his collection and he was kind enough to agree.  After sifting through his CD book, I came across Dylan’s third studio album, The Times They Are A-Changin’.  I thought about it for a second, but figured it was a good a time as any to see what all the hype was about.

I burned the album onto my old-school IPod, made my way to the metro stop, hopped on the next train, sat down, and pressed play.  What I heard next literally changed my life.  After about half a measure of a somewhat unrhythmic strumming of a simple G chord, a voice emerged unlike any I had heard before:

Come gather ’round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

I was instantly and utterly blown away.  Those words hit a nerve that until that point had laid dormant within me.  None of the music I had listened to growing up were as emotionally penetrating as what I heard that day.  Songs like Only A Pawn In Their Game, With God On Our Side, When The Ship Comes In, and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol sounded like they were from a different world.  The simple thought of a 22 year-old singer-songwriter, alone with his guitar, writing such songs in 1963, when the country was in the midst of one of the most turbulent times in its history – a period of national awakening to mass injustice – was so incredibly moving to me.  It was music that entered through the mind but settled permanently in the heart.  In discovering Dylan I felt like I had discovered myself.

Taste is certainly subjective and I don’t expect all or even most people to react the way I did the first time I heard Dylan.  But I think a bonafide attempt is the only way to really gain any appreciation for what the Dylan hype is all about.  This takes a little bit of initiative.  You’re not likely to hear The Times They Are A-Changin’ at a party or your local bar.  But if you set aside an hour of your time and actually hear this stuff, you’ll at the very least come away with a greater understanding of why this man is so revered.