Bob Dylan is a complete musical genius.

Bob Dylan is a complete musical genius. He has excellent lyrical and composition skills - just because his most famous compositions are largely simple that doesn’t mean he’s not a great melodist. I’d much rather hear an excellent melody with three or four chords like Mr Tambourine Man than overly-complex, overwrought compositions. He also changed his arrangements regularly - even with his current largely static set list there are variations according to his mood, he’s not trying to replicate the album.

But above all else though he has an encyclopaedic music knowledge and the ability to absorb songs and lyrics like a sponge. He’s performed well over 800 different songs live including covers and could talk all day about folk, rock and roll, blues and jazz music through the decades. I recommend listening to his Theme Time Radio hour to hear his knowledge and taste.

It was said that when he was young he could hear a song once and be able to perform it back in his own style. He’s a master at his craft.

  1. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    if he's a genius why can't he shred

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He can’t shred because he is a genius.

  2. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    >Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
    >Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
    >Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
    >Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

  3. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Who the fuck is Gideon Horrowitz?

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/vaLdBce.jpg

      Bob Dylan is a complete musical genius. He has excellent lyrical and composition skills - just because his most famous compositions are largely simple that doesn’t mean he’s not a great melodist. I’d much rather hear an excellent melody with three or four chords like Mr Tambourine Man than overly-complex, overwrought compositions. He also changed his arrangements regularly - even with his current largely static set list there are variations according to his mood, he’s not trying to replicate the album.

      But above all else though he has an encyclopaedic music knowledge and the ability to absorb songs and lyrics like a sponge. He’s performed well over 800 different songs live including covers and could talk all day about folk, rock and roll, blues and jazz music through the decades. I recommend listening to his Theme Time Radio hour to hear his knowledge and taste.

      It was said that when he was young he could hear a song once and be able to perform it back in his own style. He’s a master at his craft.

      His name is Doug (Douglas) Levinson and he’s still alive. He also seems to have been in the right if you know the whole story.

      • 3 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Yeah I know but where does Gideon Horovitz come into the picture?

        • 3 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          He’s an important venue operator.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        If the israelite just wanted the dude to stop playing music in the suburbs or a close street or something then he was right

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        he may have been right that an artist respects the silence which serves as the foundation of creativity, but he was wrong to yell at the guy who was just busking with his trumpet on a public street imo. its not like the average street is exactly a quiet zone to begin with

  4. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    I don't think he's a genius. A genius isn't a genius for a short while just to become mediocre for most of his life.

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He hasn’t been mediocre for most of his life though. He has three bad albums all from the eighties and even then there were some good songs among them. Out of forty albums, that’s not bad.

  5. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Meh, he probably is a genius (when it comes to lyrics, for sure) but he doesn't have the catalog to show for it imo. Yes, he can do all the things you said and that takes an enormous amount of talent, but whenever I hear his music, I don't see a whole lot to be impressed by. Someone can be a genius and an innovator and still not be a very appealing musician and that's Dylan for me.

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He probably has the most extensive catalog of songs of any American songwriter post 1945

      • 3 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Good for him, I can maybe enjoy 5% of that. I respect the guy, I just don't think most of his music is interesting to my ears.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        >He wrote a lot of songs
        Yeah some dude at bandcamp as well

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >when it comes to lyrics
      Insidious word salad for defanged kids to be groomed into drug use to.

      • 3 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        >Insidious word salad for defanged kids to be groomed into drug use to.
        Damn I didn't know Bob Dylan posted on LULZ, sick lyrics Mr. D.

      • 3 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        >word salad
        I love when people so transparently reveal their complete lack of intellect.

  6. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Dylan was a genius not in the way that Beethoven or Coltrane were geniuses, where they were constantly developing their art and technique through their lives and peaked at a relatively late age. Dylan is more like Byron or Rimbaud where their talent seems more like a result of divine inspiration than hard work or thought. It’s the kind of ability that allowed Dylan to write Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, the greatest song in popular music ever composed, in a single night. The difference is that Dylan didn’t die young so we were able to see what happens when someone loses that divine ability

  7. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    he has zero compositional (and singing) skills, idc about his poems

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      If you can write a catchy melody you do not have zero composition skills. He has better composition skills than the likes of Jacob Collier.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      too bad his voice is shit

      >current year
      >people still falling for the Dylan can’t sing meme
      ISHYGDDT

  8. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    bob dylan is israeli

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He isn’t actually this is a common myth

      • 3 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        His name is Robert Zimmerman. He is israeli by race.

        • 3 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          No that’s not true

        • 3 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >israeli by race
          do you know what ethnicity is

          • 3 weeks ago
            Anonymous

            A modern buzzword

            • 2 weeks ago
              Anonymous

              its neither of those, kill yourself

  9. 3 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    dunno, baby blue and tambourine man are just about his only songs that are conventionally pleasing in a melodic/chord way

    • 3 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Blowin' in the Wind
      Girl From the North Country
      Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
      I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
      Sign on the Window
      Forever Young
      Buckets of Rain
      One More Cup of Coffee
      Blind Willie McTell
      Born in Time
      Red River Shore
      Make You Feel My Love
      I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You

  10. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    I don’t believe in Zimmerman.

  11. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    too bad his voice is shit

  12. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    the covers of his songs are always a lot better.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      What are some good covers I should try? (Ideally pre-1967 stuff)

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