In Defense of Bob Dylan? [by D.L.]

(Ed note: In a file of rejected letters to the editor from 2011, this epistle emerged. It was never published, perhaps because of the editors’ not unreasonable suspicion that the undersigned was either a pseudonym, a hoax, or a stand-in for the wounded performer.) -- DL

To the Editor,

I am writing in response to today’s front-page article asking when the time is right for an old geezer past his prime to get off the stage. The piece begins with a scathing account of a recent concert by Bob Dylan. You illustrated it with a cartoon of Dylan with a prune juice bottle at his elbow.

My first reaction was yeah. I was at that concert. I’ll never pay to hear him anymore. And it was expensive. The cost to pleasure ratio was way out of whack. However, then I considered the unexamined premise behind the piece, which is that age brings infirmity and loss of prowess without a compensatory gift, in this case the beautiful nobility of Mr. Dylan’s professional presence. I’d rather have a croaking Bob Dylan than 90% of what’s out there.

 And how typically inconsistent for the Wall Street Journal to say in one breath that Dylan at 69 is too old to perform and in the next breath that we should extend the retirement age to 69.

As a free-market capitalist I feel that Dylan should retire when the market says he should.

            (signed) R. Zimmerman

Comments

[Roger Lathbury]

Dylan had five golden years, 1961-1966. After that, almost nothing interests (except, arguably, a few songs from the Basement Tapes). Still, those first five years, up to 29 July 1966, were so rich and generative that it doesn't matter. Without pain I can't watch him sleepwalk through his great works, and he hasn't written anything from the center of his being, if he knows where it is, in a long time. His voice is a different voice, not suited to what he did best, but the great period was very great. One honors him for that.

[Earl Craig]

Roger you are lame. Completely lame. And a jerk. An absolute jerk.

-Earl Craig

[Dick Lane]

Beyond 1966 for sure. Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and even (shudder) Nashville Skyline were important records, especially the first one. Would you rather listen to Joan Baez or Dylan sing "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"? Powerful stuff.