Tankar um tónleik #30 (Bob Dylan um bluegrass og heavy metal)

“Bluegrass is the other side of heavy metal. Both are musical forms steeped in tradition. They are the two forms of music that visually and audibly have not changed in decades. People in their respective fields still dress like Bill Monroe and Ronnie James Dio. Both forms have a traditional instrumental lineup and a parochial adherence to form.

Bluegrass is the more direct emotional music and, though it might not be obvious to the casual listener, the more adventurous. On this track, Bobby Osborne’s daredevil vocal swoops, sustained notes, and the drive of the twin banjos with lightning runs combined to make something so staggeringly propulsive it would most likely make Yngwie Malmsteen scratch his head. This is speed metal without the embarrassment of Spandex and junior high school devil worship.
But people confuse tradition with calcification. We listen to an old record and imagine it sealed in amber, a piece of nostalgia that exists for our own needs, without a thought of the sweat and toil, anger and blood that went into making it or the thing it may have turned into. The recording is actually merely a snapshot of those musicians at that moment. A snapshot can be riveting and artful, but it is the choice of the single moment plucked from the stream of moments that makes it immortal.”

-Bob Dylan, The Philosophy of Modern Song, kap. 30, "Ruby Are You Mad? Osborne Brothers s. 143-144.

Ein stak rámandi samanbering hjá Bob Dylan úr teirri løgnu men hugtakandi The Philosophy of Modern Song bókini, ið hann gav út í 2022. Heitið er stak ósmæðið, og tað er ivasamt um innihaldið livir upp til tað. Bókin inniheldur eina røð av essays um sangir, ið Dylan heldur nógv av. 66 kapitlar um 66 sangir. Sum heild er tað hugtakandi, stundum provokerandi, lesnaður, ið inniheldur nøkur clues til sangskrivaran Dylan og til sangskriving yvirhøvur. Stundum situr ein eftir við kensluni, at hetta er akkurát líka íspunnið og argandi sum alt annað, ið maðurin hevur latið úr hondum millum ár og dag. Eisini er ein rúgva av væl valdum myndum í væl innbundnu bókini (hardback). 

'Ruby Are You Mad' er ein heilt fantastiskur sangur, og líkleikin við heavy metal fornoktar seg ikki. Lurta niðanfyri.