How does it feel? (thoughts on music #8 - Craig Werner)

-->

”Dylan’s ’Like A Rolling Stone’ responds to the blues on levels that have nothing to do with liberal politics or nostalgic authenticity. The song returns obsessively to the most fundamental blues question: ’how does it feel?’ It isn’t about the consolations of philosophy or the dodge of ideology. It’s about how it feels to be existentially adrift, a broken piece in a fallen world. Muddy [Waters] knew the feeling well, and about all he had to say in words was ’oh well’. But his guitar, and the way he bent the syllables around words that never quite told the whole story, expressed with killing precision how the world felt to a black man who was about to head up Highway 61 toward a Chicago that he knew damn well wasn’t the promised land.”
-Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come