HeightFiveSeven: Once upon a time you dressed so fine.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Once upon a time you dressed so fine.

And there was that time Dylan and Ali were boys and somebody snapped a pic.
And then I randomly found out that Highway 61 Revisited was released this week in 1965.
So, see, it's like the universe was begging me to do a Dylan post.

People heard Highway 61 and got their feelings hurt; everyone wanted Dylan to sound the same as he had before. It was his The Bends or, hell, Paul's Boutique. It was too different, hard-sounding. That right there seems so corny and rude; music fans can be so obnoxious sometimes, holding onto a cardboard cutout of the way the musician is Supposed to Sound Forever. But then I remember how annoying this Nas Escobar person was in '96. And then I'm like, Ah yes. Makes sense. I mean, everyone hated Labcabincalifornia when it first came out too. Even me.

In '65, people say, the metaphors and circus imagery in "Like a Rolling Stone," plus the fact that it's 6 minutes long and has like 34 verses but got radio play, was rather groundbreaking-ish. I am not such a rolling stone; I am content in apt. 302, city of LA, in a 4-mile radius from all the record stores I frequent and an hour from my childhood home. Plus I'm not a rich girl slumming it like the breezy in this song (Edie Sedgwick, some say), so the words don't really speak to me as a person. And some of the lyrics are so cringe-y and trite now. However, there's this one Truth About Life contained therein that's right up there with

Don't get high off your own supply,

All in all it's just another brick in the wall, and

This is a man's world -

“You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you.”

Oh Robert, you are my original Man of Judaic Persuasion Crush! Don't let it go to your head. "Like a Rolling Stone."