| Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| As a Jersey kid whose summers were spent in Belmar (where Springsteen lived before he got real famous) all this stuff was real to me. when he sings, "Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard" I knew where the Palace was on the boardwalk and the Boulevard is the part of "the circuit" that parallels the beach. a lot of that stuff is gone now, but I've got to say, growing up in Jersey and spending summers in Belmar during the 70's iwas pretty cool | |
| Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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As a few others have mentioned, I always viewed this song as Dylan pausing for a bit and reviewing his life thus far: where he now was; where he came from; the impact his life has had on others; the price and toll he has paid, or rather his soul and humanity have paid, for his decision long ago to pursue the life he chose. And all the while he is taking this inventory of his life, and determining his (then) current status as a member of the human race, he, perhaps for the first time in his life feels a real sense of his mortality, and he wonders what, where, and who he will be when it finally ends. I've always taken Dylan at his word; that he never viewed himself as only a folk singer, or as a writer of protest songs or even, as he has been referred to ad-nausium as the, "voice of a generation" It wasn't more than a few months ago that the crowd who likes to think of themselves as intellectuals went ballistic that Dylan dared to not only perform in China, but to accept money from the Chinese for performing - which is after all his chosen livelihood and how he makes his living. The attitude of this group was best typified in a NY Times piece written by Maureen Dowd. She was outraged and when on and on about how his accepting money from the Chinese was akin to him selling out everything he ever preached and stood for. Basically, she was disgusted. Whereas everything she claimed Dylan was selling out and every ideal she accused him of betraying were all the very same things Dylan spent his life telling everyone that he wanted no part of. He said he wrote songs, not protest songs, and that he wasn't out to change the world. So if Ms. Dowd and her ilk had had their way, Mr. Dylan would never have performed in China. But Dylan obviously knew that introducing his music to a younger generation of Chinese people, perhaps for the first time would cause them to stumble upon the songs and lyrics of "blowin' in the wind" and so many others and maybe this would inspire them and spur their quest for more freedom. The reason I wrote so much about the recent controversy over his performance in China is that I think it ties into the major theme of "Not Dark Yet". That Dylan now found himself with scars that won't heal, a soul made of steel, and not even caring about the words the female mentioned in the song went to such great pains to write to him. And in my opinion, the cause of many of these pains he now suffers from were the direct result of all the abuse and ridicule he has taken throughout his career from the likes of Ms. Dowd and others who never bothered to listen to what he said and who would have been able to stifle his message even further had he not possessed the character to ignore them and their dictates as to who he should and shouldn't play for or write about. |
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