What saddens me about Dylan sometimes, is how he refused to be treated as the "voice of his generation", yet he didn't mind glorifying others as just that.
And sometimes his romanticized versions of real life people turned them into folk heroes, and sometimes he took already established folk heroes (that were real people in the past) and made his own versions of telling their tale.
I'm talking about real people in this case, his contemporaries. With some he did the right thing, and they deserved to be "immortalized" the way they did by Dylan, but sometimes he couldn't pick worse people or distort the truth worse than he did.
You could compare it to Nazi propaganda even, only in opposite extreme. "Joey" is definitely a good example. What stuck me as the biggest distortion of reality/poetry figure, is the part with the hostages. Joey actually initiated kidnapping and was the first to suggest to kill one of them, so the enemies know he means business. Many more errors about the song, that's just the one that kinda hurt me to find the most.
Dylan is still great artist (probably one of my favorites), just saying how even prime art can serve the worst purposes or lead to worst consequences, even if it was made naively. Sorry for spelling btw, and overall English, not my native language, and didn't really had the patience to spellcheck this time.
@gu313 You are right with this song and there is another, where Dylan was wrong:" The Hurricane ".Because in a book about Biko the ANC fighter I read that Biko was killed because of having guns in possession provided by the Hurricane. Carter went there for a boxing promotion and smuggled guns. He was not exonerated of the murder charge, but freed for not having had a fair trial. And even his Canadian wife said later, that she believed he was guilty as charged.
@gu313 You are right with this song and there is another, where Dylan was wrong:" The Hurricane ".Because in a book about Biko the ANC fighter I read that Biko was killed because of having guns in possession provided by the Hurricane. Carter went there for a boxing promotion and smuggled guns. He was not exonerated of the murder charge, but freed for not having had a fair trial. And even his Canadian wife said later, that she believed he was guilty as charged.
What saddens me about Dylan sometimes, is how he refused to be treated as the "voice of his generation", yet he didn't mind glorifying others as just that. And sometimes his romanticized versions of real life people turned them into folk heroes, and sometimes he took already established folk heroes (that were real people in the past) and made his own versions of telling their tale. I'm talking about real people in this case, his contemporaries. With some he did the right thing, and they deserved to be "immortalized" the way they did by Dylan, but sometimes he couldn't pick worse people or distort the truth worse than he did. You could compare it to Nazi propaganda even, only in opposite extreme. "Joey" is definitely a good example. What stuck me as the biggest distortion of reality/poetry figure, is the part with the hostages. Joey actually initiated kidnapping and was the first to suggest to kill one of them, so the enemies know he means business. Many more errors about the song, that's just the one that kinda hurt me to find the most. Dylan is still great artist (probably one of my favorites), just saying how even prime art can serve the worst purposes or lead to worst consequences, even if it was made naively. Sorry for spelling btw, and overall English, not my native language, and didn't really had the patience to spellcheck this time.
@gu313 You are right with this song and there is another, where Dylan was wrong:" The Hurricane ".Because in a book about Biko the ANC fighter I read that Biko was killed because of having guns in possession provided by the Hurricane. Carter went there for a boxing promotion and smuggled guns. He was not exonerated of the murder charge, but freed for not having had a fair trial. And even his Canadian wife said later, that she believed he was guilty as charged.
@gu313 You are right with this song and there is another, where Dylan was wrong:" The Hurricane ".Because in a book about Biko the ANC fighter I read that Biko was killed because of having guns in possession provided by the Hurricane. Carter went there for a boxing promotion and smuggled guns. He was not exonerated of the murder charge, but freed for not having had a fair trial. And even his Canadian wife said later, that she believed he was guilty as charged.