i know this is a pretty known meme within certain social media circles but was there a reason behind this style? genuine question

Three true music legends, Bakersfields own, Buck Owens presenting one of his iconic fender telecaster electric guitars to Bob Dylan, with Merle Haggard looking on!

I find it interesting that people will call Bob Dylan the greatest songwriter of all time, but so much of the discussion outside his actual fanbase seems to focus on early acoustic songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Those are great songs, but there is so much more to his discography.

He has such a large and diverse body of work, yet I feel like a lot of it doesn’t get talked about enough outside his fanbase. Of course, his electric trilogy gets plenty of recognition too, but even then, the conversation often seems to come back to a handful of songs like “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Just Like a Woman.”

I wonder how many people think they don’t like Dylan because they don’t connect with the early folk material they associate with him. If they listened to something like Nashville Skyline or The Basement Tapes, they might find a completely different side of him to connect with.

There are so many different phases of Dylan’s career that I really feel like there’s something for almost everybody. But unless you already have a reason to explore his catalog, a lot of those albums and songs can go under the radar.

From Bob Dylan's Interview for 20/20 (1985) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjRNZaeRt88

“I want to figure out what’s happening. I did look into it. It didn’t necessarily make life easier, but it definitely made it clearer. Again, a lot of things, really—hard to say in a few words what I gained from it. But it’s always easier if you understand something than if you don’t. If you don’t understand something, you’re just tossed about. If there’s a storm coming up, it’s always much easier on you knowing that it’s only going to last a certain time.

Is there another world after this one? This is a testing ground. This is a place you have to work certain things out. You have to work out where your place is and who you are. But we’re all spirit—that’s all we have. Just walking, dressed up in a suit of skin. And that we’re going to leave that. You make of it what you make of it. Nothing’s forever—everything is temporary. You don’t leave any nice place behind. You just have to have some kind of focus on what you need and what people force you to need. It’s only your work you’re leaving behind.

At a certain time, all the people from history will stand up. I believe in the resurrection. There are certain things—certain knowledge—that I’m not sure is available right now on a mass level. It may be sometime, because some of it is a little extreme. It might go against what a lot of people already think. A lot of what’s happening today throughout the world operates under something like a spiritual religious order, but it’s actually happening more in terms of a financial empire. And this is from what I can see—it has nothing really to do with spirituality or the next world, or the soul—the trip that the soul’s on. I could go deeper, but I’m not sure how much of it I want to state right out and say, because I’m not sure how much of it applies here. Oh yeah, sure—I think this whole thing’s got to end. Well, there’s a messianic kingdom that would be coming in. When it comes in, some people say tomorrow—I don’t particularly think it’s going to be tomorrow, but I believe it’s going to happen.”

So I live in England and decided, what the hell, I’m gonna tick off a bucket list item which is to see Bob outside the UK, and booked a ticket to see him in Milan in less than three weeks.

I’ve seen him a few times in England over the past few years so I know what to expect when it comes to the actual concert but I just wandered if I should expect anything different with it being abroad, or if there was any advice to make the most of it regarding the experience or memorabilia perhaps?

Thanks

“Honest with Me” is a song from Love and Theft that I think gets overlooked even though it’s a cool, driving blues with great lyrics.
Here’s a live version from 2001, just a couple of months after the album’s release.

https://youtu.be/gz7xkAV1wZI?is=2OTQDSXwSSZEAwyd

Bob Dylan changed my life. He was my first concert, I learned guitar and harmonica to his songs, I was obsessed in high school to the point where people still associate me with him. I cannot stand “the next Dylan” comparisons. They’re basically always completely misguided and ridiculous, especially considering there’s like 50 different Dylan’s within his own discography! I don’t think anyone is the next Dylan, and I don’t think it’s declared for any other reason than to sell magazines and tickets. Now all that said, I posted this in the Cameron Winter forum and it recommended I post it here to, so I guess that’s what I’m doing?

When I was a sophomore in high school, 2000, I was in honors English and walking to class listening to Dylan's greatest hits volume 2 that my dad gave me, I was still pretty new to him. "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" came on and it stopped me in my tracks, and I just sat on some school steps (so my CD player wouldn't skip), gobsmacked by what I was hearing. When it ended I remember thinking "class has nothing to teach me" cause we were learning Chaucer's Canterbury's Tales or some shit, and I just left school and walked home. It was one of those Wizard of Oz black and white to color moments for me, you know?

I know I've had many of those since, but that one stands out, because I'd never heard anything like it before. Yesterday I was walking in Ralphs looking for cat food and Nina + Field of Cops from the live album came on and I had a similar moment/feeling. Just stopped dead in my tracks, staring at some friskies in a trance, blown away by what I was hearing. I love the album version, it’s one of my favorites and blew my mind when I first heard it. I’ve sung its praises many times here and to anyone that knows me- this one sounded next level, and just knowing how wild it is that the frontman for a band with a whole different sound managed to sell out Carnegie Hall after only a year of a solo piano shows for a strange sounding album, and get a film made and released by PT Anderson…it’s just fucking bonkers. And it isn't easy to let quiet notes linger like he does for some of the songs!

Anyway, just wanted to share that. What’s funny is I am such a massive fan, and I love his live stuff, but it can definitely feel a bit samey. I saw him at the Barnsdall Park theater like a month after heavy metal came out, and was so fucking excited, and I fell asleep during one of the songs cause it sounded too similar to others and the acoustics weren’t great.

So much of the magic comes from the arrangements and quirks, IMO- the song I fell asleep to was (maybe the debut?) of Long Island City Here I Come, which is one of my very favorite songs on Getting Killed, but hearing it solo piano at the time was just hard to hear the lyrics and felt monotonous.

But a year of touring nonstop has shown how much he’s leveled up- this is worlds away from that January 2025 show, and he was fantastic then.

Ok rant over.

The new Dylancentric MOJO has an eye-catching cover-mount CD, subtitled The Men and Women of Rolling Thunder. Its 15 tracks sample what some of the Thunderers got up to before and after their 1975/76 escapade. I’m particularly looking forward to tracks by Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner and T Bone Burnett.

I normally bin cover-mount CDs, but this one’s a keeper.

Im a late genz kid who doesn't have favourite genre or artist or anything like that. so when i was searching for famous artists, I came across bob dylan. I tried listening to some of his famous hits, the lyrics are really. good, but its not something I can fall in love with. I mean I dont if its really my type (idk my type ). I wanna appreciate and admire his music (and music as a whole ). help me guys

idk if im clearly stating what I have in mind, sorry for the bad articulation.

thanks in advance!!

To those who aren’t aware of this, you’ll enjoy it x