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Comment by ekianjo | Hacker News Reader

The rebel became part of the institution in the end. Somewhat sad if you ask me.

Eh, I don't know unless you are referring to some event I am not familiar with.

Yeah he's not writing protest songs anymore (unless you ask him [1]), but since he went electric, he's been doing what he wants, not what's expected of him. I saw him on tour this year, and it was a strange experience. The performance, song choice, and delivery felt more like he was just doing his music thing and I was paying to watch -- he wasn't trying to entertain me.

[1] I saw a video of this interview, but I can't seem to find it now, so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_songs_in_the_United_St... will have to do. Search for "all my songs"

Very much the same with the time I saw him. I think he spoke to the audience once during the entire gig.

Experienced exactly the same thing. Surreal. Enjoyed the opening act (Mark Knopfler) more than Dylan, but at least I saw him live once ;)

I'm jealous you got to see Mark Knopfler. My opener was Mavis Staples.

And here's Knopfler playing Dylan's take on a classic Scottish folk tune (The Parting Glass)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKszPYmj7s

Reminds me of Jean-Paul Sartre's letter in which he rejected the Nobel Prize:

> The writer who accepts an honour of this kind involves as well as himself the association or institution which has honoured him,” he said at the time. “The writer must therefore refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution, even if this occurs under the most honourable circumstances, as in the present case. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/sartre-nobel-p...)

Only sad if you believe that he didn't effect change in teh institution.

Based on current American society and especially the election, I would say he effected no change unfortunately.

In the time since Dylan started signing black people went from having very limited rights to winning a presidential elections. Obviously, there are many more factors than Dylan at play, and establishing causality, or the lack of thereof, is impossible. But, in my opinion, saying that society has not changed would be a big mistake.

Attributing any of that "progress" to Bob Dylan is a huge reach. He has a lot of fans and reached some segment of the population with his act, but he's basically just another guy peddling records and tap dancing for nickels.

This is an unfortunate outlook in my opinion. Art and literature are definitely more important than mere entertainment. The greatness of an artist is determined by how much impact they had on a society.

>Attributing any of that "progress" to Bob Dylan is a huge reach.

While that's true, Bob Dylan was most likely the reason behind Hurricane's retrial, so that's something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_(Bob_Dylan_song)

I would argue he occupied a lot more mindspace than most Nobel Laureates.

You don't need to attribute the change to him for it to not be sad if he joins the mainstream. If mainstream values converge with Dylan's, why shouldn't he?

He hasn't tried since '64.

Well he hasn't accepted the award yet ;)

Also known as the baby-boomer curse.

Found this 1968 song from an Israeli singer a couple of weeks ago, whose title says it all: "The Hippies Of Today Are The Assholes of Tomorrow" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joZU1fMFCAo).

I think Dylan would never have called himself a 'rebel' to begin with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOaI6_cF10

This should be a textbook example of the halo effect.

Isn't that somewhat what My Back Pages is already about?

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