The Renewed Dylan

One of my favorite lines from Anthony Burgess' novel, Nothing Like the Sun, is when he has WS (Shakespeare) think to himself, "there is nothing new, there is only renewal." One of these days I'm going to work that line into a song of my own, but for now I want to apply it to the song "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'", which Mr. Bob Zimmerman has released today as a download on his website.

Like much of Dylan's music since 1997, this song has got a hot groove to it, and not one technical flaw in the performance (as long as you can dig Bobby's vocal aesthetic). The deep bluesiness of the lyrics and the world weariness of the tone nicely offset this skanky groove.

I'm delighted to hear him experimenting a little more with a slightly more varied range of textures--I'll never stop loving guitars/bass/n' drums, but Bob can bring in as many succulent players as he wants, so why not toss in more flavors?

The thing that differentiates this song from the previous three albums of the man's late renaissance is musical texture. This tune has got a little trumpet vamp and an accordion riff jiving inside of it. There was a touch of accordion on 2001's "Sugar Baby," and a bit of it on the most recent edition of the Bootleg Series, but this is the first accordion I've heard on one of Dylan's upbeat tunes. So far as I know he hasn't had a horn anywhere in his bands since the late 70's or early 80's. It's a fresh track, and I'll listen to it more, and savor it.

But, to be honest with you, here's my take: it's hot, but it's nothing revolutionary. Dylan admits in Chroncles (and in an 60 Minutes interview) that he doesn't know how to write "the songs that put a roarin' in your head" anymore. He says he's forgotton how to get to that place, and so he's become a different kind of artist in his late renaissance period. He consolidates blues traditions from the past century, instead of pushing American musical tradition forward as he did with songs from his first three decades of musical & lyrical experimentation. Now, I'm not telling you that all his music from '62 - '80 was revolutionary--no siree, not by any means. But Dylan will be who he is to me for two reasons: his belief in his vision, his lyrical gallantry and the revolutionary songs he wrote.

Those include, but are not limited to "Hard Rain...", everything on Bringin' it all Back Home thru John Wesley Harding, and Blood on the Tracks, and flashes of inspiration such as "Slow Train" and "Blind Willie McTell."

I still get inspired by what Bob does today, it still stirs a sense of the possibility of great renewal, but it rarely puts that roarin' in my head anymore.

Dylan now, as ever, is going a different direction--he still shows flashes of lyrical force and wit, he still makes music that sounds like no one else, but he is not way out ahead of the rest of American musicians, blazing trails.

Someone needs to be.