bob dylan: "modern musicians are damn boring, mathematicians are more exciting"

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
www.nme.com

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-BORING!

BOB DYLAN has launched a withering attack on contemporary rock bands in the programme notes for his latest American tour.


"I know there are groups at the top of the charts that are hailed as the saviours of rock'n'roll and all that, but they are amateurs. They don't know where the music comes from," he wrote, adding, “I wouldn't even think about playing music if I was born in these times... I'd probably turn to something like mathematics. That would interest me. Architecture would interest me. Something like that."

As previously reported Dylan’s latest leg of his so-called 'Never Ending Tour' opens in Seattle on March 7 and winds up with a five night stint at New York's Beacon Theater, April 25 -30.


Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese's two-part Bob Dylan documentary, ’No Direction Home’, is now likely to air on BBC2 in late September.

Concentrating on Dylan’s career from his arrival in Greenwich Village until his 1966 motorcycle crash, the film will draw on previously unseen archive footage from the singer’s own personal collection, plus new interview material

titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

there's another thread on this, but he MUST be talking about Velvet Revolver, the only "return of rock" band to really hit the charts.

djdee2005 (djdee2005), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Modern musicians are all boring. They don't have that exciting flare that Tom Petty has.

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

On the other thread someone pointed out that the quotation is taken from a 2001 interview. To the NME, it's newsworthy without adding that bit of info.

Jonathan (Jonathan), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

He has a point though, doesn't he? Dylan was starting out when rock as a genre was developing fast and furiously and all sorts of new connections were being made and new forms appearing. By contrast, all we've had for the last five years is formula retro rock. When tired rock retreads like Bloc Party are hailed as the next great thing, it's time to look outside rock for excitement.

rock'n'roll bitch for you, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

"The world don't need any more songs."
Dylan said that in '91.
Where's this other thread?

Anyone Who Can Pick Up A Frying Pan Pwns Death (AaronHz), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

"Robbie Robertson is the only mathematical guitar genius I've ever run into who does not offend my intestinal nervousness".

Bob Dylan, 1966

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Who is Bob Dylan Talking About?

Keith C (kcraw916), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

'When tired rock retreads like Bloc Party are hailed as the next great thing, it's time to look outside rock for excitement. "

you could argue that bloc party do offer a fresh, if not new, or original take on post punk though.

anyway, dylan likes white stripes and invited jack white on stage with him last year. dont they fall into his 'boring' category?

titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

even Dylan agrees: HIP HOP

The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

haha

j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

Well, you know what it's against and what it's for. I don't need to tell you you that. It's for, you know, it's for .... well, it's for ... well you know my songs are all mathematical songs. You know what that means so I'm not gonna have to go into that specifically here. It happens to be a protest song ... and it borders on the mathematical, you know, idea of things, and this one specifically happens to deal with a minority of, you know, cripples and orientals, and, uh, you know, and the world in which they live, you realize, you know, you understand, you know. It's sort of a North Mexican kind of a thing, uh, very protesty. Very very protesty. And, uh, one of the protestiest of all things I ever protested against in my protest years. But uh...

Most important performer of our generation: (Euler), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 18:00 (fifteen years ago)

huh.

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 18:19 (fifteen years ago)

some=mathematicians, carpenters' wives

M.V., Tuesday, 9 March 2010 18:22 (fifteen years ago)

not to get all Weberman but Dylan mentions mathematics, mathematicians, a lot in his songs & interviews over the years and I wonder why? For instance I figure "Love Minus Zero / No Limit" is a weird reference, in its title at least, to the infinitesimal calculus. And yeah, mathematicians, carpenters' wives. I think there's another in his lyrics somewhere else too but I'm forgetting it right now.

Most important performer of our generation: (Euler), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:31 (fifteen years ago)

The geometry of innocent flesh on the bone causes Galileo's math book to get thrown at Delilah who sits worthlessly alone, but the tears on her cheeks are from laughter

tylerw, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:37 (fifteen years ago)

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~phys600/

by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:39 (fifteen years ago)

lets
get
dangerous

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:39 (fifteen years ago)

in chronicles he goes on at some length about his mathematical formula for writing songs on guitar

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:56 (fifteen years ago)

not the details of this formula, mind you, just that he has one

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:56 (fifteen years ago)

oh yeah! that's another good one!

Chuck Berry had the idea too:

“It’s my love of poetry,” he says. “A lyric is poetry with a melody—a message with a melody. And phrasing is all mathematics. If it’s eight beats to two bars, then you can sing 18 syllables. It’s always best to sing 15, though, so you can grab a breath now and then. In fact—you won’t believe it—but my biggest influence was my mathematics teacher. Music is so much mathematics that it’s pathetic. Anything off beat has to get back on the beat, or the whole thing is going to be out. So, with most of my music, I keep the basics on 4/4 time, and I take the deviations. It’s simple to teach 4/4, but it’s hard to teach deviations—dotted quarter notes and so forth. So I teach the basics, and take the versatility myself. That’s the reason why I’m out there seeming to deviate from the basic beat. At the end of the chorus, however, I’d better be back on!”

Most important performer of our generation: (Euler), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 19:59 (fifteen years ago)

where does that come from? that's an outstanding quote!

music is like deeper math, really.

by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:01 (fifteen years ago)

Guitar Player, 1971. Here's the link.

Most important performer of our generation: (Euler), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:03 (fifteen years ago)

"Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial."

o. nate, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:06 (fifteen years ago)

If it’s eight beats to two bars, then you can sing 18 syllables.

isn't this 16, not 18???

we call him gabb Neb coz he's gabb & his names Nebille (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:07 (fifteen years ago)

I guess you can occasionally sing 16th-note syllables.

o. nate, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:09 (fifteen years ago)

I dislike how British headlines are somehow allowed to used quotation marks to set off quotes THAT AREN'T ACTUAL QUOTES from interviews.

Sam Weller, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:48 (fifteen years ago)

I like what he said about Brian Wilson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flqdB8u9JXs

Melvin van Osterlow, Jr. (res), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 20:51 (fifteen years ago)

a profoundly moving statement

by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 22:01 (fifteen years ago)

^^^ I'm starting a religion based on that clip fyi

Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 22:09 (fifteen years ago)

Bob Dyllops

pithfork (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 22:56 (fifteen years ago)

death to faux jerky snacks

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 10 March 2010 03:39 (fifteen years ago)

You guys show the Macho Man some respect goddamnit!!!!!!

kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 10 March 2010 23:06 (fifteen years ago)

That's so cool. Without math you don't have buildings and technology. You die.

Earth Dye (u s steel), Wednesday, 10 March 2010 23:51 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

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

buzza, Friday, 22 July 2011 02:28 (fourteen years ago)

“I mean, really, my grandfather, I consider him the Jay-Z of his time, and he definitely has a legacy that a lot of people look up to," Pablo Dylan told AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview. "He feels strongly about my music and I love him to death.”

buzza, Friday, 22 July 2011 02:30 (fourteen years ago)

. . .

didn't even have to use my akai (Hurting 2), Friday, 22 July 2011 02:59 (fourteen years ago)

five years pass...

“I wouldn't even think about playing music if I was born in these times"

fuckin millennials

j., Monday, 19 September 2016 06:37 (nine years ago)

fuckin is spellchecked in my browser but not fuckin millennials

fuckin a

millennials

j., Monday, 19 September 2016 06:38 (nine years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.