An actual IM conversation I just had with a “friend” (typos included; links added after the fact):
11:42 AM Shane: yo
me: hey
Shane: I got to give a listen to Astral Weeks and Blood on the banks
I really like Astral Weeks, very good
me: tracks…. blood on the tracks
Shane: Though, I know this will make you sneeze blood, but I think blood on the tracks solidified my hate for bob dylan
11:43 AM sorry
me: what??
jesus, man
how can you say that??
tangled up in blue?
simple twist of fate?
Shane: Because listening to him sing is like having a rusty spoon jabbed in my eyeball
me: BUCKETS OF FREAKING RAIN???
Shane: The songs are all good, I just can’t stand him singing
IT SUCKS
I SING BETTER THAN HIM
11:44 AM And that’s pretty bad
me: alright, nice knowing you, asshole
have a nice life
Shane: hahaha
I’m not saying they are bad songs! They seem great, but I can’t stand listening to his voice…I’m sorry, it just doesn’t do it for me, I find it annoying. I know, I’m an asshole
11:45 AM me: i just don’t understand
you seemed like such a good kid
Shane: Come on, you can’t understand why someone would think Bob Dylan doesn’t have a good voice? Most people awknowledge that
11:46 AM me: i’ll acknowledge that it’s unconventional
i will not acknowledge that it’s “bad.”
Shane: Denial
me: because that album makes me feel like i’m living a movie
it is just so powerful
11:47 AM Shane: I’ll try to listening to it again…but, it just doesn’t hit me where it seems to hit eveyrone else. I fully admit I’m the odd man out…but I can’t seem to get into it
The nasally twitchy voice that’s off key 80% of the time…
11:49 AM I like the music, thats definitely good
me: well all i can say is that i would find ‘blood on the tracks’ to be a “good” album if it were sung by rhett miller or some other bland, hit-every-note-perfectly, traditionally-voiced singer… but with bob singing it, it’s timeless
it’s like listening to a hobo on a fencpost warble on about his travels
Shane: Yeah, I guess singing in tune is so stupid
11:50 AM me: totally overrated
Shane: haha
me: what was the 3rd album i required you to listen to>
?
Shane: I won’t give up…but I don’t know it will effect me like it does you
You gave me a neil young album, and a stones album
me: ah yes
11:51 AM after the goldrush
Shane: They didn’t have either in newbury comics
so I need to go back out onanother run
me: ok
Shane: Got any more? Now that I’ve completely disappointed you?
me: well if you dont like after the goldrush then i’m through with trying
so i’ll jsut wait to hear how that goes
Shane: hahah
11:52 AM Oh, tell me what you’re favorite elliot smith album is
I have 3 of his songs, and I listened to them this weekend and was digging them
me: do you want well-crafted pop songs mixed in with songs that will make you cry, or just songs that will make you cry?
Shane: Maybe I’ll get both
11:54 AM me: probably should
and listen to this song. lovely. [I sent him "Angel in the Snow" at this point.]
Shane: who is this?
me: elliott smith
(two t’s, dude. a little respect for the dead)
11:55 AM Shane: and it’s your opinion that this guy is one of the best song writers of our generation?
me: the
Shane: excuse me
the
I like this song
me: i’ll excuse you when you come around on bob dylan
11:56 AM i’m gonna open-hand slap you in the face wednesday night
Shane: You gain a better appreciate of Steve Vai’s intricate passages on “Freak Show Excess” and I’ll come around on Dylan
11:57 AM me: dude, please
Shane: yeah, this elliott smith is good stuff
11:58 AM me: i was listening to passion and warfare and concocting an imaginary movie to ‘the audience is listening’ when you were watching sesame street
Shane: hahah
I stand corrected
you may slap me in the face
me: maybe i’ll do it with my old copy of ‘riding with the surfer’ just to rub in how justified it is
11:59 AM Shane: hahha
indeed
But
I think you mean “Surfing with the Alien”
me: SHIT!
Shane: yep
12:00 PM You were doing well until up to that point
me: well it’s been a solid 17 years or so
Shane: haha, true
“Angel In The Snow” by Elliott Smith (from New Moon)
mgdistrict
smitch
jimmymontreal
I think you have great friends. But seriously, Shane — first I find out you don’t like Radiohead, and now this? If I didn’t know better, I’d assume you looked like this and that this was your favorite band.
The whole “does Bob Dylan suck at singing so bad that it prevents me from being able to listen to/appreciate his music” question is obviously one that’s been debated at length, and raises a whole host of broader questions. For me, the most relevant one is whether technical execution or song-writing is more important in making music “good.” Again, for me, Bob Dylan — and Blood On The Tracks in particular — is the primary example of why I think it’s song-writing, not execution, that really brings it home. The two tracks at the beginning of that album and the two at the end are four of the greatest songs ever written.
Of course, there’s a point at which the vocals are so bad that they render the whole thing unlistenable (to pick a singer I know mgdistrict loathes, imagine Nico singing on Blood on the Tracks), and for Shane (and many others), Bob Dylan is clearly past that point.
Anyway, give him an open-hand slap in the face for me, too.
I can understand where Shane’s coming from, just don’t agree with him. The song itself is far more important than its execution, as smitch argued. Indeed, I was thinking of doing a post on great bands featuring lead singers with annoying voices to demonstrate this. (See: Built to Spill.)
But now I’m thinking of a different argument entirely: that too-perfect execution can absolutely ruin a song. (See: Pernice Brothers.)
Postscript: Shane, for a good Elliott Smith starter kit, I’d pick up nothing other than “either/or.”
First of all, there is way too much loyalty to a guy who can’t even clearly speak his own name. They have a word for people like that: Mentally Challenged. At some point, nostalgia for the past needs to be broken by the reality of the future. It’s like people saying Jimi Hendrix was the best guitar player ever. He may have been pretty damn good and wrote some amazing tunes, but if he were alive today he’d be an average player. I’m sure some of you want to slap me twice now.
It is true that this all comes down to the marriage of songwriting versus execution, and what makes someone “brilliant” or what have you. But everyone has different tastes and opinions on this and I think it just becomes an annoying tirade about “Musicality of our culture” or some other boring topic of epic repetition.
The point is, I can’t stand his voice. The songwriting and the music itself might be good (though I have an issue with some of that rhyming), but I have a hard time enjoying something and putting it on my “All time” list if it makes me want to break the CD in half and slit my throat with the jagged edges. Which, consequently, I would probably also do if I started listening to Radiohead.
I love you all though.
xoxox
thanks for an informative and highly amusing blog - loved it….
All music is subjective and when you get to a certain age - although not quite as old as the codger smitch linked you find none of it matters anymore. You like what you like and who the hell cares why….
I have to stand up and say though that I just don’t much like Radiohead. I’m with Shane on that one.