Bob Dylan est le nom de scène principal de Robert Allen Zimmerman, auteur-compositeur-interprète, musicien, peintre et poète américain, né le 24 mai 1941 à Duluth, dans le Minnesota. Il est l'une des figures majeures de la musique populaire.
Ses œuvres les plus célèbres datent majoritairement des années 1960 ; à une époque, il fut chroniqueur informel des troubles américains, avec des chansons comme Like a Rolling Stone , Ballad of a Thin Man, All Along the Watchtower, Masters of War ou encore Gates of Eden. Certaines de ses chansons comme Blowin' in the Wind et The Times They Are a-Changin' sont devenues des hymnes anti-guerre, en particulier anti-guerre du Vietnam, et des mouvements civiques de l'époque. L'un de ses albums studio, Modern Times, publié en 2006, est entré directement à la première place dans le classement Billboard 200 et a été nommé Album de l'année par le Rolling Stone.
Dans ses premières chansons, Dylan a abordé les questions sociales. Il faisait généralement appel à la contre-culture de l'époque. Tout en élargissant et en personnalisant les styles musicaux, il a mis l'accent sur de nombreuses traditions de la musique américaine, folk, country, blues, gospel, rock 'n' roll et rockabilly, ainsi qu’à la musique folk anglaise, écossaise et irlandaise. Depuis le début de sa carrière, dans les années 1960, Dylan a, par ses textes et par sa recherche de voies nouvelles , marqué la culture musicale contemporaine. En témoignent les nombreux artistes qui se réclament de son influence ou le vaste répertoire des chansons qu'il a composées, dans lequel puisent des musiciens de tous les horizons et de toutes les générations
Les références dont s’inspire Bob Dylan pour faire évoluer son art, sont non seulement à rechercher du côté de musiciens américains légendaires, tels Hank Williams , Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie et Robert Johnson , mais aussi chez des écrivains de la Beat Generation, comme Jack Kerouac ou Allen Ginsberg. Il apprécie également Arthur Rimbaud, auquel il a été souvent comparé, et s’intéresse à des dramaturges, tel Bertolt Brecht.
Complexe, en constante évolution , s'inscrivant dans différents registres, allant du rock agressif aux ballades, et proche des aspirations sociales et culturelles des époques qu’elle a traversées, l’œuvre de Bob Dylan, qui a contribué au rayonnement de la culture populaire américaine, est couronnée le 13 octobre 2016, quand il obtient le prix Nobel de littérature « pour avoir créé de nouvelles expressions poétiques dans la grande tradition de la chanson américaine »,,,.
“It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.”
On the influence of Jack Kerouac, as quoted in Jack Kerouac (2007) by Alison Behnke, p. 100
Contexte: Someone handed me Mexico City Blues in St. Paul [Minnesota] in 1959 and it blew my mind. It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.
“For the loser now will be later to win”
Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), The Times They Are A-Changin'
Contexte: Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s naming.’
For the loser now will be later to win
“I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.”
Quoted in Robert Shelton's No Direction Home https://books.google.com/books?id=-IefAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22I+think+a+poet+is+anybody+who+wouldn%27t+call+himself+a+poet.%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22I+think+a+poet+is+anybody+who+wouldn%27t+call+himself+a+poet.+Anybody+who+could+possibly+call+himself+a+poet+just+cannot+be+a+poet.%22 (1986), p. 353
Contexte: I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet. Anybody who could possibly call himself a poet just cannot be a poet.
“Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Contexte: Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
“Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Subterranean Homesick Blues
Contexte: Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trenchcoat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
Bob Dylan: The Rolling Stone Interview http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-rolling-stone-interview-bob-dylan-19780126 by Jonathan Cott (26 January 1978)
“People call, say beware doll, you're bound to fall, you thought they were all, kiddin you.”
Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Like a Rolling Stone
Contexte: Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you. People call, say beware doll, you're bound to fall, you thought they were all, kiddin you.
Rolling Stone #1078 (14 May 2009), p. 45
Contexte: It's peculiar and unnerving in a way to see so many young people walking around with cellphones and iPods in their ears and so wrapped up in media and video games. It robs them of their self-identity. It's a shame to see them so tuned out to real life. Of course they are free to do that, as if that's got anything to do with freedom. The cost of liberty is high, and young people should understand that before they start spending their life with all those gadgets.
“If you take whatever there is to the song away—the beat, the melody—I could still recite it.”
Interview with Paul Robbins (March, 1965)
Contexte: I find it easy to write songs. I been writing songs for a long time and the words to the songs aren't written out just for the paper; they're written as you can read it, you dig. If you take whatever there is to the song away—the beat, the melody—I could still recite it. I see nothing wrong with songs you can't do that with either—songs that, if you took the beat and the melody away, they wouldn't stand up because they're not supposed to do that, you know. Songs are songs.
“I ain't saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind”
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Contexte: I ain't saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right.
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Visions of Johanna
“But goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well”
Compare: "So I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road..." Paul Clayton, Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone).
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Contexte: I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
But goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well
Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Tangled Up In Blue
Address to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (13 December 1963)
Contexte: There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground. And I'm trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial such as politics. They has got nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about the general people and when they get hurt.
Rolling Stone #1078 (14 May 2009), p. 45
Contexte: It's peculiar and unnerving in a way to see so many young people walking around with cellphones and iPods in their ears and so wrapped up in media and video games. It robs them of their self-identity. It's a shame to see them so tuned out to real life. Of course they are free to do that, as if that's got anything to do with freedom. The cost of liberty is high, and young people should understand that before they start spending their life with all those gadgets.
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
“Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.”
Contexte: It’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.
Song lyrics, Desire (1976), Hurricane
Contexte: Here comes the story of The Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been the champion of the world.
“Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown.”
Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), The Times They Are A-Changin'
Contexte: Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown.
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
“Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach”
Song lyrics, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), My Back Pages
Contexte: In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow.
“Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle-jangle morning, I'll come following you.”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Mr. Tambourine Man
Contexte: Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle-jangle morning, I'll come following you.
“We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors.”
Contexte: It’s not a character like in a book or a movie. He’s not a bus driver. He doesn’t drive a forklift. He’s not a serial killer. It’s me who’s singing that, plain and simple. We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
Song lyrics, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Brownsville Girl (with Sam Shepard)
“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.”
Variante: Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet!
“May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung.”
Song lyrics, Planet Waves (1974), Forever Young
Contexte: May your hands always be busy. May your feet always be swift. May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift. May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung. May you stay forever young.
