James Lee Stanley

So tomorrow is Bob Dylan’s 70^th birthday.   I don’t know if you are a fan of  his, but I guarantee he impacted and changed music so much that there is no American music that you can listen to that doesn’t have some trace of his influence.

What is more remarkable is how very young he was when he began this courageous journey of following his own muse.

At a time when most of us, would rather have our hearts torn out than be considered other than wonderful by our peers, Dylan just went where his heart led him.   And he’s continued to do so for decades.  

It takes enormous courage to follow your heart not caring whether or not anyone accompanies you.   How he had that kind of confidence as such an early age is a mystery to me.    It cannot be true, of course, but it seems that he never experienced any self doubt  once he got to NYC.

The confluence of his genius and the undeniable energy that is New York combined to bring out the best in him.   Even at his most petulant there were still flashes of genius that could not be contained.

My wife cannot bear to hear his voice on a recording, but for me not only his writing, but his phrasing is impeccable.    He seems to know instinctively just what colouring he wants for a word or phrase that opens the work to interpretation by the listener, as well as the artist.

He has  been an inspiration to me since  1963 and continues to be so.    Until I read his remarks about touring constantly because that’s what musician’s do, regardless of their age, I had thought that I would have to stop doing this as I got older because that’s what most of my contemporaries did.    I knew so very many people who made music in the sixties and seventies that now just pick up their instrument now and then and write songs that mostly would have been better left unwritten.

Dylan is still doing it.   Going exactly where he wants to go and if you don’t like where he’s at right now, just give him a while and he will be on to something else.

What the arc of his life tells me is that we, as artists, can only follow the path that our talent lays open for us.    Make music, art, whatever, that makes you happy, that fulfills you and never stop believing in yourself.

He hasn’t.    And I haven’t either.

For me, he's continued the tradition created by Tolkien's hobbit's.  It's his birthday, but he's giving me a gift.  

Thanks, Bob