Bono on Dylan and the Talmud
Rolling Stone has a 100 Greatest Singers of All Time list. Some of the entries have a description of their importance by another singer. I just read Bob Dylan’s entry, which was written by Bono. Bono had this to say, (emphasis mine)
To understand Bob Dylan’s impact as a singer, you have to imagine a world without Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Lucinda Williams or any other vocalist with a cracked voice, dirt-bowl yelp or bluesy street howl. It is a vast list, but so were the influences on Dylan, from the Talmudic chanting of Allen Ginsberg in “Howl” to the deadpan Woody Guthrie and Lefty Frizzell’s murmur. There is certainly iron ore in there, and the bitter cold of Hibbing, Minnesota, blowing through that voice. It’s like a knotted fist, and it allows Dylan to sing the most melancholy tunes and not succumb to sentimentality. What’s interesting is that later, as he gets older, the fist opens up, to a vulnerability. I have heard him sing versions of “Idiot Wind” where he was definitely the idiot.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:23 am
rolling stone is mamash bitul torah even if they do print the word talmudic. feh, naarishkeit.;>)
November 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Bono is alright, but I suspect he couldn’t pick a Talmudic chant out of a lineup; if he could, it would only be with clever guesswork.