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NashvilleDylan or Zimmermanby Jack EschweilerI have an insane vision of Bob Dylan moving to Westchester, Shaker Heights, or (worse yet) Erie, going by his real name (Bob Zimmerman), and getting a job as an accountant. Of course it’s just an insane vision . . . absurd.U iJkylme shouldn t have been sueh a surprise. When Zimmerman was still Dylan he wrote All Along The Watch-tower which predicted a break with the frenetic ism of “thescene”Businessmen they drink my w: Plowmen dig my earth.None of them along the line Know what any of it is worth. (Dwarf Music 1968)Before Dylan broke away from the “movement” and its missionary politics, he said he would be doing so in one linefrom My Back Pages:ccI was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.”Dylan has never been much of a surprise: ask any Dylan freak and he can show you any number of changes he (Dylan) has gone through as portrayed in his music. Bobby Zimmerman thoush. is a sumrise.Dylan once said he would probably go back to his roots, but never did it in full. Bob Zimmerman has gone one better and has proven himself a master of hillbilly soul. Admittedly, I don’t like hillbilly music as a result of hassles from local hillbillys reacting to my appearance (hippy freak).The point is, you cannot review Nashville Skyline and dismiss it as another Bob Dylan album following in naturalmm a m a I __ 1 _ _ Tt T T T ^ » a a _ _» — —----ww xjLJL xiai/uiaiprogression like John Wesley Harding which followed Blond on Blond, which followed Highway 61 (the real Dylan al-bum), which followed Bringing It All Back Home, which etc.,JJylan has broken away as he did with Another Side ofthe Beatles did with Revolver, the Stones with Between the Buttons, John Mayall with Bare Wires and Johnny Rivers with Changes. ’Compared to Dylan’s old albums, “Skyline” is a sell-outot commercial and sentimental garbage, but when you lookdeeper it turns into a contented album. The hate has turnedinto love, the preaching into insinuation. Anyone who couldwrite a song like Country Pie has to be cool. I can enioyBobby Zimmerman frc i Hibbing, Minnesota. I’m not wl -rehe s at, but I can still dig it and I’ll continue to enjoy Bobby Zimmerman until the d»v be a-nnenvc *vn tt™ tto™h;E'Five years ago had anyone told me Bob Dylan would get a haircut, go off to Nashville and do an album of hillbilly music, I would have considered it an insane vision. Three years ago if anyone would have shown the picture that graces the Nashville Skyline cover (young Bob Zimmerman saying howdy) it would have been too much.But, Joey Bishop is on television, the Dating Game is going into its fifth season, and Spiro Agnew’s daughter has been busted for possession. Nothing’s stable. Dylan used to be mean and hip, no1 he ha refused to sing It’s Allright Ma for Peter Fonda and Denis Hopper’s Easy Rider film because the ending was too violent. Fonda now calls Dylan, Zimmerman. Since hearing Nashville Skyline, so do I.
Newspaper Details
Erie Nittany Cub
Erie, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, Oct 03, 1969
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
GB 12 Jan 2023
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