Re: Mr. Tambourine Man
Originally Posted by
jocheem67
And "for the people and made by the people" ...that counts for my home-made techno too...It's all so personal and impossible to discuss...
Techno is folk by that definition, with which I agree. Today's "urban folk" may very well be electronic music made on crappy computers in small bedrooms.
But folk music in the way it's usually thought of, as Dylan himself keeps saying, had a very different and important role in the non-mediated past: at a time when the mass media didn't exist, people got to learn about things that happened in far away places via songs. If a new bridge was built, a song was made about that, and it spread. If a hundred people died in an accident, the same. Music had a documentary role. Hard to believe? But it's real, and it was one of the functions of the music. It still is in many places. It can also still be seen in the work of artists such as Springsteen and Dylan, as well as other artists influenced mainly by the folk music of their lands.
There's a story I remember reading about this song: in a gathering where Bob Dylan and Donovan were both present, Donovan being a young, relatively unknown singer then, Donovan started singing Mr. Tambourine Man, allegedly not knowing Dylan was in the room. Someone asked Dylan "that's nice, is this a folk song?", and Dylan responded "no, not yet".
Last edited by 23meg; November 15th, 2006 at 06:12 AM.
Previously known as 23meg
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