If you like poetry, are a poet, or songwriter Rick’s Vision of Sin will intrigue you
By Stephen Pate – I am writing this Blog with a heavy dose of Bloggers Regret – I’ve written so much lately I have tennis elbow. So with arm brace and pain I am setting down to write these words. Does that make them seem more important or me careless?
Last spring while visiting Laura, I took off in my wheelchair along College and spotted this little shop, Used Books it said. At least it wasn’t Dead Parrots and Ironware. Inside I found a gold-mine of Bob Dylan books and being without any restraint purchased eight.
The least likely to get read was a thick tome of 500 pages called Visions of Sin by Christopher Ricks.
“Sin” on the title page was attractive. So was the author’s pedigree: he was the editor of the “Oxford Book of English Verse” a book I have owned since university. He was also professor at Oxford University. People steal my OBEV and I buy another. He has also written on some of my fave poets like T S Elliot, Keats, Tennyson, and A E Houseman. Why is he writing about Bob Dylan?
Let’s get past the canard that you like Dylan’s songs but he can’t sing, or you like his singing but his looks stink, or he isn’t a poet, etc. ad nauseam. Bob Dylan is the single most influential singer/songwriter to hit this planet ever. He copied everyone before him and added to it his own genius. What kind of genius steals from the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton and TS Elliot with impunity?
Without him there would be no Bruce Springsteen (a pale imitation), John Prine, Neil Young, no anybody who is doing what music is about today – relevant songs that the singer wrote himself.
When I listen to Dylan’s progeny it’s painfully clear they think he authorized guitar accompanied introspection. Most of their lyrics are mundane, prosaic, and forgettable. What people forget is that Dylan didn’t spring from wolves. He read and still reads voraciously. Reading is the key to knowledge and Dylan is a master of absorbing past great artists and writers.
Dylan has written 500 plus songs over 5 decades many of which define how we have felt along the way. If you want to see an artist in the middle of self-recreation, check out one of his concerts. It’s like Picasso re-painting his paintings over and over.
What about the book? Ricks is a proponent of the “close reading” of poetry. How close? Very close – you will go on wonderful trips where he compares “Not Dark Yet” from “Time Out of Mind” to Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” line for line.
After you digest that, he points out how Keats was inspired by Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73.”
I would love to have his grasp of poetry and literature while he is alluding to Becket and others. Word for word, line by line he draws out the beauty and significance of Dylan’s work.
The book is arranged around the seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues and the three heavenly graces. That’s a nice connection with the Bible and the major themes of Western literature. Ricks discusses songs that show or defy the sins, virtues and graces. This is not accidental for Dylan is a classic moralist. Dylan knows you can’t defy the Gods and stay a serious artist.
The popular press and pundits are constantly judging Dylan: such is the lot of an artist. It reminds me of the people who critiqued Van Gogh (too much yellow and blue) or Gauguin (who are those naked natives.) You can tell Ricks is impressed by Dylan during every period of his artistic career. Ricks makes you appreciate Dylan, even in his missteps, as the great artist he is.
This book is not an easy read. I guarantee if you like poetry, are a poet, or songwriter Rick’s Vision of Sin will intrigue you. My songwriting has improved from a single read. I’ve got to read it, no study it song by song, instead of trying read to get to the end.
Available from Amazon.com.
There are other scholarly books on Bob Dylan: this one is my favourite for its emphasis of poetry and song structure independent of the music. Next: Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan by Michael Gray.
My arm doesn’t hurt as much. I’m going to practice “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
If you’ve heard Dylan in concert in the last few years, you’ll remember the new arrangement. Each line starts in Em and ends on C/D.
The song is held there in chains until the chorus where the tune is allowed to break out to F G and back to C. The beat is one two one two one two, insistent and incessant. Lots of fun.
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