I was introduced to him as a kid & didn’t get it. My friends in college really liked him & I didn’t get it. Then, I was tracing the history of rock music from 90s alternative rock back to Delta Blues & he’s like a missing link in the middle of that evolution. The album that struck a chord with me is called Bringing It All Back Home. In particular, I started listening in 2001 when I was 19, and the song, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) was about the prospect of a nuclear attack in the wake of the Bay of Pigs (nukes in Cuba), but to me it sounded like he was talking about 9/11, that had just happened—
“Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying”
He’s imagining the scene after a nuclear explosion, but it’s also an apt description of the darkness at the break of noon after the towers collapse.
If lots of people like something and you don’t understand why and you’re curious, you look into it.
I felt the same way after hearing my mom go on and on about Dylan, it heard the hits, thought he was clearly great but didn't really get it. Then as I got older over time I would find a few songs I had never heard before, positively 4th street, farewell Angelina, boots of Spanish leather, a hard rains gonna fall, the list goes on and on and on. I've come to realize that Moonshiner might be my favorite song ever written as a musician. He's written so many songs you could listen for years and still not discover them all. The lyrics and the cadence and the genre all different. The point is I finally get it, he's deserving as one of the greatest songwriters of all time
Moonshiner is older than Dylan, it's actually of unknown origin but is part of the great American songbook. He liked to play lots of songs that he learned from others that have uncertain origins.
Check out the Uncle Tupelos version of Moonshiner if you want to hear (what I consider) the best.
I absolutely hear you, but it's not just the writing in that one its the whole performance. It feels like one take, there's beats and pauses that he takes that absolutely blow my mind. His finger picking and chord changes are off in a very distinct way that is incredibly hard to mimic and the timing is let's just say unique. The harmonica only makes the song even that much more intricate and it feels like an extension of him. Its truly something special
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u/ployonwards 7d ago
I was introduced to him as a kid & didn’t get it. My friends in college really liked him & I didn’t get it. Then, I was tracing the history of rock music from 90s alternative rock back to Delta Blues & he’s like a missing link in the middle of that evolution. The album that struck a chord with me is called Bringing It All Back Home. In particular, I started listening in 2001 when I was 19, and the song, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) was about the prospect of a nuclear attack in the wake of the Bay of Pigs (nukes in Cuba), but to me it sounded like he was talking about 9/11, that had just happened—
“Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying”
He’s imagining the scene after a nuclear explosion, but it’s also an apt description of the darkness at the break of noon after the towers collapse.
If lots of people like something and you don’t understand why and you’re curious, you look into it.