(464) BOB DYLAN OFFICIALLY GENIUS

BOB DYLAN OFFICIAL SITE   Still touring, but you knew that!

Probably the most prolific songwriter of the 21st century, Bob Dylan is officially a genius - a creative genius.  Many of his songs stand as poetry without the music.  He's literary.

I remember sitting around with a group of songwriters talking about Bob.  The question was "How does he do it?" The answer seemed to be that Bob used newspapers - stories and headlines - as inspiration.  He was living many lives vicariously through the news.

Bob seemed to be cagey - sometimes inarticulate - on some interviews.  He would protest being a protest singer. He would put on people he thought were putting him on.  He didn't want to be stereotyped in terms of what sort of music he was writing and singing and was annoyed to be portrayed as a "jingle jangle man."  He was not so mellow.  And private; you heard very little about the true loves of his, had no idea.

Maybe he just didn't want to close any doors on what he would write about or which direction he would go.  Still today there is understood to be a Bob Dylan sound, and it has a lot to do with his distinctive voice, which is not the best voice in the music business.  No three octave range or high notes for Bob but some artists with that range have covered his songs and made them their own.

One of the most successful songwriters financially, he made millions early and could have retired and been OK, say after his motorcycle accident.  He went off somewhere and disappeared.  Ex-Beatle George Harrison pulled him out of a funk to be on stage in his Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, and they were lifelong friends who respected each other and recorded and played together in The Traveling Willburys.