Bob Dylan Calls out Merle Haggard & Tom T. Hall — Merle Responds
This story has been updated.
In the windup to Sunday night’s Grammy Awards presentation, Bob Dylan was the honoree at a Friday evening event (2-6) naming him the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year. The event featured a mesmerizing lineup of performers, presenters, and attendees, including Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Beck, Willie Nelson, Jack White, Jimmy Carter, and Crosby, Still & Nash among many others.
During Dylan’s 30-minute acceptance speech, the usually-reclusive and many times calculating songwriter who it can be argued is the oldest living music legend still among us this side of Willie Nelson, laid out much praise for his fellow songwriters, while unceremoniously lashing out at others. Dylan breezily admonished 50’s-era songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, as well as R&B writer Marsha Ambrosius, though he never mentioned her by name.
Then Bob turned his ire to the country side of the world, criticizing both Tom T. Hall and Merle Haggard.
“Merle Haggard didn’t even think much of my songs,” Dylan said in his speech. “I know he didn’t. He didn’t say that to me, but I know way back when he didn’t. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs. ‘Together Again,’ that’s Buck Owens. And that trumps anything else out of Bakersfield. Buck Owens or Merle Haggard? If you had to have somebody’s blessing, you can figure it out.”
However, Haggard has praised Dylan publicly, and at length. Just in November at a CMT function honoring Merle, Haggard said of Dylan, “Bob is real. That guy you see onstage is the same guy offstage. He’s a recluse. But he just wants to be himself, so sometimes that means he doesn’t want to be around anybody. But Bob Dylan writes every day, all the time. And when he’s not writing, he works his band’s fuckin’ asses off, from 1 to 5 every day. He’s probably our greatest living songwriter and he’s one of my favorite writers. And you know, the truth is, neither of us are the kind of guys who do a lot of rice-throwing.”
Dylan later spoke at length about Tom T. Hall and his song “I Love.”
Now some might say Tom was a great songwriter, and I’m not going to doubt that. At the time, during his interview, I was actually listening to a song of his on the radio in the recording studio. It was called “I Love.” And it was talking about all the things he loves. An everyman song. Trying to connect with people. Trying to make you think he’s just like you and you’re just like him. We all love the same things. We’re all in this together.
Tom loves little baby ducks. Slow-moving trains and rain. He loves big pickup trucks and little country streams. Sleep without dreams. Bourbon in a glass. Coffee in a cup. Tomatoes on a vine and onions.
Now listen, I’m not every going to disparage another songwriter. I’m not gonna do that. I’m not saying that’s a bad song, I’m just saying it might be a little over-cooked.
Continuing, Dylan praised Kris Kristofferson, his song “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and said, “That one song blew Tom T. Hall’s world apart. It might have sent him to the crazy house. God forbid he ever heard one of my songs. If ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ rattled Tom’s cage and sent him into the looney bin, my songs surely would have made him blow his brains out.”
Saturday afternoon (2-7), Merle Haggard responded via Twitter.
“Bob Dylan I’ve admired your songs since 1964. ‘Don’t Think Twice’ Bob, Willie and I just recorded it on our new album.”
Merle is likely referring to the Bob Dylan song “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” released on the 1963 Dylan album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Merle and Willie Nelson have been rumored to be recording together, along with Kris Kristofferson, on a Musketeers project that has been hinted about for years, but never formally announced. Merle could be referring to this, or something else involving Willie Nelson.
It must be noted that Bob Dylan regularly does and says things to throw people off guard and stir controversy. Whether those are his motivations here or there’s true animosity with Haggard or Tom T. Hall, is anyone’s guess. The fact that Haggard was so praising of Dylan so recently may mean this is Dylan’s strange way of returning the favor. Dylan and Haggard have also toured together in the past. But it has definitely made for a stirring pre-Grammy situation.
February 7, 2015 @ 4:46 pm
I don’t think that every Dylan song is the metaphorical genius that he and his admirers would have you believe. And I don’t believe it’s fair to rip on a songwriter for their worst song(s)… It’s a complete body of work that should be judged as a whole. Also, part of songwriting is a solid melody to fit the lyrics. That’s where Bob Dylan comes up short, in my opinion.
February 7, 2015 @ 5:58 pm
Exactly! Anytime I wanna rip on a dude for one bad song I find myself remembering Jamey Johnson. Yeah, he was a part of “honkyyonk badonka donk”, but then he wrote “the lonesome song.” I held that first one against him for years, but eventually realized he’d made SO much excellent shit after that I got over it. Everyone has a bad day at the office now and again-unfortunately for songwriters, their bad days wind up on the radio.
February 7, 2015 @ 6:52 pm
We must remember that songs like Honky Tonk Badonkadonk are what enabled JJ to go out on the road and to put out that Lonesome Song album.
February 7, 2015 @ 7:35 pm
That’s quite the Machiavellian way of looking at things, but I can’t really say I disagree. It’s sad that guys like Jamey Johnson have to do things like that to make it in “country” music nowadays. I wish I was old enough to remember the good old days when guys hit it big for no reason other than just being freaking awesome.
October 14, 2018 @ 7:36 pm
Agree. Dylan on his best day falls far short of Haggard on his worst day. Moreover, I would rather hear fingernails on a blackboard than Dylan’s whiney voice.
February 7, 2015 @ 5:07 pm
Bob Dylan has the most fucking annoying voice ever. Fuck him. Long live the Hag!
February 8, 2015 @ 10:51 am
You took the words right out of my mouth, he might be a great songwriter but his voice is almost intolerable and the fact that he just called one of my favorite country singers ever really boils my blood
February 7, 2015 @ 5:20 pm
Dylan always has been and always will be an arrogant non-singer
February 8, 2015 @ 12:46 pm
Bob should be careful. It is dangerous for a guy his age to be patting himself on the back while performing autofellatio.
February 7, 2015 @ 5:24 pm
I saw Dylan and Haggard on tour together in 05! People who don’t like each other probably do tour together, but I envisioned them hanging out back stage writing songs and swapping stories. Maybe something came out during that tour that Dylan has been harboring ever since.
I love Dylan, I love Owens, I LOVE Haggrad, But I really love Dylan speaking whatever is on his mind.
February 7, 2015 @ 5:33 pm
This is very disappointing. Dylan is better than this. I hope he retracts or clarifies. Meanwhile, Haggard is the stand-up guy he has always been.
February 7, 2015 @ 5:44 pm
Bob Dylan is overrated, which is forgivable, and also an ass, which is less so.
February 7, 2015 @ 6:06 pm
Jesus, I love Bob Dylan.
Got to love a guy who isn’t afraid to speak his mind even if it astonishes critics. One thing people need to learn about Dylan is that he says and does things just to mess with the media. He’s been doing it since he was kid. However with this instance he might have some weight to it. I thought the SCM crowd here would have more respect for Bob Dylan especially his contributions to Folk, Blues, Bluegrass, Country, and Americana music in general. The dudes always going to get a pass with me.
February 7, 2015 @ 8:13 pm
The people who have commented so far are just representing themselves, not SCM or SCM commenters in total. You’re an SCM commenter too, but for obvious reasons, there’s probably going to be more Haggard fans than Dylan fans here.
I don’t like what Dylan said whatsoever, but as I said above, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just screwing with all of us.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:22 pm
Screwing or not you don’t talk of someone blowing their brains out. Way to go Merle, acting like the true man. Doesn’t Dylan speak of not throwing any stones in many of his songs?
February 7, 2015 @ 6:36 pm
I’m sorry, but does anyone else think it’s funny that Haggard’s reply came on Twitter? I’m surprised he’s even heard of it and I would be even more shocked if Dylan has. Sign of the times I suppose…
February 7, 2015 @ 6:58 pm
No, but I think it’s funny that you don’t think “old” people can learn new technology or methods of communication.
February 7, 2015 @ 7:38 pm
It’s not that they can’t learn it, it just seems like many older artists reject new technology like Twitter or don’t use it often simply because the majority of their remaining fanbase just doesn’t tweet.
February 9, 2015 @ 12:06 am
I’m pretty sure Merle is new to twitter, when I first got on there he didn’t have an account, and a while after I went back and set up an account, I think I remember a post on his facebook or something saying “we’re on twitter now!” or something like that.
February 7, 2015 @ 7:05 pm
I believe it was also simulcast on Facebook.
Likely it is a PR underling who actually pulled the trigger on the social network properties. Some older artists do have a pretty big presence on social network, but Merle isn’t really one of them.
February 7, 2015 @ 6:56 pm
Funny enough one of the best shows I’ve seen was in 2005 with both Hag and Dylan.
February 7, 2015 @ 7:31 pm
Bob Dylan can’t carry a tune in a bucket and is the pure definition of “fucking overrated.” Not just overrated, fucking overrated. Dylan fans are like Radiohead fans–they make you want to hate the artist, which obviously doesn’t help his cause.
Merle Haggard has a long list of incredible songs that should make him pretty much untouchable, in my opinion. The same can be said for Dylan, but it appears that as his body has lost its speed, his mouth has compensated.
February 7, 2015 @ 10:02 pm
Dylan is a master. He and Haggard each have an impressive legacy, but I don’t think they can be compared.
February 7, 2015 @ 10:15 pm
Agreed. Haggard is superior in every way.
February 7, 2015 @ 7:54 pm
Not sure what Dylan gains by saying these things. I respect Bob Dylan, even if much of his music never appealed to me (mostly due to his voice not being a favorite of mine), but I hate to see artists who should be getting praise for the art they have given the world, getting into petty sparing matches with other respected, awesome artists.
This sucks….
February 7, 2015 @ 9:24 pm
I love both Haggard and Dylan. Bob Dylan’s songwriting is incredible. His singing, like many of the outlandish things he says, is for show. He has more than just the “Momma’s in the Basement mixing up the Medicine” voice. It has been noted by many who knew him before how surprised they were to hear him sing in his “affected” voice. Some have even claimed he stole that style from another folkie.There are glimmers of his “real” voice on many of his songs, especially Nashville Skyline. His songwriting is in a very select league. Haggard’s is as well. I think it is a Pro Wrestling type stunt.
February 7, 2015 @ 9:33 pm
Why would someone choose to sound like shit?
February 8, 2015 @ 12:34 am
I would guess, in retrospective, to become a legend. Regardless of anyone’s taste or opinions about his music, ours included, it apparently worked.
February 8, 2015 @ 1:58 am
Because he signed a deal with the devil and the devil said, “If you sing with this voice people will think you are more mysterious and genuine. I will make you bigger then you ever thought possible.”
I salute Bob for not giving a crap about what anybody thinks.
I salute Merle for being awesome!
February 19, 2015 @ 12:27 pm
He quit smoking prior to ‘Nashville Skyline’ – so he says.
February 7, 2015 @ 9:57 pm
It was a great speech. From the LA Times “Fellow singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson earned some Dylan’s most effusive praise of the night. After reciting some of the lyrics to the Kristofferson classic, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” he observed: “You can look at Nashville, pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything.”
February 7, 2015 @ 10:13 pm
I’m not a Bob Dylan hater, well other than the fact his harmonica playing makes Alannis Morrisette sound like Carey Fucking Bell, but I became pretty tired of him saying shit a long time ago. Shut up Bob.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:11 pm
Haggard is everything he’s ever portrayed himself to be and has lived his songs right down to growing up dirt poor and spending time in prison.
Robert Zimmerman latched on to the culture that happened to be popular among a certain group of people and somehow hit it big even though half his lyrics make absolutely no sense and he’d get booed off stage if he showed up at a karaoke bar singing the way he does.
Hag is the greatest songwriter of our time. Dylan is one of the most overrated.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:14 pm
“A canvas covered cabin in a crowded labor camp
Stand out in this mem’ry I revive
Cause my daddy raised a family there with two hard working hands
And tried to feed my mama’s hungry eyes” – Merle Haggard
“Don’t hang around that pool room all day, we might get more snow. Don’t forget the coffee, Billy Joe.” -Tom T. Hall
“Yea! Heavy and a bottle of bread
Yea! Heavy and a bottle of bread
Yea! Heavy and a bottle of bread” – Bob Dylan, (we’ve all over-cooked a few, ain’t we, Bob ?)
February 9, 2015 @ 7:40 pm
And here we have it. Thanks for posting actual proof – in the lyrics themselves, though I would argue that Tom T. Hall has written much better stuff than what you quote there. What he lacks in writing ability compared to the others, he makes up for in heart in his songs so. He’s an underrated treasure, and one of the last true originals.
Haggard, Kristofferson, and to a lesser degree, Hall, are the greatest songwriters country music has produced. Dylan is one of the best in rock, though in the scheme of things musically, regardless of genre, I would argue he fits behind Kristofferson, Haggard, and Leonard Cohen. Dylan’s writing is good, but I feel he’s a close fourth to the previously listed artists. Truly, I feel that most songwriters would be green with envy comparing themselves to Kristofferson and Haggard. Both are a tough act to follow.
At the end of the day, glad to see Haggard take the high road. He has absolutely zero to prove to anyone, including Dylan.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:21 pm
Everybody’s all, “Dylan vs. Haggard”. He dissed Tom T. too. Don’t forget about him. Tom T. was awesome!
February 7, 2015 @ 11:36 pm
Also, eat a dick Bob. He’s just butthurt that Merle and Tom T. didn’t suck up to him and record as many of his songs as he’d had liked them too.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:23 pm
+++ P.S. Zimmy, don’t be giving our tricks away.
February 7, 2015 @ 11:54 pm
“I drove by the grave to see her,
Boy, that really is a pretty stone;
I’m glad that Fred and Jan are here,
It’s better than you being here alone.”
-Tom T. Hall – “Homecoming”
God bless, Tom T. Hall. His wife died in January, a couple of weeks ago. Tom T. & Dixie were married 45 years. I’m certain Tom T. don’t give a shit what B. Dylan thinks about his work. Tom T.’s wife just died. Poor Bob, still pissed, because he ain’t Leonard Cohen.
February 8, 2015 @ 12:32 am
Dylan may be considered a “genius” by some (I’m not among them) but criticizing Tom T. Hall barely a week or so after the death of his wife is just a lack of class, pure and simple. He can say all the outlandish things he wants, he can tease the media all he wants, but at least show some common human decency to a man who is still in mourning.
February 8, 2015 @ 12:44 am
+++ Haa, Haaaaa Hoooo !!! Hey, Whoa, – OK, Bob’s just screwing with us all, …again, & screwing w/ Hag & Tom, too. That’s jus’ Bob. Giving cred to cats he truly admires, in his own strange & brilliant & sweet way. And, Bob loves L. Cohen, too. I think it’s a hell of a joke, but i don’t wanna carry it too far, because, i love Bob, and, anyone who has done what he did and does what he’s doing, knows, he is just pulling yer chain. This is just Bob at his most awesome. Giving Hag & Tom T. cred, when he didn’t have to, in prime time &, at his own expense. Here’s how i learned to write songs, by listening to the master.: “Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial/ Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while/ But Mona Lisa must’ve had the highway blues/ You can tell by the way she smiles” -Bob Dylan
February 8, 2015 @ 11:33 pm
I don’t know. I’ve always been an admirer of Dylans songwriting but not so much the man or his voice. I think if you want to show respect to a artist or give them recognition that doing so directly is the only way. A lot of the young, brainless Dylan cultist kids that I know(and there are many where i’m at) will only take this seriously and its a shame because both Haggard and Tom T were great songwriters. This isn’t rap music. I believe you should act like a gentleman when in the spotlight playing the kind of music he does.
February 19, 2015 @ 12:47 pm
He saw an animal leavin”™ a muddy trail/Real dirty face and a curly tail/He wasn”™t too small and he wasn”™t too big/“Ah, think I”™ll call it a pig”. Ha ha, the Master at work!
February 8, 2015 @ 1:28 am
It is funny that most of us nowadays think of all singer-songwriters in the 1960s as a singular movement, but conflicts like this serve as a great reminder of the vast cultural chasm that existed between the counterculture folk world and the country music world of that era.
I would actually argue that the experience of the 1960s serves as the key reason why folk and country are thought of as separate genres, even though their roots and sonic structure are essentially identical.
On an even broader level, the whole culture war that has defined politics for so many decades ultimately has its roots in the Bob Dylan vs. Merle Haggard dynamic.
February 10, 2015 @ 9:00 pm
This doesn’t directly relate to Dylan vs. Haggard thing, since Haggard was considered a Bakersfield artist, but there is a new exhibit coming to the Country Music Hall of Fame in March called “Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City” examining the connections between the folk/rock world and the Nashville community in the late 60’s and early 70’s. It looks really great.
http://countrymusichalloffame.org/newsandupdates/posts/museum-announces-next-major-exhibition-dylan-cash-and-the-nashville-cats#.VNrGjCwhNac
I think there are more connections between those two worlds than a lot of people realize, with one of the biggest being the Johnny Cash TV show which aired on ABC starting in 1969. That show brought together artists as various as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young on the one hand, alongside country artists from Merle Haggard to Bill Monroe on the other. (It’s been said by folks who were around at the time that the Johnny Cash Show was one of the only things holding America together at the end of the 60’s.)
Getting back to the Haggard thing though, I think it’s true that to the general public, Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard symbolically represented the two opposing sides of the Vietnam-era culture war, but I have never gotten the sense that Haggard and Dylan themselves would have perceived the situation that way. One of the reasons Dylan “went country” in the late 1960’s was to attempt to remove himself from the expectations of his hippie acolytes to make political statements or to serve as the leader of the counter culture movement in any way, shape, or form. And as for Haggard, I take him at his word when he says he has been a Dylan fan since the early days. The fact that I assumed the two artists to be mutual admirers of each others due to their touring together is what made Dylan’s recent remarks particularly puzzling. It is worth noting, however, that Dylan’s comments slighting Merle were not related to politics. Also, it seems like Merle Haggard’s thoughts on politics are much more nuanced, almost to the point of being contradictory at times, than many would assume. The funny thing is, early on in his career, Haggard was considered a minor hero among the left-leaning folkie crowd due to his songs’ deeply sympathetic portrayal of the difficulties of working class life.
February 11, 2015 @ 1:06 am
Haggard’s political views in his early days were similar to those of most rural and working-class people of his generation: left-leaning on economic issues and right-leaning on cultural and foreign policy issues. People like that formed a key part of the New Deal Democratic coalition until they started to drift toward the Republican Party as a result of the Democratic Party’s leftward shift on cultural, foreign policy, and racial issues in the 60’s and 70’s.
Regarding genres, I think that the whole concept of the “folk-rock world” vs the “country world” shows how genres were ultimately divided based more on demographics and cultural views rather than actual musical style. As someone who enjoys both folk and rock a great deal, I can absolutely attest that folk music is roughly identical to classic country in terms of sonic style, with rock (even soft rock) being clearly distinct from both of them.
During the heyday of Woody Guthrie in the 1930s, folk and country were generally thought of as the same genre. The migration of folk music to New York City starting in the 1940s lessened these cultural ties somewhat. Nonetheless, even in the early 1960s, folk fans were very cognizant of the differences between folk and rock and often wanted to prevent any infiltration of rock influence into folk (this explains why so many Bob Dylan fans were upset when he introduced the electric guitar to his music). Folk and rock were only brought together, and country music completely cast out of the club, as a result of the Vietnam War and the counterculture movement.
February 8, 2015 @ 1:55 am
Shame on Tom T Hall for writing a song people can relate to so easily . Love you Bob , but sometimes Bob writes for Bob….obtuse ….wonderfully obtuse …but obtuse . Lotsa songwriters write about the universal human experiences in ways much easier to access for the non-Bob’s amongst us . And man …putting down Merle ? Ain’t no way to justify or excuse that . If you can’t say something nice about Merle after all he’s meant to songwriters , singers and fans of REAL country music ….at least say it in an obtuse fashion .
February 8, 2015 @ 8:58 am
The whole “songwriter vs. songwriter” thing is lame. What next, hamburgers vs. chicken wings? Each brings thier own deal and the audience gets to vote with their dollars and attendance.
February 8, 2015 @ 9:19 am
Merle Haggard is in the same league with Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams.
Bob Dylan is not.
February 9, 2015 @ 8:45 pm
I’m not even sure that Woody and Hank are in Merle’s league at this point. In any case, despite my love for Bob, I have to admit he’s being a total ass here.
February 8, 2015 @ 9:39 am
Stop wasting your time thinking about or discussing little Bobby Zimmerman. He’s a liar, a fraud, and a worthless piece of shit.
February 8, 2015 @ 10:13 am
“The sun’s not yellow, its chicken” -R. Zimmerman
A little undercooked maybe…
Tom T. is the man
February 8, 2015 @ 10:59 am
Here’e more of his Dylan’s speech on Haggard: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-grammys-2015-transcript-of-bob-dylans-musicares-person-of-year-speech-20150207-story.html#page=3
—
Merle Haggard didn’t even think much of my songs. I know he didn’t. He didn’t say that to me, but I know [inaudible]. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs. Merle Haggard — “Mama Tried,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” I can’t imagine Waylon Jennings singing “The Bottle Let Me Down.” .–
Actually Waylon sang that Tonight the Bottle met down.
http://youtu.be/o7sT5K4BHBs
Maybe it means Dylan was trolling, maybe he is even more clueless.
February 8, 2015 @ 1:27 pm
Damn shame when great songwriters call out other great songwriters for no reason! Makes no sense and is very disappointing to me as a fan of all these greats. Why Bob why?
February 8, 2015 @ 5:11 pm
I guess Bob Dylan doesn’t love little baby ducks, pick up trucks, leaves in the wind, pictures with his friends, birds and squirrels or any of us. What a scrooge.
Seriously though, Dylan can say whatever he wants, I don’t much care. I’ll continue to listen to the great music he makes and ignore him trying to stir the pot and draw attention to himself. I love Dylan and Haggard and Hall. All are fantastic song writers whose songs tell true-to-life stories with vivid characters and emotions to draw you in as a listener. I could care less about what Dylan said, his comments are largely irrelevant to me. If he wants to be a jerk in public, fine, then he’s a freaking jerk. The music is why I am here and the music is what will keep me around.
May 19, 2018 @ 3:12 pm
All I can say when I see what I see
Is that I’ve never cared much
for the great Bobby Z
The press called him a prophet
but I don’t agree
His songs were pure babble
and did not impress me
February 8, 2015 @ 6:19 pm
Bob Dylan’s persona is more contrived than Unknown Hinson’s. What he said about Kris Kristofferson is more of an indictment of Kristofferson than a substantiation of his country credibility. F them both.
February 8, 2015 @ 7:41 pm
Such Dylan hate in this thread!
I mean, “Mama Tried” is just about a perfect of a song, but I must confess that I listen to and love more Dylan than Haggard.
I love Dyan, but I don’t love him like the cultists do. I love that he does trolly things like AARP interviews and Victoria’s Secret commercials, but still makes good music.
February 8, 2015 @ 11:56 pm
Saw a piece on Haggard during the Dylan/Haggard tour. He said they stuck to their own camps during the tour. Maybe since Dylan asked him to tour he expected more brotherly love. He shouldn’t have praised Kristofferson at the expense of Hall. I admire all four of these writers. Got to think there is some perceived slight to Dylan or Kristofferson as related to Dylan. Real or unreal, it could have been a bad reaction to meds or a senior moment.
Senior, Senior, can you tell me where your heading?
February 9, 2015 @ 1:49 am
Well, I can gather that Dylan had J.R. Cash and Jimi Hendrix on his side and counted them as friends, and he never spoke rude about them. Hendrix idolized Dylan’s way with how he handled production of his words and melody. Dylan was/is a rebel, he cares nothing about fame, and this is his attracting power. Real gifts from Creator know that they have it, the goods, or whatever one wants to call it.Morgan Freeman was quoted as parlaying the concept of being a channel of the talent all of us witness as he conducts his life up on that silver screen. He must needs be about letting it out.
February 9, 2015 @ 8:05 am
I’m not sure which is worse, a Dylan worshiper or a Dylan hater.
February 9, 2015 @ 8:25 am
Excellent point and my sentiments exactly.
February 9, 2015 @ 8:12 am
I wonder if it ever occurred to Bob that maybe Hag didn’t record any of his songs because he was too busy recording his own material; 14 of Hag’s 16 top 10 hits between 1966 and 1970 were self-penned. Should He have left “Sing Me Back Home” or “Hungry Eyes” on the cutting room floor in favor of something like “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35”?
February 9, 2015 @ 8:33 am
Dylan’s claim that Tom T. Hall had Nashville “all sewn up” until Kris Kristofferson entered the scene is a little confusing considering the fact that Kristofferson’s peak as a writer of hit songs ran from about 1969-1971 while Hall’s greatest output came after than.
If Dylan’s comments weren’t meant to be facetious, it’s pretty clear that he’s confused at best and downright delusional at worst.
February 9, 2015 @ 9:01 am
Two different factions here. One invented persona who wrote songs and delved into the celluloid world of invented personas. He has a close personal friend who wrote songs and also delved into the world of celluloid invented personas. The other faction wrote songs exclusively and never entered into that world. They don’t have a lot in common with one another other than they all wrote songs. I always found Dylan’s advise in one of his songs good to live by.
Nothing is better, nothing is best
Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest
February 9, 2015 @ 9:32 am
dylan is a second class songwriter, merle is a class of his own
February 9, 2015 @ 10:29 am
And yet Merle has said that Bob “is probably our greatest living songwriter.” Hmm. Odd that.
February 9, 2015 @ 10:11 am
on the other hand it’s good to see the “like” button back.
February 9, 2015 @ 11:48 am
Is Dylan blasting Tom T’s whole body of work or just “I Love”? Hard to find a bigger Tom T fan than I am, but I Love is cringe-worthy. Drives me crazy that with an incredible catalogue, that I Love is one of the first songs associated with Tom T. Hall. For the People in the Last Hard Town is on my list of albums that I’ll take to a desert island, but I always skip track one.
February 19, 2015 @ 12:40 pm
Being a Tom T. fan then you know ‘I Love’ was off an album children’s music that also included ‘Sneaky Snake’ and ‘I Care’ among others.
February 9, 2015 @ 11:59 am
Dylan being Dylan, nothing more, nothing less.
Whenever his current persona becomes too uncomfortable to live with, he goes out of his way to stir everyone up, alienate some fans, gain new ones, and go do what he wants to do, the way he wants to do it.
Usually though, it’s done by reinventing himself, and not tearing down other singer/songwriters. So this one is a bit perplexing.
I’ve liked several of the Dylan personas, but not all of them, and I’ve been around long enough now to realize that our heros are going to disappoint us, if we put too much stock in them as legends, geniuses, and at times, human beings.
But thanks to Kanye West, Dylan’s little barbs will soon be forgotten as the universe rallies to defend Beck against the ramblings of a madman…
February 9, 2015 @ 12:45 pm
Another incoherent bullshit rant by an inveterate attention seeker who is simultaneously trying to be obscure and mysterious. What a bullshit act.
The body of Bob Dylan’s work is remarkable and stands alone for its influence and its
diversity. But for every work of art he has given us, he has given us 41 pretentious
cow-pies. Some people know how to edit and some people know how to judge the value of their own work. Bob is not one of them. He just cranks it out and cops an attitude.
Someone here says that Dylan was giving Tom T. and Merle “cred” and we just didn’t understand his subtle praise. More bullshit. Tom T. Hall’s “Hero in Hyden” and Haggard’s “Hungry Eyes” are vastly more powerful songs than anything Dylan has written or is ever likely to write.
Sometimes geniuses can be assholes.
Ben J.
February 9, 2015 @ 2:24 pm
Dylan can suck on Hag’s nuts
February 9, 2015 @ 3:10 pm
Joni Mitchell has called Bob Dylan a fraud. Not sure about that but why is he dying his hair? What’s wrong with being the old coot he is. FRAUD!!!
February 9, 2015 @ 3:46 pm
Rolling Stone has published the full text of the speech:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/read-bob-dylans-complete-riveting-musicares-speech-20150209
Here’s the paragraph on Merle. Doesn’t seem so bad. He prefers Buck over Merle.
Merle Haggard didn’t think much of my songs, but Buck Owens did, and Buck even recorded some of my early songs. Now I admire Merle ”“ “Mama Tried,” “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down,” “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” I understand all that but I can’t imagine Waylon Jennings singing “The Bottle Let Me Down.” I love Merle but he”™s not Buck. Buck Owens wrote “Together Again” and that song trumps anything that ever came out of Bakersfield. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard? If you have to have somebody’s blessing ”“ you figure it out. What I”™m saying here is that my songs seem to divide people. Even people in the music community.
His going after Tom T Hall is strange. And apparently not terribly close to being accurate.
February 9, 2015 @ 3:58 pm
The text concerning Merle is a bit different in RS than is shown in initial reports. For example, RS has him saying that he “admires” and “loves” Merle and doesn’t have him saying ““I know he didn”™t. He didn”™t say that to me, but I know way back when he didn”™t.” Hmm.
February 9, 2015 @ 10:36 pm
Your right Haggard’s part isn’t as bad as right reported. Still an unnecessary comparison of him to Owens to me. I’ve seen an overall of Dylan’s remarks and they weren’t as bad as first reported. Thankful to many and revelatory surprisingly from him. I just don’t get the Hall remarks. Hall didn’t control the whole Nashville music industry he references. If he had a beef with Hall, I hope it’s first person related and not secondhand based.
February 10, 2015 @ 8:57 am
Well, I guess it depends on which is more accurate: The initial reports or Rolling Stone. It would be odd if in the initial reports, whole sentences were injected that Bob didn’t actually say.
In a Facebook post, singer/songwriter and journalist Peter Cooper called Bob’s comments about Tom T as “very weird and very inaccurate.” He then elaborated in a comment:
..it’s doubtful Dylan heard “I Love” on the radio when Dylan was recording in Nashville, because “I Love” was written a couple of years after Dylan stopped recording in Nashville. And Tom T. wasn’t representative of the staid old guard, his was a new and innovative writing voice that helped lead the way for Kristofferson. And he was a friend to Kristofferson, to Billy Joe Shaver (first to record a Billy Joe song) and dozens of other young turks…
I’ve seen a couple of instances where people have just bought Bob’s version of Tom T, most likely out of ignorance and/or in deference to His Bobness. A writer on The Daily Beast described Tom T as a “vanilla country songwriter” who wrote “Harper Valley PTA.” Talk about a contradiction in terms.
February 10, 2015 @ 7:18 pm
Peter Cooper to the rescue.. heh heh.
I can’t access Peter’s Facebook page since it isn’t public, but I did notice his comments about Tom T. in the Washington Post article linked to below.
“If people took from Dylan”™s comments the notion that Tom T. is anything but hyper-intelligent, progressive and open minded, I think they got the wrong impression,” says Peter Cooper, the longtime Nashville Tennessean music columnist.
Sounds about right. I think anyone who has consistently followed Peter Cooper’s writings over the years knows he has a deep admiration for Tom T. Hall, both as a songwriter and a man. Personally, out of all of Dylan’s snide, unnecessary comments, his semi-dismissal of Tom T. irritated me most, first and foremost because his amazing music and songwriting is so deeply under-appreciated as it is, but also because I’m simply disappointed that Dylan, who is clearly a classic country fan in addition to being a keen student of songwriting, seems so unfamiliar with Hall’s body of work. At least, it is hard for me to imagine that someone who had spent a any time listening to the songs on great albums like Tom T.’s ‘In Search of a Song’, would think it is anywhere near fair to asses his value as a songwriter based on novelties like “I Love.” (Although I must confess I actually like that song, overcooked or not.)
February 9, 2015 @ 7:48 pm
Also, not a snowball’s chance in Hell that Buck Owens rates above Merle Haggard. I have no clue about why Dylan would make a call on that one. Buck Owens did some great stuff, but The Hag he ain’t.
February 11, 2015 @ 12:39 pm
And that’s the truth. Buck was great, but no where near Haggard.
February 9, 2015 @ 9:24 pm
my favorite Dylan songs are the ones covered by people who can sing. i wonder what Roy Orbison would have to say about all this?
February 10, 2015 @ 11:11 am
The only cover of a Bob Dylan song that I like more than the original is Jimi’s All Along the Watchtower. I love his version of Like a Rolling Stone, too, but not more than the original. I’ve heard a few cover versions of One More Cup of Coffee, but for me, none come close to the emotion that Bob converys in the original. But I’m a fan of Bob Dylan the music artist and I have always liked his singing. Then again, I like Lou Reed, too.
February 10, 2015 @ 6:20 am
I’m stunned that this many people hate Bob Dylan on an alt-country website…
February 10, 2015 @ 9:22 am
I wouldn’t call this an alt-country music website. I’d say it’s a big tent country music website.
February 10, 2015 @ 11:41 am
I think you’re the 4th or 5th person to say this here and other places, speaking to how diverse the readership is. I agree this issue is much more complex than some commenters are leading on to, but I think this site’s readership is very diverse on this issue and others.
February 10, 2015 @ 9:15 pm
Personally, I have no idea why Dylan does what he does, or says what he says. He is a really weird guy who does a lot of weird things, and apparently never feels accountable to explain himself to anyone. I enjoy him music, but I don’t bother trying to understand him. Still, if he has any interest in getting along with people, he ought to realize that taking pot shots at folks who supposedly didn’t “appreciate” his songs forty years after the fact seems extremely petty. (Unless he is simply trying to screw with everybody, in which case, congratulations I guess.)
Having said all that, I agree that some of the extremely harsh anti-Dylan comments in this thread were over the top.
February 10, 2015 @ 9:39 am
From today’s Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/02/10/what-did-poor-old-tom-t-hall-do-to-do-deserve-bob-dylans-scorn/
February 10, 2015 @ 9:04 pm
One thing I didn’t understand was what Dylan intended by his reference to Waylon, and how he couldn’t imagine him singing “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down.”
Was that intended as praise, or a slight towards Waylon?
I couldn’t figure that out.
February 11, 2015 @ 8:33 am
Guess Bob figures there is no such thing as bad publicity, I really don’t care what
he says. Merle is still a class act!
February 11, 2015 @ 9:18 am
Need a laugh?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=759526657434809&substory_index=0&id=341378159249663
February 11, 2015 @ 10:42 am
I think the chart stats are apples and watermelons. I’m guessing the stats for Merle and Tom T Hall are assoiated with the country charts and the ones for Bob are associated with the pop charts. Creedence Clearwater Revival never had a #1 hit either.
Bob was definitely a petty jerk in those parts of the speech. Especially towards Tom T Hall. And bad timing, indeed.
February 11, 2015 @ 11:03 am
Agreed. All charts for almost anything are crap. The world we live in is driven by who has the most money. But, this is the measurement and the law and what you puts you in the respective Halls of Fame. With that said, music has always been a “brotherly” business where everyone is usually helping each other. Dylan showed his ass.
February 11, 2015 @ 3:35 pm
Hey, Bob Dylan as he said can sing all the notes that Caruso sang. And so if he is off key occasionally – in some musical traditions around the world he is on-key – those subtle inner notes of the musical spectrum that Taylor Swift occasionally hits. And Merle, just a great guy !
February 11, 2015 @ 9:11 pm
Dylan’s had his moments, to be sure, but he’s nowhere as consistent as Haggard. Plus, Merle’s got the voice AND the songwriting chops. Dylan’s a good writer, but his singing is abysmal. Merle’s the complete package.
I gotta think Bob’s maybe a little jealous, as people have come to the conclusion that Haggard is a national treasure over the past few years, while Dylan, still respected, is not spoken about with the same reverence and awe as he used to be.
Frankly, his digs do nothing to move music in general forward; why throw stones at a fellow musician who’s been nothing but polite to you? Bob, as a writer, should know to use his words better. Or to NOT use them, as the case may be.
February 12, 2015 @ 6:25 am
We’re learning more these days about how the mind can work in different ways.
A pattern of putting details together from long distant events – real or imagined – may not really be created to mess with the press, or intentionally throw people off as most would expect. Same goes for the instances of Bob Dylan being caught using other peoples’ lyrics or lines from books, even photographs (for his paintings).
Rather than some grand artistic design, these things could be pointing to a state on the autism spectrum, or another mental condition that would account more simply for such inexplicable-otherwise behavior.
And any hurtful comments could be not so much from jealousy, vindictiveness, or any such standard direction. Instead we could be witnessing the nature of a mind that’s just wired that way.
February 18, 2015 @ 6:00 pm
I think it’s disappointing that people perceive an implicit obligation to come down on one side or the other. Anyone who understands Dylan automatically knows that he’s not interested in winning the favor of the fickle public. I appreciate that he speaks his mind and doesn’t care if he offends. If he doesn’t like this song, or doesn’t feel appreciated by a particular artist, well, fine– those are his ideas and feelings; they don’t just come from nowhere.
As for the Hag, well there’s nothing anybody, not even Dylan, can say that can take away from his legendary accomplishments. Most people probably know that he went to prison behind a string of severely gnarly deeds, and we love him anyway and admire him for his reformation and his vision. So what’s a couple of words? Apparently, a whole lot to some people but not a damn thing to the man himself!
February 18, 2015 @ 6:10 pm
I see all the hubbub and will to power comes to mind. Beyond artistry, Bin Dykan has the further gift of knowing how to stir people up, to offend, even anger, and without being an attention-craving asshole or demagogue either. And that’s not just power–that’s true genius IMO. That said long love the Hag! I would be so lost if not for both of these heroes!
April 26, 2015 @ 10:36 am
I’d take one Tom T. Hall before I’d take 10 Bob Dylans.
July 1, 2015 @ 6:55 am
IMHO Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Billy Joe Shaver & John Fogerty (in addition to Buck & Merle) knock Dylan into a cocked hat – and they didn’t have to write “deep” (i.e. pretentious rubbish) lyrics to do it! It’s just a pity that Johnny Cash felt he had to court Dylan to appear hip – he’d have been better off with Neil Young, who writes better songs and can actually sing! Why Tom Petty has anything to do with him is a total mystery!
May 29, 2016 @ 9:26 pm
“and they didn’t have to write “deep” (i.e. pretentious rubbish) lyrics to do it!”
Don’t worry. Little Bobby Zimmerman didn’t have to write deep lyrics, either. He just had to steal them from obscure poets.
May 12, 2016 @ 7:54 am
As far as I’m concerned, Bob crapped his pants in public with that rant. A few observations – leaving aside the obligation he assumes other songwriters/artists have to love and admire his (Dylan’s) work. First, lots of Dylan’s songwriting “tries too hard.” Some of Kris’s too. You never see that with Merle’s and Tom T’s writing. Merle and Tom T manage to get real deep into human feelings and situations… but it comes out sounding simple and easy. That takes genius. It’s very, very hard to do. With his rant, comes off sounding petty and insecure – not to mention ignorant about the people he’s knocking.
And I can’t help but thinking of Johnny Cash’s remark to Merle: “What people think I am, is what you really are.” Tom T. and (especially) Merle are what Bob has wished he was, and pretended to be, his whole career.
Just want to share a few brilliant lyrics from the two giants Bob disses:
Watching while some young men go to jail
And they show it all on TV
Just to see somebody fail
[Merle Haggard, “Wishing All These Old Things Were New”]
* * * * *
My mother is dead
She had long black hair
Once she promised me
A teddy bear
[Tom T. Hall, “Strawberry Farms”]
* * * * *
From the same side of the railroad tracks
Where people have nothin’ to lose
I’m the son of a gambler who’s luck never came
I’m a white man singin’ the blues
[Merle Haggard, “White Man Singing The Blues”]
* * * * *
Your strange love was what I found
The day the rains came down
And I remember we found shelter in the cave
With the rain clouds up above
In the darkness we found love
The day the rains came I became your slave.
As the rains made rivers swell I fell deeper in your spell
You took my hand and handed me a crown
If I could just live on with these things I have known
I know that I’d be glad of what I found.
[Merle Haggard, “The Day The Rains Came”]
* * * * *
He built the church and he built the pews
He built the cradles and the furniture for the schools
Folks in Avery County say that he was better than good
Probably one of the reasons the Lord made wood
Now men have faults and Bill’s fault was
He loved to sip that corn
He lived ninety some years that way
Don’t guess it was hurtin’ him none
You could take him a picture from a catalog
He could build anything he’d see
He could make anything
That you could make out of a tree
He built the church and he built the pews
He built the cradles and the furniture for the schools
Folks in Avery County say that he was better than good
Probably one of the reasons the Lord made wood
[Tom T. Hall, “The Ballad of Bill Crump”]
May 29, 2016 @ 7:32 pm
A lot of people cutting Dylan down here. But if you saw Merle cutting you down on tv as Dylan had in the early 70’s, I don’t think you’d be too pleased either. This was in around 1970 and Merle was a lot different than what he became later on. Probably a lot of people here weren’t even born yet nor know one iota of music history to understand the divide there was in music between country and rock/folk music. Country music musicians were staunchly opposed to rock and roll infiltrating their territory with tributes.
Dylan always was a mixture of many different genres. He just loved music; Merle was strictly country in the late 60’s and 70’s at least and Merle himself said he was pretty ignorant back in those times. He did his fair share of cutting down other artists including Gram Parsons (one of Sid Griffin’s books or ask Sid himself what Merle thought of Gram) whom he didn’t like even and Merle was supposed to produce Gram’s first record. Okie From Muskokee, which Merle later downplayed as he grew as a person, was his actual opinion back in 1970.
Anyone who says Bob Dylan is overrated or can’t sing, etc. is just an ignorant fool. There is absolute magic and groundbreaking writing in his lexicon. He reached a plateau that no one else had reached before throughout the 60’s. People saying Cohen and Kristofferson are better…without Bob Dylan you never had these writers. Period! Go ask them yourselves…ask Kris, Prine, and Cohen how overrated Bob Dylan is. They will set you straight. By the time Kris and Leonard came around, Dylan had already wrote 7 or 8 years worth of masterpieces. He’s the reason those guys wanted to write songs in the first place. They all LOVED Dylan and were inspired by him.
That being said, I love Leonard and Kris but you people need to understand that Bob Dylan was a complete game changer. A lot of you are trying to rewrite history and have no regard for finding out or researching the truth…instead you have a not even half formed opinion based on contempt prior to investigation and you have never listened to Dylan. He’s an acquired taste, but once it clicks, that’s it. You’re hooked. But it’s just as well because for some people’s brains they will never be able to handle Dylan nor will they have time to tackle all the work it takes to explore his entire catalog.
Back in the early 70’s, Tom T. Hall was one of those guys who were on a witch hunt to keep certain artists away from country music and drawing an unnecessary line in the sand to make themselves feel big. If John Denver were around, I bet he could tell you a lot about what he went through. If someone is trying to impede your ability to sell records and undermine your morals and values as a person, wouldn’t that provoke a little hostility and perhaps even a grudge?
I grew up as a Merle Haggard fan, a massive one, and when I was a teenager I discovered Bob Dylan and I’m also a massive fan. They are two of my favorite artists. You may not like Dylan’s speech, but he was telling the absolute truth.
As for those cutting down Dylan’s singing. He’s a genius who has come up with his own style. Merle made his mark by first emulating Wynn Stewart and Lefty Frizzell. Later on his own style came out. Merle’s voice was smooth, pure, authoritative, proud and sincere. Dylan is a lot the same except he is more emulating Charley Patton and Howling Wolf these days as opposed to Woody Guthrie in the early days.
Dylan has so many damn sounds in his voice that at first listen, it sounds like it’s the worst singing in the universe and the history of man. When I first heard MTV Unplugged, I thought he was the worst singer I had ever heard. But once you grow to understand it, you see that just like his writing there are many levels of intellect going on and Dylan never sings the same way twice and he sings with pure emotion all the time. Dylan is way more expressive than any other singer ever. He can sing a lyric and make the sound match it emotionally. Take a listen to Nobody’s Child, the cover he did with the Traveling Wilburys…when he sings that song, he sings the pout and sadness of an orphan child as though he is that orphan child that nobody wants. That perspective was not in that song anywhere except as sung by Bob. Go listen to it. He puts that emotion across. Even Merle couldn’t do that…as great as Merle was. And Bob does this night after night still. He can still nail the emotions which is pretty much a lost art in music now.
May 29, 2016 @ 9:47 pm
Coe does a better job imitating/mocking Bob Dylan than Little Bobby Zimmerman does pretending to be Bob Dylan. The guy is a complete fraud. If you think you like a Bob Dylan song, what you actually like is a compendium of lines from half a dozen sources that Bob has cobbled together, called his own, and pretends that its ok because its in the “folk” tradition to commit plagiarism. Bob Dylan’s work is as original as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s doctoral thesis.
So, your basic premise is that Merle Haggard wasn’t sufficiently progressive in his early years, but Little Bobby Zimmerman was just the right amount of progressive and continues to be so?
May 30, 2016 @ 12:59 am
So to argue your point, you reference David Allan Coe (another long time favorite of mine) but Coe was also a thief talking about broken doorknobs and singing songs about Willie and Waylon overtop of a Judy Collins melody.
Who isn’t one? Name me one guy. Coe often lifted lyrics too and used them in his songs. Those guys are more or less paying tribute to those that inspired them.
No matter what you say about some of Bob’s work, he has written in every way possible. Once a person finds out about the art of buying songs and passing them off as your own, it’s tempting to try it yourself such as upon learning that even Hank Williams Sr is alleged to have done, along with many others such as Roy Acuff. Seems like that is also in the folk tradition along with the publishing division.
How about the state of stealing in country music nowadays? Everyone sounds the same, they sing about the same dumb topics while using the same words. I bet you don’t think twice about that do you?
So who are you to judge Dylan when there are thousands of thieves out there who don’t have even a tenth of the interest or knowledge in music history to come up with anything besides a grade three vocabulary for their songs?
There’s a lot more good and a lot more information that comes from the way Dylan writes than anyone else. No matter anyone’s opinion, there’s always new things to learn from anything he does.
August 31, 2022 @ 7:30 pm
I will say that be it Dylan, Hall, OR Haggard, when the first notes were played of their songs, we knew the song. All three wrote of life from three different areas of the U.S. soil. These days, except lately, MAYBE, the music is pick-ups, beer, and that kiss that led to the baby they don’t mention. And, that too is what we are. But the story line is the same. Country these days gives us maybe 10 ideas, 10 songs in mixed up melodies, words, and order. Dylan, Hall, and Haggard…hundreds. Never got bored with them on my record player. If you did, it was past bedtime and the record was stuck at the end making that final pop.
June 7, 2016 @ 8:17 am
Really Jim Bob? I wish you were old enough to remember the good old days also…If you were, like most of the comments on here, you would probably be wise enough to know when to keep your opinions in check. We don’t know each other but, Who are you? I’ve NEVER heard of you!
A TRUE artist knows that not everything that you create is going to be a tour-de force!
ANYONE being negative towards Dylan is and idiot.
I’ve seen interviews on ALL these guys and they ALL have one thing in common.
They ALL give credit to the boss man above…The one true king…The ruler of All things!
June 11, 2018 @ 5:16 pm
ANYONE saying that anyone who doesn’t like Dylan is the real idiot and a loser. We can like who want, and I am your generation. Most of Dylans stuff, even the lyrics, are shit. Unlistenable. Maybe he an Frank Zappa can sit in heaven or wherever and put everyone else down with their big ass heads, while no one, probably not even God, wants to hear their crap. Even God probably thinks Knockin on Heavens door is GNR’s and Watchtower is Hendrix. At least they made it listenable.
October 6, 2017 @ 7:23 pm
As far as putting down Hag and Dylan for using twitter and such remember it was their generation that gave us hyberspace…tom t hall will turn that put down into a song..those three people can give each other lip service till the cows come home and we will be happy to hear from them…. music lives!
June 11, 2018 @ 5:12 pm
Ask 100 people to “Name a Dylan song” and you might get from 10 “Knockin on Heavens Door” though most think that belongs to GNR, than ‘maybe’ “Watchtower” and some, maybe 2 or 3 might know like a rolling stone. But that’s it. The dude is a douche, and a douche to others. Stay a recluse. When you write an album of 20 songs and lets get real maybe 2 are good songs and the rest are shit, you’re not as great as you think are. Go back in hiding loser.
September 23, 2019 @ 2:01 am
A shit ton of people are defending The Hag here so I dont feel the need to, but let’s not forget that Tom T. Hall is an absolute treasure. Sure, some of his songs are simplistic, but there is some charm to that. Also, “That’s How I Got To Memphis” is still an all time favorite by him.
September 16, 2020 @ 3:23 pm
Can’t understand Dylan’s tearing down Merle & Tom T. Guy must be really, really insecure. If anybody remembers Merle’s tribute album to Elvis, there’s a part on it where he says a few words about his feelings towards that artist, including something like the following: “Whenever an Elvis record comes on, and I hear that voice, it reminds me how great I ain’t.” What a man! Talk about class! “How great I ain’t!” Imagine that coming from a flat-out, all-time great like Merle!
September 16, 2020 @ 3:27 pm
How’s this for a lyric. Just two little lines. I admit I don’t know Dylan’s work even 1/50th as well as I know Merle’s and Tom T’s, but I would almost give my left arm to have written two lines like these–from Tom T’s “Strawberry Farms,” sung from an orphan boy’s point of view:
My mother is dead, she had long black hair
Once she promised me a teddy bear.
Sixteen words, and what a story they tell.
August 22, 2021 @ 1:07 pm
Fuck Bob Dylan!
January 7, 2022 @ 8:36 am
Yikes
March 29, 2022 @ 4:51 pm
well considering TTH did commit suicide by gun, Dylan’s comment doesn’t age well.
August 31, 2022 @ 7:21 pm
Well, for me, it’s the music, the words that I like. Dylan had songs for that certain area of time that could be related too if you hated the war. There were others, Lay Lady Lady, New Morning etc, but his music was folk music relating to a bad time in history. Hall wrote about the common man and woman, Before Jesse Died, Fallen Woman… that all could see the story in their minds theater. Like Dylan, the music was about true things. Dylan’s songs were about things we wish would end. Halls songs we would we could go back to and stay in that hollow. Haggard, songs from then and now. He covered the whole expanse of American time. Songs like Wish a Buck Was Still Silver, to Man From Another Time to way back to Fightin Side of Me, probably an anti Dylan song. Fact is, all three are men of American culture and I am personally proud to own a vast array of all of their albums, mostly original vinyls, pops and all. So proud.
February 10, 2023 @ 11:26 pm
He wouldn’t make a pimple on Tom T. Hall’sass
March 20, 2023 @ 8:54 am
Continuing, Dylan praised Kris Kristofferson, his song “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and said, “That one song blew Tom T. Hall’s world apart. It might have sent him to the crazy house. God forbid he ever heard one of my songs. If ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ rattled Tom’s cage and sent him into the looney bin, my songs surely would have made him blow his brains out.”
If, as Dylan says, Tom T. was compelled to “blow his brains out”, it could have been due to a horrible embarrassing belief that he was Toby Keith. Mistakes happen.