Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411230073
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"House of the Risin' Sun," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Tangled Up in Blue" rank among some of my favorite songs. And I respect that Bob Dylan is a legend, an icon, beloved by his fans.
What I didn't respect, however, was Bob Dylan's concert last year at Radford University. In my opinion as this newspaper's music critic, he was dreadful. To quote from my own review: "Dylan does not seem to care anymore whether he can sing or not. His is the mumble of a man who lost interest years ago."
Well, predictably, Dylan devotees were none too pleased. In my six years of reviewing concerts here, never have I been so relentlessly skewered by a group of fans who disagreed with one of my reviews.
In person, through friends, through family, in telephone calls to the newspaper, and letters to the editor, I was taken to task. "I was dead wrong," I was told. "I must hate Bob Dylan." "I just don't understand."
So, out of fairness, with Bob Dylan playing tonight at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium, I'm giving some of my detractors a public forum to state their cases, a sort of point/counterpoint, or mumble/countermumble, if you will.
We start with Fred W. Campbell, 34, an English teacher at Salem High School and self-described "Dylanist" who has been a devoted fan for 15 years. Tonight will be his 10th Bob Dylan concert. He'll be in the third row.
He penned a letter to the editor.
"Ordinarily, I am one to chuckle at inept journalism and let it pass," Campbell wrote, "but rarely do I see a piece of work quite as ridiculous as Mark Morrison's. ... His uninformed comments and pedestrian assessment placed him anywhere but at the concert."
Honest, I really was there.
Campbell took particular issue with my criticism of the way Dylan changed the arrangements to his songs, making them unrecognizable from the originals, but often, indistinguishable from each other.
In my review, I asked: "Why Bob, why?"
Campbell had an answer. "Dylan's long-standing philosophy has been that music will change; he is neither a robot nor a jukebox, and fans and casual listeners alike should not expect rote recitations of his songs," he wrote in his letter.
Last week, I called Campbell to argue.
"He's not going to do the oldies tour," he said. To which I replied that I wouldn't want him to. If he wants to change around his songs, fine. Improve on them. Or at least offer up something equally good; something memorable, not a miserable mess of mumbling.
"With Dylan, or anybody making an honest effort ... it's not a question of improvement," Campbell countered. Dylan has always been unpredictable, even in his heyday. He has always railed against any kind of categorization. When he was labeled a folk singer, he went electric. When he established himself as a rocker, he went country. Then he went religious. And so on. "He is not interested in what Bob Dylan should do. He's interested in what Bob Dylan wants to do."
Finally, Campbell contended, Dylan did not mumble.
Did to, I said. Did not. Did to. Did not. Did to ...
Another Dylan die-hard took up the banner: Webster Hogeland, 37, the public defender in Bedford. Unlike Campbell, Hogeland didn't write a letter to the editor about my review. He stopped me on the street one day.
Tonight will mark his seventh Dylan show. He'll be in the sixth row.
Hogeland quoted John Lennon in defending Dylan's voice. "It's not what he says, it's how he says it," Hogeland said. Dylan's voice is original, full of expression and passion, the voice of "the greatest living American artist," he said.
Not someone who is bored silly.
In my review, I had written: "Dylan was playing for himself and barely acknowledged that anyone was even listening." Hogeland said that stage banter has never been his style. "None of this 'Hey Roanoke! You ready to party!' kind of [garbage]," he explained.
"He's there to put his art out for you, and that's what he does. No frills."
Loren Mitchell of Richlands also defended Dylan's mumbling. "My God, I can't understand Mick Jagger either," he said. "Rock 'n' roll singers don't have to be able to sing good, just distinctively."
Mitchell, 33, is editor of the Tazewell County Free-Press. Last year's Radford concert was the only Dylan show he has seen, but it made enough of an impression to inspire a letter.
"Are you surprised," Mitchell wrote, "to learn that non-critics and other simpletons might find his guitar work mesmerizing, his presence awesome and his status, well, yes, legendary?"
Legendary perhaps, but like I said in my review: "What about bowing out gracefully?" When I followed up with Mitchell last week, he took issue. "He is not the '60s rebel guy with Joan Baez at his side anymore. He's the old master now."
OK, OK, enough already!
Of course, all of this raises the obvious question: Are fans like these too blinded by devotion to see the truth? Maybe. "There's a certain amount of reverence that I can't help but bring to his concert," said Campbell, the teacher. Then again, maybe not. "You never know, but I don't think so," said Hogeland, the public defender.
As for tonight, we'll see. I still stand by my previous review, but I'm willing to give him a second chance. Remember, I like Bob Dylan. Just keep in mind also that if he mumbles and disappoints again ...
I don't love him.
The review of tonight's concert will appear in Friday Extra.
Bob Dylan: Tonight, 8 p.m., Roanoke Civic Center auditorium. Tickets, $35 and $25 (981-1201).
by CNB