i was so much older then, i'm younger than that now

bob dylan turned 71 yesterday. that's right, BOB DYLAN. how is this possible? it seems just a while ago that there was this geeky looking little guy, strumming a guitar and singing so incredibly badly that everyone thought it was a put on. we were coming out of the 50's, the age of fabian and brylcreem and talentless pop stars who looked really good no matter how vapid they were.
then bob showed up and the whole game changed. his early songs, the distillation of his reverence for woody guthrie and the harry smith anthology of roots music turned the folk world on its ear. here was a writer, basically a kid, writing elegant songs that sounded like they'd been around since the dust bowl. a little white kid from hibbing (no one knew THAT, tho) who gave the civil rights movement its anthem and then refused to be political. joan baez fell in love with him, the madonna of the folkies, and then spent the rest of her life pissed off that he left her.
when he went electric it was a national cause celebre '. the story circulated that pete seeger took an ax to the power cables back stage to keep him from electifying newport. he could have cared less. his hair was getting bigger and his sounds were getting more complex. remember puzzling over the REAL meaning of his lyrics, his life, even his album covers? did anyone ever solve the riddle of what that photo on "bringing it all back home" REALLY meant? first he wrote the proto white rap song, "subterranean homesick blues " giving john sinclair a name for his movement, then he wrote the definitive rock song...and he was still only in his early 20's. he was getting more spiteful, tho. he ripped a few old girlfriends to shreds, then went after edie sedgewick and the warhol hangers on in "like a rolling stone". by "positively fourth street", he was addressing the fans who thought he was the messiah. enough of this, already, even he said. did he really have a cycle accident in woodstock and almost die or was he just doing a greta garbo to escape everyone's expectations? when he resurfaced, the electric hair was gone and bob the folkie was back. and people were still sitting around discussing what his lyrics REALLY meant. he wasn't the messiah anymore, tho, so i guess his tactic worked. he refused to play woodstock even tho it was right in his backyard and he's never betrayed any regret...but one of the reasons that so many people showed up was the rumor that he'd be there to perform. then he went nashville and then he got born again and then he became a coke head and a womanizer. joan baez was still pissed off and john lennon still wanted to be him but he didn't notice, he was busy being bob.
now he's 71 and still on what he calls the endless tour. he doesn't care if you get his songs. he doesn't care of you understand his lyrics. he doesn't even care if you LIKE his songs. he's still busy, writing the soundtrack to our lives and just being bob.
and i still just want to dance beneath the diamond skies with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea.