Like the best religious poetry, Dylan’s resists easy interpretation and remains open to endless meditation. Dylan’s overtly political songs ‘Hurricane’, ‘Political World’ and love songs ‘Idiot Wind’, ‘Tangled up in Blue’ have often been challenging. It’s the same with his religious output. By Paul Mitchell
Bob Dylan in 1991
(Xavier Badosa/Wikimedia Commons) As the Boomers’ most revered singer-songwriter turns 80, it’s amusing to look back at how he rejected the Flower Children.
As the children of the Sixties tried to crown Bob Dylan their poet laureate, he refused. “I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y’know,” he said in 1965. Dylan was the rare celebrity who downplayed the worshipful titles offered him poet, visionary, and especially spokesman for a generation. After his early 20s, he carried no banners, he led no movements, and he scoffed at all attempts to exaggerate his importance. He didn’t even play Woodstock, although he