Ha, good catch.Low Down Low wrote: ↑05 Nov 2022, 7:56amI respect Dylan's opinions and his own writings, but i think it's interesting that the song about pestilence and nuclear annihilation is the one he absolves from the charge of being overblown and overwritten. Not that I believe it is, mind, but i do look forward to reading his thoughts in full about it.msza2 wrote: ↑02 Nov 2022, 5:43pmInteresting comment from he of 17 verses-per-song. Does he go into any more detail about their "overblown, overwritten" material?joe darkie wrote: ↑01 Nov 2022, 5:51amFrom his new book ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’:-
“Punk rock is the music of frustration, and anger, but the Clash are different. Theirs is the music of desperation. They were a desperate group. They have to get it all in. And they have so little time. A lot of their songs are overblown, overwritten, well-intentioned. But not this one. This is probably the Clash at their best and most relevant, their most desperate. The Clash were always the group they imagined themselves to be.”
Love that last line - so true.
I can only assume he's referring to other songs on LC given the context.
I was also wondering to what extent he is referring to the lyrics or music (or both) with his barbs. Given his statement that theirs is music of desperation, I could see him taking the position that any Clash song with so much as an organ in the mix is "overblown" and that he takes issue with their genre hopping.
I'm not really sure what he's getting at though, and my experience with Dylan tells me that's probably intentional.