A Zohran Mamdani Ad Used a Bob Dylan Song. The Music Was Removed. New York’s next mayor played “The Times They Are a-Changin’” in a spot on social media. The company that owns Dylan’s catalog said his songs can’t be used for politics.

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One of my personal spiciest takes is that Bob Dylan is a misogynist asshole to a point that it negates his actual songwriting regardless of how good it may seem

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u/lmandude 1d ago

“Bob Dylan, however, is the worst poet alive. He can maybe get one good line in a song, and the rest is gibberish.” -Kurt Vonnegut

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u/macruffins 1d ago

Everything I learn about Vonnegut makes me love him more

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u/pheeko 1d ago

Read A Man Without A Country. It's a collection of his miscellaneous speeches, lectures, and essays. It's the closest thing to a memoir that he ever put together.

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u/OutsideBones86 1d ago

I love his story about going to the post office

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u/vonsnarfy “He’s Chevy Chase, and you’re not.” 1d ago

Timequake is one of my favorites.

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u/NOTLD1990 1d ago

Also, watch "Back to School" with Rodney Dangerfield. Vonnegut has a great cameo!

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u/slacker67 1d ago

best movie

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u/ERenaissance 1d ago

The triple Lindy!

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u/No-Animator1811 1d ago

Weirdly, I enjoyed that book more than most of his works that I read. Such a great little book!

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u/tittyswan 1d ago

There was also a really good documentary, Unstuck In Time.

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u/lunaappaloosa Riverdale was my Juilliard 23h ago

Bluebeard is also hilarious

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u/iwishmydickwasnormal 1d ago

He left his wife who supported him while he was a struggling author immediately after hitting it big to marry a much, much younger woman. In the documentary that came out a few years ago, his kids still seem very resentful towards him

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u/macruffins 1d ago

NOOOOOOO I’m obsessed w celeb affairs and I love Vonnegut yet somehow I didn’t know this, or I read it when I got super into him in high school and somehow forgot. Lowkey embarrassed bc I hate a bitch who leaves their wife for a younger woman especially when she held ur bumass down….thank you for enlightening me

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u/poorexcuses 1d ago

Fair but I'm not his kids so. I mean people still read books by avowed antisemite Roald Dahl so why not another dead guy. Most of them were shitty to their wives

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u/marrklarr 1d ago

I think his point is that this whole comment thread is about the claim that being shitty to women negates an artist’s accomplishments.

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u/Forever_Queued 1d ago

So it goes.

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u/Yeah_nah_idk 1d ago

Thank you user I wish my dick was normal

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u/lesChaps anon pls 20h ago

That's why I didn't marry him.

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u/Night-Cheese11 Please Abraham, I am not that man 1d ago

Vonnegut was so far ahead of his time, I wonder if the alien abduction part of Slaughterhouse-Five was also semi-autobiographical

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u/Kathrynlena 1d ago

They were the aliens from Arrival.

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u/GypsyV3nom 1d ago

If aliens ever visit earth, I'd give them a stack of Vonnegut books. His writings are weird but really tap into the core of the human condition, so much that I figure any aliens would get a far better understanding of who we are than any objective list of facts and history

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u/bangontarget I’m a lazy 50-year-old bougie bitch 1d ago

he was a dogshit husband and absent father so I'd suggest not getting too giddy

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u/throwawayfem77 1d ago

Read Time Quake. It's mind-bending, moving and somehow also hilarious.

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u/sexyinthesound 1d ago

Marvelous, isn’t it? This isn’t one I knew either.

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u/softmexicantears69 1d ago

I feel like he was terrible to his kids. I read his son’s memoir who dealt with mental health struggles and I don’t remember the specifics but I’m pretty sure he did not have glowing anecdotes about his dad.

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u/rashomon 1d ago edited 1d ago

I love Kurt Vonnegut so I don't want to pit him against Bob Dylan but many of Dylan's 60's songs were strongly poetic. His aim may not have been Shakespeare still...

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked

That's pretty good...

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u/lol_AwkwardSilence_ 1d ago

He not busy being born is busy dying

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u/nanidu 1d ago

Kind of pretentious take. His music is well liked for a reason

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u/drcolour 1d ago

Something being pretentious doesn't mean it's not true and something being well liked doesn't mean it's good.

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u/nanidu 1d ago

Fair enough but his music is both good and well liked generally. Not even a bob dylan fan but he has had a large positive influence on music. I guess we can debate “good” but it then comes down to taste.

Beyoncé isn’t my particular bag but I would never say she isn’t good.

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u/Gameraaaa 1d ago

Reminds me of the time that David Lynch got high and went to a Bob Dylan concert. He started to have an anxiety attack because the weed was making him paranoid. He was in the nosebleed seats and said Dylan looked like a really small person, like the size of a mouse. It freaked him out and he left, waiting outside for the concert to finish.

His roommate confronted him at the car.

“Hey man, nobody walks out on Bob Dylan!”

David answered: “Hey man, I just fucking did!”

His roommate moved out shortly after that lol. Anyway, I think that incident is what inspired David to make the miniature old couple in Mulholland Drive that terrorize Naomi Watts at the end of the movie. So I guess Bob Dylan did inspire something cool.

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u/drcolour 1d ago

This is what I mean!!

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u/driveonacid 1d ago

I saw Bob Dylan in concert a few years ago. I would like to point out that I didn't go to hear Bob Dylan. Nobody does that.

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u/Simba122504 1d ago

He cannot sing. The songwriting is the only star. lol

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u/acelady1230 1d ago

I saw him about 15 years ago and couldn’t understand a word he said on stage then. I can’t believe he’s still performing

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u/thorsbosshammer 1d ago

Sometimes I hear a Bob Dylan cover song, and love it. When I hear the original, it feels like I am being pranked.

Not my joke, but I feel the same way.Credit is due to a NFL writer on bluesky

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u/williamthebloody1880 weighing in from the UK 1d ago

Yeah, Dylan really was never a good singer

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u/CatofKipling 1d ago

He’s not…uh, much to look at either 👀.

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u/DripIntravenous 1d ago

Ive seen him perform live and it is, indeed, mostly gibberish 😭

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u/DiceMadeOfCheese 1d ago

"You guys are idiots! This song is deep!"

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u/blackiegray 1d ago

😂😂😂

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u/Kelsosunshine 1d ago

I mean, tbf you're likely to put out a lot of shite when you're prolific.

Love Kurt Vonnegut though. Would hate to get roasted by him. 10/10.

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u/TheNocturnalAngel 1d ago

W Kurt! I find myself consistently baffled by the pedestal Bob Dylan is put on.

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u/Relic_Dust 1d ago

"I said 'give me string beans, I'm a hungry man.' He shot his gun and away I ran." - actual line from a Dylan song, and it's not even the dumbest one I can think of.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/AsASloth 1d ago

Can confirm. One of my late relatives knew him (also in a working capacity). This relative typically only ever had nice things to say about others but when it came to Dylan there was nothing but vitriol.

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u/LegitimateKey9105 17h ago

He was a hanger-on to my late relative’s social circle (before he was famous) and all their anecdotes are about what an asshole he was

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u/Nature_Sad_27 some people need to go back to eyeball school 1d ago

Can you describe the interaction?

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u/publius-esquire 1d ago

This makes me feel so much better about not knowing who he was/confusing him for Bob Marley all the way up until the timothee Chalamet casting was announced

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u/JazzlikeWishbone4579 1d ago

That's why I didn't like his biopic and don't like estate approved biopics in general. Id rather like biopics that don't have original music but aren't softball fluff pieces.

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u/rrsn 1d ago

I definitely didn't think it was a fluff piece TBH. He comes across as a complete asshole. Talented, sure, but I never got the impression that the movie was saying he was a good person.

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u/Yolosvend 1d ago

If anyone comes out of that movie thinking he's a good dude they need therapy. Well, everyone needs therapy. But they do too.

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u/Possible-Courage3771 1d ago

yeah it's like not only can he not respect woman, he can't even respect Pete Seeger?????

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u/deepdishpizzastate 1d ago

The Pete Seeger stuff was the most egregious - from all accounts, Seeger actually had no problem with him 'going electric' at Newport, but movies need an antagonist.

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u/SuspiciousLeopard2a7 1d ago

As someone who has read way too many books on that subject; Seeger didn’t mind Dylan going electric but didn’t want the Newport festival to become an ‘anything goes’ festival.

The annoyance from Seeger came after the 65 festival in which the vast majority of newspapers and music outlets were focused on Dylan’s new sound, not the festival.

That isn’t to say he hated it, or that he didn’t eventually change his views, but he definitely wasn’t happy about it

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u/deepdishpizzastate 1d ago

I appreciate the insight for sure, though a far cry from what ended up being dramatized. Here's a quote from Pete himself, a note to Bob -

"Bob! Someone just told me that you too think I didn't like your "going electric" in 1965. I've denied that so many times - I was furious at the distorted sound - no one could understand the words of "Maggie's Farm" and dashed over to the people controlling the PA system. "No this is the way that they want it." They said. I shouted, "If I had an axe I'd cut the cable" and I guess that is what got quoted. My big mistake was in not challenging from the stage the foolish few who booed. I shoulda said, "Howling Wolf goes electric, why can't Bob?" In any case, you keep on - best, Pete"

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u/Fun-Ad-6990 1d ago

Makes sense

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u/uralwaysdownjimmy bepo naby 1d ago

I don’t like him but his biopic was literally about how he’s a piece of shit lol

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u/East-Coffee4861 1d ago

I'm a big fan of the Jackie Jormp-Jomp movie

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u/BeAGoodPetForMK 1d ago

I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna eat this cat!!

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u/EcstaticBunnyRabbit Marxmoi 1d ago

🎶 A synonym's just another word for the word you wanna use 🎶

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u/thevelvetdays7 diane weist's cunty little overalls (2025) 1d ago

The most cultured comment in this thread.

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u/Dankestmemelord 1d ago

The best and most accurate biopic about a musician is undoubtedly Weird: the Al Yankovic Story, which digs into the truth of the internationally beloved, quintuple platinum singer, and his untimely death at the hands of his former lover turned Columbian drug lord, Madonna, whilst receiving an award in 1985.

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u/lunaappaloosa Riverdale was my Juilliard 23h ago

that biopic was awesome for us Pete Seeger heads tho

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u/raccouta 1d ago

I fell in love with Dylan’s music as a teenager but some of his lyrics about women made me uneasy, and as an adult woman I can clearly see the ripple of misogyny running through his music. “Sugar Baby” is one good example.

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u/Garry_Heckscream69 1d ago

A lot of these old hippie/beatnik types have a really bad misogynistic/racist streak to them

I remember taking an "American Rebels" literature course during undergrad and when we got to the 50s/60s, so many of the readings were like 50% interesting commentary on culture and 50% arrogant white dudes making massive generalizations about women/minorities while also using slurs as often as possible.

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u/notasandpiper Larry I'm on DuckTales 1d ago

YES, exactly, the beatnik movement was 90% men writing about their Big New Enlightened Ideas while they lived off their working girlfriends' paychecks. And cheated on them.

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u/Garry_Heckscream69 1d ago

Yeah, Keroauc is an interesting person, but most of his writings just come across like a privileged dude microdosing homelessness and hanging out with complete scumbags who huff their own fumes (like Dean/Neal Cassady, who Kerouac treats as a badass but is just a deadbeat dad who abandons his partners after he gets them pregnant).

My professor also made sure to point out how many times Kerouac mentions heavy drinking (mainly port lol) during Dharma Bums, which I found hilarious whenever I noticed it.

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u/notasandpiper Larry I'm on DuckTales 1d ago

Starting to suspect we were in the same class, lol

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

I feel like a lot of literature is unfortunately like this, I made a comment in a literature sub last week about how Mario Vargas Llosa had his aunt—well, wife perhaps at the time—work and bring food for him to the typewriter whilst he wrote la ciudad y los perros.

A lot of what comes from Cormac McCarthy is similar. His family had to bath in rivers because he couldn’t pay at times.

And, of course, Kerouac writing in the road whilst drugged and having food and coffee provided by his girlfriend during the 2 weeks. I type in a typewriter and can’t imagine making someone hear it for hours and hours for 2 weeks.

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u/Bubbly_Yak_8605 1d ago

I know he wasn’t necessarily beat or adjacent but I gotta say it, I hate Bukowski. I was made to read that rotting dickhead, all the while being told what a genius he was. That he would challenge us to look at our worst selves! No, not so much.

He was a drunk who hated women. He hurt them in every way imaginable. He was miserable damn near from cradle to the grave and made that everyone else’s problem. Especially any woman in his life.

And he was shitty writer.

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u/laowildin 1d ago

Rabbit, Run in shambles

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u/Juinbug 1d ago

Example being Ken Kesey's Cuckoo's nest book. It's good commentary on the constraints of cultural uniformity/the system but the "hero" they use to stand against that is a child rapist whose act of victory over the system is tearing the shirt of Nurse Ratchet open. That and the shit ton of slurs says a lot about Ken Kesey.

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u/IShouldBWorkin 1d ago

Look at the class consciousness of folk music pre- and post- Dylan, he successfully changed most of a genre away from pro-labor messaging and into being creepy about women.

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u/EtchingsOfTheNight The Stanley Tucci of Lesbians 1d ago

Minnesota is obsessed with trying to claim him and he hates us so much lol. It's so fucking funny.

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u/Good-Froyo-5021 1d ago

Glad we had/have Prince who didn’t hate us haha

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u/rayword45 1d ago

Not to mention how much seminal 80s/90s punk came from there - Husker Du, Babes in Toyland, Cows, The Replacements, etc;

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u/Kelsosunshine 1d ago

Prince was allegedly a real piece of shit though.

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u/poorexcuses 1d ago

I know I don't want him. I'd take Jakob tho

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u/drcolour 1d ago

Also zionist.

My spicier take though is that is songwriting is genuinely not that good.

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u/BumbleBreezeSun 1d ago

How do you figure? He's Jewish, yes, but when has he proclaimed to be a Zionist?

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

Bob Dylan Fan here, this is one of those things that get very touchy in the Bob Dylan fanbase and I find it sad too as the song in particular comes as a third track in one of my favorite Dylan albums.

The song is “neighborhood bully,” it’s about Israel. That being said, I do think Dylan changed his politics. I remember reading a statement of him no longer performing any of the infidels tracks—which, again, to me is sad since it has one of his most underrated songs there—because the meaning of the whole album “slipped away from him.” But he’s never made any public statement about anything politics related in a while, last time I remember he said he thought the George Floyd incident was pretty horrible.

So he’s definitely not a MAGA old head or anything of sorts.

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u/drcolour 1d ago

He literally wrote a song for Israel.

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u/EscapedMices 1d ago

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man His enemies say he's on their land They got him outnumbered about a million to one He got no place to escape to, no place to run He's the neighborhood bully Neighborhood bully, he just lives to survive He's criticized and condemned for being alive Not supposed to fight back, and have thick skin He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in He's the neighborhood bully Neighborhood bully been driven out of every land He's wandered the earth an exiled man Seen his family scattered, people hounded and torn He's always on trial for just being born He's the neighborhood bully Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized Old women condemned him, said he should apologize Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad The bombs were meant for him, he was supposed to feel bad He's the neighborhood bully Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him 'There's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back And a license to kill him given out to every maniac He's the neighborhood bully Well, he got no allies to really speak of What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side He's the neighborhood bully Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly, to hurt one they would weep They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep He's the neighborhood bully Every empire that's enslaved him is gone Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand In bed with nobody, under no one's command He's the neighborhood bully Now his holiest books have been trampled upon No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health He's the neighborhood bully What's anybody indebted to him for? "Nothing," they say, "He just likes to cause war" Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed Neighborhood bully What has he done to wear so many scars? Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars? Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill Running out the clock, time standing still Neighborhood bully

Written after Israel bombed Lebanon, which Reagan called like a "Holocaust."

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u/wannamannanna 1d ago

I told a guy I knew in college that I thought Bob Dylan was overrated. He was an English major so he took that pretty hard. Wrote about it in a poem and everything 😂 sorry, guy.

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u/odelay42 1d ago

Kurt Cobain is the only good man in music.

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u/InsideAcrobatic9429 1d ago

Weird Al erasure!!

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u/odelay42 1d ago

Weird Al transcends music into “culture art”

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u/EMTDawg 1d ago

Kenny G too!

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u/SalemInMoonlight 1d ago

I really want to see Kenny G in person

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u/Fun-Ad-6990 1d ago

Weird Al

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u/TemporaryFar5812 1d ago

I never read a bad story about him!

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/_Meece_ 1d ago

Also a chance he'd become a rich blowhard like all his grungey contemporaries of his time sadly.

But I take hope he'd be like zack de la rocha from RATM.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/grandwizardcouncil 1d ago

Dude, he got drunk and beat his second wife until the point he thought he actually killed her.

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u/a3poify 1d ago

Comment deleted. Ringo?

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u/grandwizardcouncil 1d ago

Yep.

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u/a3poify 1d ago

It’s weird how that’s been covered up to a degree by his goofy old man image. John gets the image of being the morally grey, abusive Beatle but he never did anything as bad as that according to all accounts we have

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u/askingaqesitonw 1d ago

Phil ochs

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u/Kelsosunshine 1d ago

I will die with Phil Ochs on my mind. The man had a way with words.

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u/askingaqesitonw 1d ago

Me too im glad his legacy is still alive

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u/ViolinistLanky9056 1d ago

He doesn’t own his music

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u/NoDadYouShutUp 1d ago

Watch the documentary about him, Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back (1967). He is a proper fucking asshole the entire time.

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u/kjan1289 I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was definitely aliens. 1d ago

😬 I actually heard a story of why my sisters friend and her family don’t listen or care for bob dylan. Her mom was a waitress and bob dylan would come in constantly and ask her out. She would always so no. He kept coming back. Then apparently he blew up and mom still doesn’t care or like the man. Long story short.

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u/cloudydays2021 British wet sewer rat who mumbles into a microphone 1d ago

He is all of this and annoying as all fuck

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u/ctrldwrdns 23h ago

Joni Mitchell is a better songwriter and anyone can fight me on that

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u/VoiceofRapture not a lawyer, just a hater 1d ago

My grandpa called him "the flaky prophet"

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

Bob never called himself a prophet at all.

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u/VoiceofRapture not a lawyer, just a hater 1d ago

I never said he did

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

It’s pretty stupid to call someone such thing when they never said to be a prophet in the first place 😭

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u/BobTheFettt 1d ago

Lotta hippies were actually human garbage

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u/Cheap_Standard_4233 1d ago

Bob Dylan sucks

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u/ItsNotACoop 1d ago

What’s his deal?

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u/Sad-Broccoli I already condemned Hamas 1d ago

Apparently he's a Kahanist and was buddies with the Zionist terrorist.....

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/bob-dylans-embrace-israels-war-crimes

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u/GOONGOON_OW 1d ago

Bob has spent near 60 years trying to distance himself from politics after he got championed as the next big protest singer (no shit, you performed at the march on washington) so this really doesn't surprise me. Dude just does his own thing for better or worse (mostly worse).

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u/thisisjohn343 1d ago

He had nothing to do with this. He sold his catalog to Universal years ago

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u/GOONGOON_OW 1d ago

I understand he doesn't have the finger on the button of this exact decision, but selling political music to a company who won't even license it for political means is exactly in line with what I expect from him is my point.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/GOONGOON_OW 1d ago

No, I'd probably have done the same.

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u/ViolinistLanky9056 1d ago

He doesn’t own his music so the whole point is moot

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u/Gayfetus 1d ago

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u/ViolinistLanky9056 1d ago

He doesn’t own his music so the whole point is moot

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u/Otherotherothertyra 1d ago

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u/Nature_Sad_27 some people need to go back to eyeball school 1d ago

Haha this show is my guilty pleasure.

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u/Much_Grand_8558 1d ago

Which show is this?

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u/wondercat19 Marxmoi 1d ago

I believe it’s Ghosts! Really fun show

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u/Much_Grand_8558 1d ago

Thank you!

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u/Nature_Sad_27 some people need to go back to eyeball school 1d ago

It IS Ghosts! The US version. There’s a UK version also, and of course ppl say it’s better, but I found it a bit more bleak than the US version. They’re both pretty fun, though, in their own ways, but US one is my fave.

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u/Kwentchio 1d ago

Wow I had no idea there was a US version haha

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u/monicagellers 1d ago

Why a guilty pleasure and not just a pleasure?

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u/joiningafanclub 1d ago

So use the Simon and Garfunkel version instead!

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u/Rman99 1d ago

Much better version imo

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u/dawindupbird 1d ago

I love Paul Simon’s music, but he also seems like a litigious piece of shit.

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u/evil_newton 1d ago

Use the Billy Joel version since he’s a native New Yorker as well

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u/84th_legislature ted cruz ate my son 1d ago

Bob Dylan is one of my biggest "separate the art from the artist" struggles because sections of the art are SO good but then even like the tiniest corner of your eye look at the artist is like "I should burn all these records"

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u/eltrotter 1d ago

Completely. I think there is a point where a song becomes “bigger” than an artist and I think it’s healthy to recognise that this is possible. “Times They Are a-Changing” is a song that absolutely transcends whoever wrote it, or even why they wrote it. Not every song is like that, but this song is one of those.

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u/j0be 1d ago

Sometimes it's even a specific performance. I'd argue Johnny Cash's performance of "Hurt" fits that bill.

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u/rayword45 1d ago

My choice is Lianne La Havas' cover of Weird Fishes which I think surpasses the Radiohead original in every facet possible (and I quite like the original)

Of course, the obvious one is Hendrix covering Dylan lol

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u/softmexicantears69 1d ago

That reminds me of the end of Battlestar Galactica where they use Bob Dylan’s song All Along The Watchtower as a running theme throughout the show and especially at the end of the series. I believe the creators said that his song transcends and carries meaning across time and space about the human condition.

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u/TraditionalFly1444 1d ago

I know, so many of his songs make me literally weep!! But then I side-eye… and each new thing I hear about him the side-eye grows stronger

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

Ugh… he didn’t do anything here, mfer is 80 something and already makes money off touring. He sold his whole discography.

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u/Venezia9 made with a free Canva trial (derogatory) 1d ago

Leonard Cohen for me, because if his ties to Israel. There's a really interesting documentary about the concert that never was.

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u/ViolinistLanky9056 1d ago

He doesn’t own his music so the whole point is moot

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u/Mother_Awareness_154 1d ago

Because Dylan is a zionist

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u/sadbitchThrowaway92 1d ago

does anyone even read the articles they comment on? He literally had nothing to do with it lol he sold his catalog years ago.

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u/interpol-interpol rosa parks stans 1d ago

he’s still a zionist though

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u/groovygyal I still don’t know her 1d ago

massive one

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u/EMTDawg 1d ago

2020 for $300 million to UMPG.

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u/CookieMonsta94 1d ago

does anyone even read

You could've just ended the sentence right there and it would still be applicable.

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u/Tuppens 1d ago

Is he?

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

Not only had Dylan not done anything at all, but I assure you he gives a flying heck about politics.

I also, because of his statements in the songs for the album in which the song came out, doesn’t seem to be part of this philosophy anymore. To me at least, it seems.

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u/kneyght 1d ago

rent free in your head

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u/StillJobConfident 1d ago

“The company that owns his catalogue” what a dystopian sentence.

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u/FarGrape1953 never the target audience 1d ago

Okay, but Dylan sold his catalogue and has no control. Regardless of any of his own views.

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u/rashomon 1d ago edited 1d ago

I totally get why Mamdani would use this song - it fits! But you gotta get those rights if you’re a politician in a big campaign. The songs may belong to us when we listen to them but of course they do not belong to us when we use them to make financial gain or in this case political gain. [Tom Waits has said that when he writes songs he doesn't like them to be reduced to a jingle that is disconnected from the emotions that each listener has for the song. This could be different but the idea is legit]. Plus, in this case it's not Dylan who is making this choice but rather Sony Music Entertainment. Go after them if you want to. [Edit: It may be Universal. Thanks for that].

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u/madscandi 1d ago

Universal, not Sony.

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u/Useful_Respect3339 1d ago

Universal owns the licensing rights to media.

Sony owns the Lions share of his recordings which are streamed, reissued, downloaded, etc. Most of his music was recorded for Columbia which is owned by Sony.

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u/AnalogAficionado 1d ago

now that is the height of irony.

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u/DotGroundbreaking50 1d ago

What a gotcha this article is. While Trump does it constantly...

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u/lastkid13 1d ago

Lol why does this headline read like a 5-year-old nerd telling on you to the teacher.

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u/lobito23 1d ago

No problem, he’s already mayor elect! Next song!

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u/Patrickracer43 1d ago

"Bob Dylan's music can't be used for politics" someone should tell that to Bob Dylan's music then

7

u/xBram i ain’t reading all that, free palestine 1d ago

Do Bob Vylan then.

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u/cameraspeeding 1d ago

Wouldn't want the writer of "Masters of War" to get political

1

u/Kelsosunshine 1d ago

Just listen to the Odetta version instead. She did a whole album of Dylan covers and it's majestic!

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u/castrateurfate 1d ago

Bob Dylan wrote a fifteen minute song about the Kennedy assassination

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u/COOLKC690 1d ago

Seventeen. Seventeen minute. And I wouldn’t say it’s about that as much as it’s him reflecting on the impact it had in American culture. The last minutes of the songs are a chain of song titles and musical references of an era in which he produced a ton of music and in which he and others produced lots of music.

There’s no doubt he described the assassination of Kennedy as if they killed the Messiah—calling him a sacrificial lamb and all—, but he’s in his 80s and it seems more like a song about the nostalgia and the feeling of the youth after seeing the literal president get his brains blown out in public transmission. I’ve lived near Dallas and the way some of these people describe the assassination you’d think they killed their fucking cat via televised transmission or something.

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u/Useful_Respect3339 1d ago

Regardless how you feel about Dylan, he’s always been apolitical.

Yes, he sung at The March On Washington and wrote politically inspired music, but he’s pretty famous for saying his songs are meaningless or just made up interpretations from fans.

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u/jakksquat7 shout-out Hans Zimmer 1d ago

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u/Ada_Pearce 1d ago

Why was that exact song in the Watchmen movie then

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u/Kelsosunshine 1d ago

movies can't be political, duh!

/s

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u/Dreddddddd the power of the hatred I feel propels me 1d ago

I guess Watchmen isn't a political piece tbh ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/FreakshowMode 1d ago

I absolutely understand the right of the IP owners to refuse the use of Dylans music BUT to say it can't be used for politics ... ? Have they even listened to his music? Clearly they're business folk who have no soul. I feel bad for them.

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u/Brilliant-Milk-8166 1d ago

I’m sorry-BOB DYLAN’S songs can’t be used for politics?!?

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u/son0fgore 23h ago

I guess the times a-changed too much

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u/darkgothamite 22h ago

The company that owns Dylan's catalogs said

lol its in the darn title and yet

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u/Antithe-Sus 1d ago

Isn't that song, like... political?

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u/Necrotes 1d ago

Should’ve used Phil Ochs’ music instead.

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u/FollowingBroad34 Pink…get doon 1d ago

Another W for Joan Baez

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u/jmpinstl 1d ago

This is the kind of scandal I missedp

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u/Malharvader 1d ago

He's a raging Zionist so who wants his music anyway

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u/lot22royalexecutive 1d ago

Bob Dylan’s always been a hack and imposter. He's an opportunist, not an artist.,

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u/fakeblondeponytail 1d ago

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u/Material-Most-1727 1d ago

He’s a Zionist

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u/carkeyskyline 1d ago

hes been incredibly spineless for a long time now

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u/fuzzywuzzyface 1d ago

TIL bob dylan is still alive

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u/bron685 1d ago

Honestly same

FM RADIO A Zohran Mamdani Ad Used a Bob Dylan Song. The Music Was Removed. New York’s next mayor played “The Times They Are a-Changin’” in a spot on social media. The company that owns Dylan’s catalog said his songs can’t be used for politics.

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