How many times can Dylan turn his head?

Amplify’d from m.guardian.co.uk

For Dylan to be singing in the week when the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and many other cultural figures have again been silenced feels queasy, especially given his longstanding image as a troubadour of reform. And the protest singer has weakened his position by seemingly meekly agreeing to the censor's request not to perform Blowin' in the Wind or The Times They Are A-Changing or to preach cultural freedom from the stage.

My own experience of Dylan performances is that his renditions are now so idiosyncratic and his inter-number mumbling so impenetrable that it remains entirely possible that he performed both of his most famous protest songs, and made an impassioned plea for the release of Ai Weiwei, without either Chinese censors or audience noticing. But the key question in exporting art into contentious territories is the extent to which the work's essential values are diluted, as seems to be the case with Dylan. Read more at m.guardian.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/byq99