Life is usually short, but art can sometimes live for a long time. The extraordinary Bob Dylan is celebrating his 80th birthday next week: a long life, full of beautiful songs, powerful words, life-changing lyrics. It has been a unique career..
The 1960s protest songs in support of Martin Luther King and Civil Rights for African Americans; the 1970s songs about racist white police killing George Jackson, and the wrongful imprisonment of another black man, the champion boxer Rubin Carter. And more recently, Murder Most Foul, an angry song about the killing of President Kennedy. Bob was also a friend of President Carter, the only recent President who was strongly anti-war.
We are lucky to be alive at the same time as Mr Dylan. He has helped us to make sense of the crazy world in which we live. He has been able to find the words, when no else had the courage to do so.
It is impossible to choose his best album: there have been so many. But here at Brisco, we feel a special affection for his song "Cross the Green Mountain", especially the longer 8 minutes version which deals with Heaven and Hell, and everything in between: "We loved each other more than we ever dared to tell."
Let us all say together, "Thank you so much, Bob!"
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