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Acoustic Resurgence

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I don’t really think acoustic music is about to have a resurgence in the popular culture, but it is nice to see that Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons will do a special “salute to acoustic music” as part of Sunday night’s Grammy broadcast.

21st century Folk Scare, anyone?

Here’s Bob using his unplugged guitar to do a familiar and uncomplicated version of one of his most resonant songs.

But why is his face so blue? Sunburn medication, perhaps? He looks like a love child of Woody Guthrie and one of the Na’vi from the film Avatar.

What does it mean to be “Tangled Up In Blue?”

57 thoughts on “Acoustic Resurgence”

  2. Good morning to all,

    Welcome back, Dale.

    That’s funny, Barb. I think I heard “Tangled up in my shoes”.

    Most of the time I don’t know what Dylan’s lyrics mean, but I like them. I think Tangled up in Blue is kind of a dark song, like many of Bob’s. A lot of well know contry songs are also kind of dark. I guess sad songs have a certain appeal.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    What a great way to start the day — very nice. Welcome home Dale.

    The stuff looks like zinc oxide, that mysterious substance that life guards used on their noses to prevent chronic sunburn before the invention of sunscreen. And mommies used it on babie’s bottoms to heal up severe diaper rash. If Dylan was at an outdoor music festival when he sang this in the 60’s or early 70’s he was probably getting that prominent probiscis reddened by the sun, as well as other parts of his face.

    Or perhaps he had diaper rash on his face?

    Meanwhile, I’m trying to recover from a nasty respiratory bug that I must have picked up from the Paris Metro. There were a lot of people there hacking and coughing. And now I sound like that. But I’ve been in bed for two days, too tired to move much. Home always looks so great after a vacation, however, this is ridiculous! But last night, as part of my lay in bed and vegetate strategy, we watched THE GRADUATE on TCM with a very young Dustin Hoffman. Wow, what a great movie. But the main characters, who I thought as a young teen were very romantic, looked pretty crazed and impulsive from a 50-something adult perspective.

    Funny how things change with age. Another blog topic, perhaps. This time I did write it down.

    Today my goals are to leave the house for any reason and to read the blogs I missed while away.

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      2. Glad you like it. And like Barb, I wonder how you and Michael are doing with his recovery. Experiences like that make me glad I did not choose nursing as a career.

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      3. We’ve had a phenomenal week – Husband can do more stuff every day, and is now getting up and around, traveling downstairs to start on taxes… He cooked his own breakfast this morning. 🙂 Had a Dr. appointment Thursday with the surgeon, who said everything’s looking good. Next week he’ll start doing Outpatient Cardiac (physical) Rehab, probably 3 x a week. I’m so glad I don’t have a(nother) job!

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  4. yes, welcome back, Dale.
    i agree, Jim in CG – Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” seems the same to me (maybe he stole idea??) is the “blue” depression or blues? his version? i cheated and looked up “meaning of lyrics” and one person thinks this is a song of one relationship and he is tangled in it. another thinks it is about two men’s realtionships with one woman. now i’m confused.

    i don’t often understand Dylan often – in one of two ways: either i can’t understand the lyrics because he’s mumbling or if i DO hear the words correctly i don’t know what he’s saying. i do think he’s a wonderful poet.
    a gracious good morning to You All. it is 10 above already – yipeee!

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  5. I always had a visual image of blue silky ropes in a web of some kind… I just looked it up, didn’t come out until 1975, Blood on the Tracks album. I would have thought much earlier!

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  8. Tangled up in Blue? Caught in one of the plastic tarps? Struggling to find the correct color of paint for the dining room? Dealing with a broken ink cartridge? Having a legal battle with IBM? Smirking at people who think the sun is supposed to make any sense?

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  9. As an avid Dylan fan, I can shed some light on the whole face paint dealio. During that tour, (Rolling Thunder Revue, probably one of the best tours ever),People thought he was trying to make a statement that he was doing theater while he was doing Rock and Roll. Then again, he never said a specific reason to anyone. He always changed his reason whenever anyone asked. So maybe he didn’t even know why his face was like that.

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  11. I don’t know why he looked blue but it does appear that the light is very bright on his face. I’ll go with the zinc oxide theory (it prevents sunburn). Or the blue people. That one is cool.

    I’m a hopeless romantic and I think the protagonist was “tangled up in blue” over a romance he’d had some time ago. Maybe he watched another guy go through a similar thing and projected the sadness he felt about his own relationship on the other guy. Dylan is a tough one to figure out and he seems to like it that way. I sure wish he’d come and play at Rock Bend. I don’t know if I’d be able to contain myself. I’m pretty sure he’s way out of our price range though. He’d have to be feeling very generous toward Bend Heads, Gravel Roadies and other Folkies and history has shown us that he can be a little contrary when it comes to people’s expectations.

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  12. Tangled up in Blue is when you throw all your jeans in the washer, and when you go to take them out you discover they’ve had an orgy during the rinse cycle.

    Looking forward to the Grammys. The Avett Brothers are one of my fav-o-rights! Heard ’em first time on RH, of course.

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  13. welcome back dale after two weeks of heartfelt inner searches we get to see a dylan video form his emergence after years of hiding out in woodstock and get the old dale look over here look over here and then get whacked with a sidewinder close to begin the discussion. gotta love our fearless leader. hop all is well with your dad and that everything is healing up ok. its a tough time to go through and we are all with you. i remember this dylan album because i had been awaiting his reemergence from his self imposed solitary confinement. the rumors about his motorcycle accident then nashville skyline rag (how weird and unexpected was that, no revoloution there only lay lady lay and tonight ill be staying her with you) then new morning ( i was beginning to get that he was transformed from the angry poet to something else) and then into blood on the tracks. i think the make up and wardrobe were a statement that he was done being a poet laureate of the folk scene and turning into a performer extraordinare regardles of where that led. tangled up in blue could have been tanglesd up in anything else but it may as well be blue. blue is a good motif eh.
    welcome back and looking forward to bobby on the emmies. i have seen him 20 times over the last 20 years and he is so comfortable with his performer status now it is a joy to watch. he doesn’t say more than three words the whole evening and the band is always so focused and rocking it is a spiritual experience each and every time. he has said he tours because it is where he feels at home. if he stays home he is lost. watch out what you wish for baboons, we may be the first generation of old hippy bloggers ever. can;t you just see us on our death beds with our computers by our sides. bob will go down with a guitar and a song and we will be there to root him on. rock on.

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  14. Tangled up in blue is often what I was back when I had blue flannel sheets and a basset hound who liked to snuggle…you don’t come out of that neatly (and when it was really cold you planned an extra 3-5 minutes to extricate yourself from said sheets and basset…).

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  15. Afternoon–

    Tim said it best, but welcome back Dale.

    I’m not a huge Dylan fan… but ‘Tangled up in Blue’ is one of my favorites of his… I always thought it was a love song: love found, love lost, love found and consequently lost again…. But who is the poet from Italy in the 15th Century and how come he left that line out of this version?
    And that reminds me of another song (not acoustic) that I would like someone to explain to me; ‘The Weight’ by The Band. Please? Anyone?

    Looks like a bad make up job on Bob… whether intentional or not…

    I’ve seen Dylan twice; the first time was in the Dome in 1986 w/ Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead and the sound was so bad it was all just ‘noise’. Not to mention there was so much pot smoke in the air that after a few hours everyone in my group had headaches and our eyes hurt and we were ready to leave before it was over…

    Saw him again maybe 5 or 6 years ago at an outdoor concert here in Rochester. I was part of the local crew for that one and at least we could hear the music even if he still mumbled…

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    1. You might want to check out Peter Viney’s analysis of The Weight.

      I also saw Dylan at an outdoor venue, on Harriet Island in the late 80’s. Warm day, but it was worth standing out there in the heat.

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      1. thanks linda,what an analysis. holy smoke. theres a lot of stuff in there. i always just like the song and never thought a lick about what it meant. not that i read the bottm line i was pretty close to the correst accessment in my initail taste of the tune, its very cool to have the access to the details now though. oh by the way your mother being the switzerland of mothers was priceless. i love those unique spins you are able to put on the world we live in, nobody does it better.

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    2. I saw that same Dome concert – the group I went with left before it was done, both b/c of the acoustics and the ambient smoke (cough, cough, wheeze). Mostly what I remember is thinking, “Bob Dylan is waaaaay to skinny for those black leather pants. Someone shoulda told him…”

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      1. Linda,
        Thanks for the link; that was very interesting… I think I learned I shouldn’t try to interpret; I’m going back to just listening to the notes.

        Anna– we were too far away to tell he had black leather pants…

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      2. Dylan was such a focus of the late 60’s, early 70’s that he will forever be a romantic figure to my mind. I have not followed him much in my adulthood. However, I have heard some of the duets he did with Johnny Cash, whose music I love. Oh, my. Just goes to show you that when you combine 1 musical genius with 1 more musical genius, you can get something that sounds really terrible.

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  16. Greetings! I don’t have anything to add today. Sorry to say I’m not a Bob Dylan fan. Yes, he’s a great songwriter, performer, etc., but I just can’t get past his voice. While his distinct voice and style put him in his own category, it’s not a category that resonates with me.

    Great blogs this week from our guest bloggers — I’ve read most of them, but lacked the mental capacity to contribute. It’s great to hear about Clyde’s trip, Michael in Robbinsdale’s steady recovery and other goings-on within our community. Such great stories. Enjoy the balmy weather!

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  17. Hi all.. sorry I missed yesterday. It was all about gymnstics, however this was the last meet of the season! Fun comments.

    I like Bob Dylan just fine, however I remember my father commenting that Dylan should get his adnoids removed!

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  19. maybe it was “tangled up in poo” – i was out collecting goat pellets early a.m. to check for unwanted “guests”
    OT, but just as in rampant antibiotic use and resistant strains of bacteria – there is rampant de-wormer use (don’t even need a prescription for most – can buy in any livestock supply or feed store – and so resistant “guests.” the trend now is to check before using and check afterward to see if there is a resistance to the product. more trouble but good in the long run. also, beside the poo checks, one looks in the eyes (as i love to do) of one’s animals, checking the conjunctiva which should be a healthy pink/red. if pale, the guests are hogging the nutrition.
    a happy thought for you today
    a gracious good morning to You All

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  20. OT: heavy winds and then snow coming into Donner Pass late tonight, so we are going to start the drive home this afternoon.

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      1. In Reno now. Mountains were striking west of here, even in twilight. I-80 to Omaha or to Des Moines. We need to get back to start packing and house hunting.

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