I've assumed Dylan was a right winger for quite a while

[617Blue]

I still listen to his music every day, but he's a wealthy, white, dude of a certain age - why wouldn't he he be a right winger?

This is without mentioning his Bible thumping late 70s early 80s period. Listen to his live shows from this period and his Jesus is a punitive and vengeful Jesus (BTW I loved his music and the live shows from this era) - not a loving Jesus. He harangues his audiences about being repentant and "waking up". He also did songs like Neighborhood Bully which was a very Pro Israel song. My guess is that he also has problems with women being recognized as equals. His praise of Joni Mitchell was that she was "like a man".

[oasis]

1. The more I'm learning about B.Dylan the less I

like him. Definitely backed off any plans to see the film about Dylan.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s in the Ted Nugent category of asshole “artist”. I admired the artistry of Dylan but, I never cared for Nugent or any of his work.

[617Blue]

2. The last time he did anything remotely "liberal" was 1975 "Hurricane"

This doesn't change my love and dependence on his music and poetry as important parts of my life but it is what it is.

Van Morrison the same way. I could not live without his music and poetry but he's another RWer.

Eric Clapton on the other hand is a derivative fuck who can go die in a fire.

[Tarzanrock]

6. That was 50 years ago.

Find some new music hero here in 2025 who speaks to your "liberal" causes. Quit whining about Dylan! That nonsensical and irrelevant whine is a broken record.

[Sewa]

7. And you have listened to very song he's recorded since

Right 🤔💀

[617Blue]

8. A shitload of it yes. Did he speak out against Iraq lies?

People say he's anti war? Hasn't said jack since Vietnam.

Point isn't that he needs to. Just that he ain't a liberal.

[Tarzanrock]

11. The fact that Dylan is not a vocal hard-core radical Leftist ...

does not mean that "he ain't a liberal." Your logic is pretty twisted and fallacious.

[Tarzanrock]

15. It's pretty damn difficult for me to imagine some "rightwinger" writing a political song ...

like "Murder Most Foul" like Dylan did.

[Captain Zero]

37. I could not agree with you more.

I have almost 500 MP3s related to Bob Dylan and my goal is to give them away for free for the rest of his/my life. Did you know The Young Rascals recorded 'Just Like a Rolling Stone'?

I also have Van Morrison, approx 387 MP3s

Eric ShitTon approx 354 tracks

[vanlassie]

41. I'll take the Van!!

[oasis]

80. "We are the world , we are the people". Dylan

did participate in that historic group piece for aid to Africa. So I’ll give him credit for doing that.

[Fiendish Thingy]

20. So, let's see...

Ted Nugent threatened to rape and murder Hilary Clinton with a machine gun.

Dylan said…nothing.

As far as I’m concerned, he’s in the Ted Nugent category of asshole “artist”.

[rubbersole]

31. Nugent couldn't carry a thread of Dylan's jock.

Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Elvis are basically responsible for the direction of contemporary music from the 60s - 80s. What else do you require from him. "Take this badge off of me, I can't use it anymore." - Knocking On Heavens Door - from The Essential Bob Dylan album, 2000.

[onenote]

51. I think the list of musicians and actors who said nothing about Ted Nugent would take up several pages

Why single out Dylan?

[Fiendish Thingy]

61. Did you forget the sarcasm thingy?

Or did the context of the OP not translate in my post?

The OP was complaining that Dylan must be right wing because he hasn’t spoken out about Trump (“said nothing”) and besides, he was a preachy Christian in the late 70’s-early 80’s.

Then another poster said Dylan was the same as Nugent, and so I compared the public statements of the two.

[onenote]

82. Sorry. Posted in the wrong place.

I’m in agreement with you

[pandr32]

78. Ted Nugent was never a talent.

His stint as a musician was not very ground breaking. Comparing him to the genius of Dylan and Dylan's importance to the changing culture of the 60s is apples and oranges.

[berkerly6240]

3. what did Bob Dylan do? maybe not paying attention but didnt think he was RW??

..

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. He didn't save democracy

And now this mess is all his fault.

[H2O Man]

23. Exactly!

Darn you Bob!!!!!!!

[comradebillyboy]

60. He failed some random lefties vacuous purity test.

[betsuni]

77. That all or nothing Us vs Them purity test.

Same way Democrats are attacked as old rich white centrists/conservatives/Republican lite clinging to power and counting their money, plotting against young progressives. THEM, the establishment, the enemy, cartoon villain.

[scipan]

85. Or... somebody who wants to stir things up... I am not biting. Nt

[Buckeyeblue]

4. Dylan stopped being political a long time ago

I definitely don't think he is pro Trump. But he isn't interested in airing his politics. And I don't blame him. He's an old man touring with his songs. This isn't an old man's fight. It's for the younger generation to decide.

[thebigidea]

14. Pfft.

Just a TAD political, I'd say. Just as haunting as the early stuff.

[Tarzanrock]

16. Agreed.

It's a fucking all time masterpiece by any songwriter's standards.

[Iris]

44. I lean toward this. Maybe it's an act of self-preservation

Who knows? He's lived a long time. Plenty of time to become disillusioned by the whole system.

[Silent Type]

5. Anyone who wrote songs like "Blowin n Wind" is OK in my book. Don't care for religious and his later stuff though.

Saw him in 74, awesome concert. Wouldn’t go now days if free.

But still, can’t beat “Times a Changing,” “Masters of War,” and plenty more.

[Captain Zero]

38. I saw him in 74 too, playing that concert with his back to the audience

Most of the time.

The best part of it was the songs The Band played when he took a break.
concerts in arenas were mostly shit sound back then.

I thought the $12 ticket for that concert was outrageous too.

[Happy Hoosier]

48. I think his music is junk... never liked it.

If you do, that's great. I'm sure I like some music you don't. But a dude writing some songs you like doesn't mean he's "OK." My Daughter loved Harry Potter as a kid. But Rowling is trash and it has tainted all her work for us. We are in a deep culutral war. I personally feel the need to pick a side.

[Blues Heron]

58. Cool story bro

[Cuthbert Allgood]

72. Comparing a guy that won the Nobel Prize for Literature

to JK Rowling is just silly.

Don't like his music, that's fine. But the people that understand literature and music like his music.

I have no idea what Dylan did to bring all this about and a quick Google search has shown me nothing. He's an old man nearing death. He fought the good fight during the height of his popularity. That's all we can ask.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

9. What the heck

is this sudden obsession with Bob Dylan?

[H2O Man]

22. Sickness.

[Skittles]

34. I've never been a huge fan but I don't get it either

[Iris]

45. Right? Probably going to start hiding these threads

You'd think he played at Mar Lago or something

[yardwork]

59. No idea but it sounds like a bunch of geezers shouting at clouds.

[Tommy Carcetti]

10. Why are we still obsessing over Bob Dylan's politics/lack thereof?

[H2O Man]

21. You have to

play his 1975 LP backwords after taking a hit of acid to understand exactly why Bob's beliefs should be recognized as the most important issue facing humanity.

It's either that, or recognize that he did write some good songs 50+ years ago, and making uninformed conclusions about things you just don't know.

That is the crossroads we are at.

[Fiendish Thingy]

62. We're being trolled by curmudgeons addicted to recreational outrage. Nt

[appmanga]

12. Dylan is an 80-something year old man...

...and why anyone would associate him with right-wing politics is a mystery to me. If he's not being vocal about what's going on in this country today, that's his choice. There are much younger people who have much more at stake who aren't doing anything except act as bystanders.

I don't get the Dylan slander, but one of the things some folks are going to have to come to terms with is there are people who've worked hard and put their asses on the line enough times in the past, and simply don't owe jackshit to anybody hollering today. The warnings were sounded, and they weren't heeded.

People might want to consider saving themselves, and stop trying to farm it out to someone else.

[58Sunliner]

13. He did abuse his wife and ignore his daughter.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

73. The mother of his daughter said that he never ignored her

that they just kept it secret. A very different thing.

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. Oh brother

Guess you missed the Dylan bashing party over the weekend?

Did you know Obama gave Dylan the presidential medal of freedom?

Absolutely no evidence that Dylan is a “right winger”, not even his Christian rants from the 70’s.

[H2O Man]

19. Who cares?

Bob Dylan plays no meaningful role in our lives. He just a guy who wrote some good songs long, long ago. Jimi Hendrix did two of them much better than Bob. In the first Lennon box set that Yoko put out, there are hilarious songs by John while at home, making fun of Dylan.

[valleyrogue]

24. "I Am the Walrus" was written by Lennon to poke fun at Dylan's pretentiousness.

Lennon supposedly got tired of listening to Dylan's "poetic" lyrics and thought he was getting away with murder. Lennon reportedly said, "Hey, I can write crap, too." Thus the famous song was born.

Bob Dylan got away with a lot of crap musically. He could write songs but was overrated and those songs were done better by others, but I couldn't stand the man because he couldn't sing his way out of a paper bag. He still can't. A smashed cat sounds better.

[H2O Man]

25. Right.

I think Lennon was the most fascinating musician of that era. Muhammad Ali and John Lennon were far more important to that era than Bob. I think Bob wrote four great songs, and that is outstanding. But no one could compare him in terms of significance to an Ali or Lennon. I have a high opinion of the other Beatles, Hendrix, Morrison, etc. I had numerous times I could have seen Dylan. I never cared to. But I respect him for his accomplishments.

I've read that John wasn't impressed with Bob's intellect once he got to know him. My late friend Rubin really liked him, though.

[regnaD kciN]

28. That's not the story I heard...

According to a childhood friend, Lennon wrote “…Walrus” as a response to news that his old school was teaching his lyrics in English literature classes. It amused him no end, since he would regularly get disciplined there for writing “vulgar schoolboy rhymes” during class. So, according to the friend, John decided to “give them something to analyze,” and produced a song that threw in some lines from those poems.

[valleyrogue]

32. I haven't heard that version.

The one I mentioned has been repeated on more than one source. When you listen to the nonsensical lyrics, they are clearly lampooning Dylan.

Lennon was just the type to lampoon another songwriter.

[Wiz Imp]

52. From Lennon himself:

Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips; he explained much of the song to Playboy in 1980:

The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko ... I'd seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to. The words 'Element'ry penguin' meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan. [...] It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? [Sings, laughing] 'I am the carpenter ...'

[Fiendish Thingy]

65. And yet, you're wrong.

The song isn’t about or a reaction to Dylan.

[Shrek]

43. Billy Joel poked a little fun about his singing

"Ladies and gentlemen, please feel sorry for Bob Dylan"

Starts around 1:45 or so:

[themaguffin]

56. Two years after clearing being influenced and inspired by him with "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" & Rubber Soul...

[Fiendish Thingy]

64. No it wasn't - this song was:

From the late 70’s:

?si=OrOD7T_irG6Cz1tH

And Lennon ended up sounding like an ass (which is probably why the song remained unreleased until after his death).

[H2O Man]

70. I have two versions

of that song, along with a number of other home recordings John did poking fun of Dylan. They are hilarious. They were made in the years he was not releasing any material. I think they are classic.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

74. Dylan's strength was his poetry

And you don't need to put it quotation marks. Nobel Prize in Literature pretty much solidifies what he was writing. I did not hear that Walrus was a satire of Dylan, but good on Lennon if it was. Though Lennon could never come close to writing lyrics as well as Dylan.

[whathehell]

40. I do

and I'm sorry, H20 man, because we usually agree, but those attempting to diminish Dylan's place in the culture would gain more by spitting in the wind.

[H2O Man]

71. There have been

those who disliked John Lennon. Even on this thread, one of our friends said John "sounded like an ass" in the best known of his versions of a "Dylan song" recorded in the time he was baking bread and taking care of Sean. He incorrectly identified it as the "one," though when Yoko released the first boxed set, there is one CD with plenty more.

Bob Dylan was a huge influence on the youth culture in the 1960s and '70s. Nothing anyone says today can possibly take away from that. Those who are attacking him now don't have a clue what they are talking about, and most likely weren't alive back then. It's not that rare a thing for the cultural icons of that era. There are bitter old white Vietnam veterans who still call Muhammad Ali a draft dodger, though he was not. Ali was serving as America's conscience, as the USSC ruled in an 8 to 0 decision. Some times, it is best to keep in mind who owns the problem. A few kids on this forum might not learn from history, but they can't change it.

[PeaceWave]

26. What's with the Dylan bashing going on recently? It's not hurting the man...

Dylan has already cashed out. He sold his entire music catalog three years ago for a reported $300 million. Whatever you do or don't feel about the man, he's already ridden those feelings straight to the bank. At this point, knocking him is like knocking some performer AFTER you already bought the album, attended the concert and bought the merch. He's more done with us than we could ever be done with him:

https://www.sonymusic.com/sonymusic/bob-dylan-recorded-music-catalog-acquired/

[flvegan]

29. Did Dylan ever sing about kudzu?

Cuz on DU, he's going places! Two currently running threads based on little more than conjecture without any reason, best I can tell.

[Jack Valentino]

30. Any such observations about more prominent Trump-humping right-wingers

which might be less divisive and more productive? I'll wait.

However he *might* vote privately, Bob Dylan has made no publicly Trump-humping statements
that I am aware of--- which is much less than can be said about many other people...


Attacking those who have inspired many of us since youth,
based upon 'I have long thought' without any such public statements
from the person accused
is completely counterproductive and divisive to our movement...
and would raise questions about whether that was your personal intent all along.....

If you care about your personal credibility on this site,
I would suggest that if you "sit down and shut up"
would be the wiser course.

[KT2000]

33. It was how he treated others

which was not respectfully or kindly. I believe he channeled great poetry but as a human being, he used people - men and women. I already knew that about him and then the film. A Complete Unknown, demonstrated it well.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

75. I thought Complete Unknown showed a very complex person

who was ridiculously introverted, extremely talented with both a strong sense of his ability coupled with intense imposter syndrome, and who was just trying to do what he was good at. Sure, he treated some people like shit. Don't we all.

[KT2000]

81. No we don't all

treat people like shit.
You left out ambitious which gave him license to treat people who helped him like shit. Not OK in my book.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

84. Nothing in your life you world do differently?

Nobody you feel like you need to apologize to? You're either lucky or lying.

[SalamanderSleeps]

35. Robert Allen Zimmerman is a chameleon always has been.

When I first heard his song, "Gotta Serve Somebody" I almost threw up in my hat.

[Ptah]

36. Arlo Guthrie dodged the draft.

[Conjuay]

46. Well, that's really relevant to the conversation.

N/T

[Ptah]

49. It's a stupid conversation.

[hlthe2b]

39. "The funny thing about assumptions is when you are proven wrong, it's amazing just how very wrong you can be." -- Mayer

Anyone else you want to disparage sans documentation, validation, or any proof whatsoever? (And before you angrily start in on me, I am no Dylan acolyte, but I find this trend from some lately indefensible). If you have ACTUAL evidence Dylan is a RWer or Trumper, PRESENT IT.

[4th]

42. Listen to his live shows from this period and his Jesus is a punitive and vengeful Jesus ...

Freedom of religion means you get to pick your own Jesus.

Full disclosure -- I'm an atheist and just old enough to remember when Dylan was new.
My lefty Jewish parents loved him but thought he went crazy when he went Christian.

[phylny]

47. I never liked him or his music.

[onenote]

50. "he's a wealthy, white, dude of a certain age - why wouldn't he he be a right winger"

So should we assume that any "wealthy, white, dude of a certain age" is a right winger?
Could you provide more guidance? How wealthy? $10 million? $100 million? $500 million? What is the "certain age"? 75? 80? 85?

I can think of a number of white dudes that are close in age to Dylan, that are pretty darn wealthy and are definitely not "right wingers". There also are a lot of white dudes that are close in age to Dylan and are pretty darn wealthy that are not overtly political. I have no reason to assume anything about their politics simply because of their age and financial wealth.

[comradebillyboy]

63. All older talented and successful white men are

right wingers? Is that your thesis? What nonsense.

[onenote]

68. Not my thesis. The OP's.

[Torchlight]

53. Sounds serious

Good luck

[karynnj]

54. Some opinions

1. No one has pointed to a single recent single that could be pointed out as right wing.

2. Many of Dylan's work in the 1960s called out the far less toxic leaders of that time.

3. Other than any musician who is overtly championing Trump in their lyrics or otherwise, there is no reason to criticize them. Admittedly, I like when people like Springsteen go political. In his case, the point where he opted to go overtly political was in 2004 when he gave Kerry his blessing to use "No surrender" after asking that songs not be used and headlining shows supporting him. As much as Dylan, no one listening to his lyrics could have supposed he was a Republican.

4. Way back in the late 1960s, I faced having to separate something done by musicians and their music. I was both a "goodie good" kid and an obsessed Beatles fan when Paul admitted they had tried LSD. It was actually a good thing I faced this then as I went to college about 2 years later. It forced me to see what I would lose if I took a black/white view in a world where things are far better seen as shades of grey. As it was I graduated college in 1972 never having tried drugs, with many friends who had, and enjoying the psychedelic music of the times.

[lark]

55. Neve liked his music, never liked him, the rw ass that he's been for a very long time.

[Fiendish Thingy]

66. It's important to hate all those right winger artists

Especially those who have shared a stage with MLK and Obama.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

76. How has he been a RW ass?

Especially for a very long time?

[marble falls]

57. What has Bob freaking Dylan ever done for US?!?!

?si=BUp345IY5XNbrgoo

?si=r4bAM6Vh7vBzMgKN

[MustLoveBeagles]

67. What a bizarre thread

What evidence is there of him being a right-wing nut?

[onenote]

69. According to the OP, his being white, old and wealthy is evidence.

It's ridiculous, of course.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

79. You should merge threads

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20443008

[A-Schwarzenegger]

83. Simple: He inspired me.

"The highest purpose of art is to inspire. What else can you do for anyone but inspire them?" – Bob Dylan