from Ron Rosenbaum's inquiry into Bob Dylan's Jewishness
Dylan has been aptly described as a “magpie” who snatches images and allusions from any context, as he happens upon them. And what [Dylan scholar Seth] Rogovoy sees as piety may be mag-piety.
A magpie is "a person who collects things, esp. things of little use or value, or a person who chatters idly." Sounds appropriate for a singer-songwriter whose verbosity sometimes outpaces his coherence.
Seth Rogovoy points to Dylan's Old Testament verbiage as proof of the artist's essential Jewishness. But Rosenbaum knows that Dylan borrows as much from the daily newspaper's trifles as he does from the Jewish bible. He's a "song and dance man" rather than "the voice of a generation."
Bob Dylan employs religious idioms with twangy sprezzatura. "Mag-piety" captures the devil-may-care-ness as well as the determined traditionalism of the songwriter's oeuvre.
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You write, "Seth Rogovoy points to Dylan's Old Testament verbiage as proof of the artist's essential Jewishness."
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you got this idea from. I don't point to Dylan's drawing from Jewish scripture as proof of anything other than that Dylan draws -- consciously or otherwise -- from scripture.
I make this explicitly clear in the introduction of my book, and any fair reading of the book itself would make this clear.
I also explicitly acknowledge that Dylan draws on many other traditions -- literary, religious, and otherwise -- to inspire his songs.
Please do me the justice of at least reading the work before commenting on or summarizing it.
As Bob Dylan sings, "I'll know my song well before I start singing."
Thanks,
Seth Rogovoy
author, "Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet"