the invisible republic On page 34 of Bob Dylan's book- Chronicles, Volume One, he stated; "There was nothing easy about the folk songs I sang. They weren't friendly or ripe with mellowness. They didn't come gently to the shore. I guess you could say they weren't commercial. Not only that, my style was too erratic and hard to pigeonhole for the radio, and songs, to me, were more important than light entertainment. They were my preceptor and guide into some altered consciousness of reality, some different republic, some liberated republic. Greil Marcus, the music historian, would some thirty years later call it, "the invisible republic." Whatever the case, it wasn't that I was anti-popular culture or anything and I had no ambitions to stir things up. I just thought of mainstream culture as lame as hell and one big trick." I want to be a charter member of this invisible republic. I've always lived there. Music has deposited many of us there. If you want to correspond about your experiences there- or maybe if you are a charter member too- |
Halcyon House, Lawrence, Kansas January 2004 |
