Maureen Dowd has been the most vicious of the many critics who have pounced on Bob Dylan for his China tour. Writing in the op/ed pages of the New York Times, she says,
The idea that the raspy troubadour of ’60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout — even worse than Beyoncé, Mariah and Usher collecting millions to croon to Qaddafi’s family, or Elton John raking in a fortune to serenade gay-bashers at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding.
Dowd adds, "Iconic songs of revolution like 'The Times They Are a-Changin,’' and 'Blowin’ in the Wind' wouldn’t have been an appropriate soundtrack for the 2,000 Chinese apparatchiks in the audience taking a relaxing break from repression," an apparent reference to reports that 2,000 seats at the Beijing concert were taking by the Ministry of Culture.
Providing context, she then writes:
Spooked by the surge of democracy sweeping the Middle East, China is conducting the harshest crackdown on artists, lawyers, writers and dissidents in a decade. It is censoring (or “harmonizing,” as it euphemizes) the Internet and dispatching the secret police to arrest willy-nilly, including Ai Weiwei, the famous artist and architect of the Bird’s Nest, Beijing’s Olympic stadium.
Dylan said nothing about Weiwei’s detention, didn’t offer a reprise of “Hurricane,” his song about “the man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done.” He sang his censored set, took his pile of Communist cash and left.
But Dowd saves her harshest word for the finish. She concludes the story by saying:
Maybe the songwriter should reread some of his own lyrics: “I think you will find/When your death takes its toll/All the money you made/Will never buy back your soul.”
With all due respect to Dowd, I have to say I don't agree with her. As a fan of Dylan's work, I was content for him to come and play a set much like the ones he plays in venues all around the world a hundred nights a year, without trying to grandstand for the sake of the op/ed writers on the pages of the New York Times.
As the Sean Wilentz suggests at the end of the article, Dylan's work is inherently subversive to its very core... songs on Highway 61 Revisited equally to The Times They Are A-Changin'. "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
He is 69 years old and this was a unique opportunity for him to reach out to his Chinese audience who have never seen him before- both in terms of the actual concert attendees and those whose interest in Dylan was sparked by coverage in the Chinese press and on local microblogs. There is nothing dictatorial about Dylan's music and Dowd needs to pick up a few of the albums he has released since 1964 and listen to them on a long ride.
Be sure to also read: Shanghai concert review.
Sadly, Jeremy, we now live in the wikipedia age where anyone (including you and I) can write any nonsense and it can become 'fact'.
Expecting journalists to show any respect for accuracy is, sadly, never going to work. It's not their job. Their job is to sell tomorrow's toilet paper.
Dowd hopefully knows she is writing garbage (but I doubt she cares). The newspaper isn't going to print the truth. It's boring.
"Dylan doesn't sing songs he seldom sings" is not a headline that will sell a newspaper.
But I share in your "GRRRRRR" factor.
Posted by: Liuzhou Laowai | April 10, 2011 at 04:21 AM