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At 60, Bob Dylan is still his generation's troubadour
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
Tomorrow Bob Dylan, the man who penned the words "I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now," will turn 60. As the acknowledged voice of his generation, Mr. Dylan's pre-eminence in popular culture has been beyond dispute for decades.
Former President Bill Clinton credits Mr. Dylan with providing those who protested the Vietnam War with a moral compass as accessible as the nearest radio. Mr. Clinton conferred a Kennedy Center award on the singer-songwriter several years ago, but he wasn't the first president to invoke Mr. Dylan's name.
When Jimmy Carter campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, he buttressed his anti-establishment candidacy by quoting the man who once sang "don't follow leaders / and watch the parking meters."
Perhaps wary of being co-opted, even by those who claim to love him, Mr. Dylan has mastered the fine art of zigzagging. The man who sang "Masters of War" with so much anti-military vitriol is the same man who performed at West Point decades later.
Recently, the National Review, hardly a journal of '60s-era nostalgia mongering, published a long, rhapsodic piece about Dylan's positive influence on the culture. This is, indeed, a sign that Mr. Dylan has passed beyond the realm of Right/Left politics into the rarefied region of general acclaim.
In turning 60, Mr. Dylan is within a few years of qualifying for Social Security retirement benefits. Fortunately, he is in no mood rush to start knockin' on heaven's door.