Music-As-Music
It's nice if words fit in some kind of metric structure, but bar lines, while they can give emphasis, don't necessarily emphasize meaning. Dylan's lyrics can stand alone as an entity in themselves, but they are cross-pollinated and synthesized by musical elements, as well as in the recordings, and the various voices he used on the tracks.
What is a good singing voice for the transmission of meaning? Most people hate Dylan's voice, but the whining one wasn't the only one. The one I always liked was the voice on Lay Lady Lay, as well as how the vocal was treated with effects and how it soaked into the tape and commingled with the chromatic pedal steel line. That was a fantastic sound, and the words (not necessarily meaning) create a singular experience, with music taking priority.
It's fitting to paraphrase this quote by Ad Reinhardt:
The one thing to say about art is that it is one thing. Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else. Art as art is nothing but art. Art is not what is not art.
as...
The one thing to say about music is that it is one thing. Music is music-as-music and everything else is everything else. Music as music is nothing but music. Music is not what is not music.
What is a good singing voice for the transmission of meaning? Most people hate Dylan's voice, but the whining one wasn't the only one. The one I always liked was the voice on Lay Lady Lay, as well as how the vocal was treated with effects and how it soaked into the tape and commingled with the chromatic pedal steel line. That was a fantastic sound, and the words (not necessarily meaning) create a singular experience, with music taking priority.
It's fitting to paraphrase this quote by Ad Reinhardt:
The one thing to say about art is that it is one thing. Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else. Art as art is nothing but art. Art is not what is not art.
as...
The one thing to say about music is that it is one thing. Music is music-as-music and everything else is everything else. Music as music is nothing but music. Music is not what is not music.
