Tales of Ordinary Madness: Talk About Pap Music ; There Are Aspects of the Bob Dylan Phenomenon That Annoy Me to an Infinite Degree, and I Think He Was/Is a Manipulative and Thieving Git, a Failure As a Human Being, but His Towering Artistic Record Is Awesome

Birmingham Post › November 23, 2005

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Summary

Iused to think the old adage "One man's meat is another man's poison" was actually a subtle piece of Catholic-baiting, with "poison" being an anglicised version of the French poisson or fish. You know, Friday and all that. Clever stuff on my part, I always thought. I'm wrong, I've discovered. It was originally a Latin tag by the writer Lucretius. I thought he was a Borg. Be that as it may, we all know examples of the reality of the phrase, the words in action, as it were. You like dogs, can't stand cats, she likes cats, can't stand dogs.

There are people who love the work of Elvis Costello, regarding him as some kind of superior singer/songwriter. His work leaves me colder than the proverbial witch's appendage, but I can understand why people admire it. Ditto Picasso. Not a fan of the man or the artist (yes I think those two aspects of his personality are easily identifiable and separable) but I admire his extraordinary achievement and breathtaking skill.

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Extract

Tales of Ordinary Madness: Talk About Pap Music ; There Are Aspects of the Bob Dylan Phenomenon That Annoy Me to an Infinite Degree, and I Think He Was/Is a Manipulative and Thieving Git, a Failure As a Human Being, but His Towering Artistic Record Is Awesome

There are aspects of the Bob Dylan phenomenon that annoy me to an infinite degree, and I think he was/is a manipulative and thieving git, a failure as a human being...

See the full content of this document