全く異質な存在だった

承前*1

ボブ・ディランの『地下室音源(Basement Tapes)』を巡って、前回「ザ・バンド」という表現を安易に使ってしまったが、一連のセッションが行われた1967年の時点ではまだHawksと名乗っていた。またBig Pinkの所在地を紐育としたけれど、これもミスリーディングな表現だった。紐育というと、マンハッタンだのブルックリンだのハーレムだのを連想するだろうけど、Big Pinkの所在地は紐育州でもあのウッドストック近く。まあ、あきる野市でも東京には違いあるめぇということはあるのだが。
さて、


Edward Helmore “Dylan’s Basement Tapes: it sounded like nonsense, says his ‘cover girl’” http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/01/bob-dylan-basement-tapes-nonsense-released


その当時のボブ・ディランのマネージャーだったAlbert Grossman(故人)の妻Sally Grossmanの証言を中心にした記事。
ボブ・ディランと(後の)ザ・バンドの出会いについて言及されている部分を切り取っておく。彼らは全く異質な存在であった。


The Band were instinctive musicians, wild hillbillies who partied every night and drove their cars off the road – everything Dylan wasn’t. The following spring, Dylan and the Band began to play.

“Bob was a middle-class kid. He’d arrived in New York and impressed the literati – Pete Seeger, folk archivist Alan Lomax – the rich kids. The Harvard crowd,” says Grossman. “Woody Guthrie, who was middle class, came to town and suddenly they’re all saying ‘hey’ and ‘howdy’. Then Bob comes up with much the same thing.”

But playing with the Canadians was different. They weren’t psychedelic or heavy rock but their back-to-the-roots style was prescient. “These guys played from the gut and for Bob to be with them must have been very refreshing.”

基本的に「中流階級」の子だった若き日のボブ・ディランについては(交遊圏も含めて)、マーティン・スコセッシのドキュメント映画No Direction Home*2が参照されるべきであろう。
No Direction Home [DVD] [Import]

No Direction Home [DVD] [Import]

Sean O'Hagan “Joni Mitchell: the sophistication of her music sets her apart from her peers – even Dylan” http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/26/joni-mitchell-blue-hissing-summer-lawns-court-spark-hejira-dylan


こちらはジョニ・ミッチェル*3について。
Sean O'Haganさんによれば、ジョニ・ミッチェルの「クリエイティヴな絶頂」は1971年から1976年までであり、そこにおける鍵言葉は「洗練(sophisticastion)」であり、「洗練(sophisticastion)」ということにおいて、彼女は(ボブ・ディランを含む)同時代のどのミュージシャンからも隔絶していたという。にも拘わらず彼女への評価は過小である;


Sophistication – melodic, lyrical, compositional – is an undervalued currency in popular music, though it illuminates the finest songs written by artists as diverse as Lennon and McCartney, Randy Newman, Ray Davies, Brian Wilson, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield as well as the songwriters for hire of an earlier era – Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin. It also defines the best songs that Joni Mitchell wrote at her creative peak, which, for me, stretched from the release of Blue (1971), through For the Roses (1972), Court and Spark (1974) and The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975), to the pared and broodingly atmospheric Hejira (1976).

The sophistication of her songwriting and, in particular, her musical arrangements is the essential element that sets Joni Mitchell apart from her contemporaries and her peers, whether the troubadours of the early 70s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene or lyrical heavyweights such as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and even Bob Dylan. And yet in the music industry, Mitchell has never really been afforded the kind of respect heaped on her male counterparts. Rolling Stone magazine once listed her at No 62 in its 100 greatest artists of all time, just below Metallica. She was belatedly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, but did not attend the ceremony. At 70, she remains a defiant outsider and recluse, who has often expressed her disgust at the music business. And who can blame her?