World Gone Wrong

BOB DYLAN: “World Gone Wrong” (Columbia)

Music can do more than entertain. It can change the way you feel towards the world. And sometimes it can change the way you live. I’ve met people in Germany, France, Britain, America, in Summerhill, Dublin, and in the most rural of rural Ireland whose lives were changed by Bob Dylan’s music. And I’m proud to say that Dylan changed my life. He awoke in me a love of words, a love of justice, a love of the Blues, a love of the independent mind and an understanding of art as a source of beauty and respite.

The world may be gone wrong but for Dylan the circle remains intact. He’s back where he started, back in the world where the Blues took root. He’s back with his guitar, harmonica and voice. He’s back with the traditions. He’s back to find the well.

We make art to reflect natural beauty or to escape man-made decay. They chased with dogs the slave who tried to escape, but they did not chase the Blues because they did not know the Blues. The Blues was the bird that flew. And because for so many Blacks it was their only bird, they loved and took care of it and made it into a winged one for their passion and dreams. You see, the Blues is so much more than music. It is the history, the literature, the paintings, the sculpture, the plays, the loves, hopes, fears, hates and aspirations of a rich and rhythmed culture.

The Black would-be doctor, scientist, writer, the Black genius, played guitar and harmonica and sung their way through. The Black genius turned to the Blues because they had no future but the blues, and had nothing else to lose. So, they gave everything to the Blues. So, it’s no surprise that a young Bob Dylan in love with music would turn to the Blues too. And to the White niggers, the White Trash, to folk like Woddy Guthrie.

And it’s no surprise that an older Bob Dylan should return. It’s been a long journey, and wisdom has been gained and squandered, and all in the world does indeed seem to have gone wrong. Songs like ‘World Gone Wrong’, ‘Broke Down Engine’, ‘Blood In My Eye’, ‘Stack A Lee’ and ‘Jack-A-Roe’ never promised to right the world. They were hymns to a world already gone wrong. They were laments for love gone wrong. But however they were meant there is one thing certain; these songs have their place today, because new technology will never replace them, nor will new ideas or melodies ever surpass them. And Dylan does them justice — a justice their songsmiths never got — like he did their comrades justice back on his first album, Bob Dylan. Perhaps that’s what justice is about?

• Gerry McGovern