Researching Dylan

The title of our humble website  obviously has a focus on a variety of issues,  or if you wanted to be pedantic perhaps just two – literacy and research.  Both seem very difficult concepts to pass on to our latest generation of media buzzed youngsters, and it’s not surprising really – books, music and plays versus multimedia madness and YouTube comedy clips.  I know which one I would have chosen when I was young if the choice was available.

But let’s backtrack a little, educators today are not limited to stepping through Pride and Prejudice. Well of course, we have to follow the curriculum so maybe that’s not completely true – but we do have some leeway? Well I think I have. How much more fun would it be to analyse this with a group of teenagers.

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you’d better lift your diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse
When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

It’s hip and cool and to some extent just as difficult to decipher as the Canterbury Tales or Jane Austen, but of course it isn’t.  Although its nearly 50 years old, the song means a lot to so many people, but if you search for definitions and meanings – it’s not easy to find.   The words ooze meaning, in a contemporary sense they mean so much more to today’s youth. Why not base our curriculum on texts like this – in case you haven’t guessed it’s from “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan recently voted by Rolling Stone as the ‘Best Song of All Time” – sorry Wolfgang but I think they may be right.

And if that’s little hard to decipher, think of how many anti-war and peace songs there are.  Another song from the list is ‘Imagine’ it’s certainly much easier to understand but just as profound and more accessible than the Canterbury Tales.

Shouts to : my friend on this article.