Chasing Dylan

There is little I can write about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been written to the point of inanity, but every time I see him perform, the urge is just too great. Recently, a little meme has been making its rounds about Facebook again on the 15 most influential writers.  I, of course, engaged in the exercise--how could I not?  Without fail, I had to include Dylan among the top 15.  He comes to mind almost immediately when I'm with my fellow writer/artist friends when the same discussion comes up.  I grew up on Bob Dylan.  I remember hearing songs from Blood on the Tracks and the LP cover of Saved before even my infatuation with Olivia Newton-John took over and certainly well before Madonna or Prince crept into my young, impressionable airwaves.

It is without doubt that because of Bob Dylan, I pursued writing at a very young age.  There was magic in the words... I know of no other way to describe it.  It was like hearing a painting. Quite frankly, it still is.

No matter how many times I hear "Tangled up in blue" I'm transported to another place.  There are plenty of others that do the same to me, but this one is always going to be special for many, many reasons... the layers of memories, people, performances, places, images... they never feel complete to me and yet, it's whole.

So, that's about all I wanted to say on that.  And if you are at all curious as to the other 15 I happened to list on that one random day, I've included them below, but there are many, many more--15 is simply as random as the list:

Oscar Wilde, Hunter S Thompson, William Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, Nikki Giovanni, Michael Chabon, Lewis Carroll, Robert Pirsig, Joyce Carol Oates, Geoffrey Chaucer, Plato, Niccolo Machiavelli, Ernst Hemingway, James Joyce, Maya Angelou