The Impact Drugs Caused on Dylan and His Music - Essay Example

The Impact Drugs Caused on Dylan and His Music

Bob Dylan is a famous American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. In his prime, he did not shy from drug use. He tried literally everything - amphetamines, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, and especially heroin. In 1966, the EattheDocument documentary was filmed. In the film, Dylan and John Lennon just drove around the city in a taxi and carried all sorts of drug addiction. Later, in an interview with Rolling StoneMagazine magazine, Lennon admitted that they had been sniffing heroin all day and that Dylan was nearly hiding from a drug overdose. The impact drugs caused on Dylan and his music was immense.

The musician is called the "revelation of America," and in this sense, his work is the opposite of the work of pop stars - masters of allegory. Dylan always cut the truth-womb. No, he didn't use "blackmail and porn" as visual means, as was observed, for example, right after perestroika, for example, his songs can also be heard by teenagers. But Dylans said everything as it is. A commitment to the truth is what sets Dylans apart from the rest of the performers. And indeed, this approach to music seems peculiar to this day. Not just drugs needed - why are they? The truth is much cooler. His head is spinning. Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. His father traded in hardware, and poetry became Bob's love from an early age. Naturally, Robert was not at all seduced by the future owner of the shop, which his father had predicted for him. Out of protest, 10-year-old Robert Zimmerman ran away from home and hitchhiked to Chicago. By chance on the road, he met an old Negro singer who knew how to play the guitar songs. Then, like in a movie: the boy and the singer made friends, spent three months together, and Robert studied guitar chords from his companion, as Williamson admits. The police, of course, found a minor fugitive and brought him home, but Dylans remained impressed by this life and led Bob to write poetry at home, frankly imitating his beloved poet Thomas at first. Robert will subsequently choose his name as an artistic pseudonym, according to Marqusee.

He also had another hobby: he began to listen to the rhythm and blues when he was driven by the use of the substances, which was broadcast by the local radio. Robert was already bursting with creative ideas inspired by drugs, but so far, he was just learning to express them and watching others do it. The rhythm and blues, although traditionally considered Negro music Zimmerman believed that nothing would stop him from drawing inspiration from this music. At school, Robert assembled the first group, called The Golden Chords (Golden Strings), states Williamson. The group initially played traditional rock and roll, music more for dancing than for listening in a relaxed atmosphere. But group leader Zimmerman quickly realized that rock and roll in its purest form were not for him, he was not interested in him. True, Bob was still young and shy; these character traits prevented him from the stage, according to Marqusee.

At the age of 19, he went on another trip to America, again hitchhiking and using drugs. He again spent the evenings in the company by the fire, he had a guitar with him, and he was eagerly listened to by young tramps like himself. He spent the night in a sleeping bag in the open air, accumulated impressions, and composed songs inspired by the substances. It turned out that Robert quickly and easily knows how to capture the attention of the audience, not taking into account the drug addiction. Not only that: he wrote good poems; his biting statements were clear to everyone, according to Williamson. In short, like a rock bard, Robert Zimmerman turned out to be a rather bright figure in the musical horizon of the then America. In the early 60s, he arrived in New York, intending to continue his musical career. He called himself no longer Zimmerman, but Dylan, as Marqusee states. In 1962, the album "Bob Dylan" was released with his versions of blues and songs of immigrants, and in 1963 came out and instantly became popular, his album "The Freewheelin Bob Dylan" with the song "Blowin In The Wind" ("Ha Wings of the Wind"), in which he tried to express everything that worried him then including the drug usage. Dylans just sang, in reference to Williamson: "How many eyes do you need to see the tears of others? How many times do you need to look around to notice the trouble next to us?" It can be said that this theme became characteristic of all of the late Dylans. In those years, he writes other drug songs: "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" ("It will rain hard soon"), "The Times They're A-Spagsht" ("Times are changing") ... "I would not write a single song," Dylans recalled, "and wouldn't have sung them like that if I hadn't had the opportunity to sit in New York cafes, listen to conversations and songs learning the skill of other performers."

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the musician, his early interview was published, in which the singer spoke about his fight against heroin drug addiction. In March 1966, after one of the concerts of his American tour, Dylan boarded his private jet with his friend Robert Shelton, a journalist and music critic. During the two hours of the flight, Dylans gave Shelton an interview, which the journalist later described as a "kaleidoscopic monologue" on drug addiction. Among other things, the singer admitted that in the early 1960s, he managed to get rid of heroin and other substances addiction. "I ended up with heroin when I lived in New York," says the singer. "I had very strong withdrawals then, just the strongest. And I started this business. I spent $ 20-25 a day on heroin, and I managed to tie up using this drug." Talk that Dylan used heroin for some time has been around for a long time. But the journalist of the British Newspaper Daily Telegraph Mick Brown, who interviewed the singer, said that he never confirmed these rumors on the use of substances in public. "I am surprised that he speaks so easily about this," says Williamson. In another part of the interview, Dylan says that frequent conversations about his genius prompted him to thoughts of suicide.

"Death is an empty place for me. For me, Death means nothing if I can die quickly. I was ready to die quickly many times, and I could have done it all and done it," says Dylans. - Yes, I can say that I have these suicidal tendencies inspired by substances. But so far, I can survive. " Marqusee says that during the interview, Dylans mood was constantly changing - he either spoke briskly or, on the contrary, was noticeably suppressed as he had a drug addiction. And for the man who to this day constantly tours and releases new albums, he was unusually skeptical about his work, especially about his own works. "I don't take all of this as seriously as anyone else," says Dylans. "You see, I know that it won't help me an iota in heaven. It won't save me from fiery hell." And this, of course, will not extend my life. And it will not make me happy either." "You can't be happy just if you are doing something high as using a drug," the singer concludes. Williamson speaks on what he thinks could make Dylan happy. "And I'm so happy," Dylan replied. But then he added that happiness is "some cheap word like a drug" And then he returned to the topic of suicide. Psychedelic drugs impacted much on his performance style and the type of music he chose to play for many long years.