Reader Mail
The Answer, My Friend
Much ado about Bob Dylan — and don't forget the Grateful Dead. Plus: Democrats in deep denial. Ben Stein's heirloom. Plus more.
p>
BLOWIN’ WIND
br>
Re: William Tucker’s
Unlike a
Rolling Stone
:
/p>
William Tucker’s theory linking praise of Bob Dylan’s work with the elite’s love of radical politics is completely mistaken. Dylan fans run the political gamut. I am a conservative and a huge Dylan fan. My colleague, Marc H. Ellis, is considerably to my left, and a Dylan fan as well. Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family is a Dylan fan, but so was Allen Ginsberg, the bohemian gay poet who would not be caught dead in Colorado Springs.
p>”Like a Rolling Stone” is the greatest rock song of all time because it is lyrically powerful, musically intoxicating, and pure rock and roll. The fact that it never rose above #2 on the charts has no bearing on the song’s quality or greatness. I’m sure that Britney Spears has had more #1 songs than the Rolling Stones, but I don’t think that proves that Spears is better. After all, National Review Online receives more hits than spectator.org, but I don’t think Tucker would say that that proves that NRO is superior. (For that matter, more people read Paul Krugman than William Tucker, but I would argue that Tucker is better than Krugman.) br> — Francis J. Beckwith br> Associate Professor of Church-State Studies br> Baylor University /p>
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