Don’t think twice, he’s all right

Bob Dylan is coming to the Orange County Fair!

On July 27, you will have a chance to see the man from Duluth,

Minn. live and in person. The great enigma slangin’ his guitar with

wind-blown hair and a gravel-soaked voice. Arguably the greatest

singer/songwriter of all time will be gracing our neck of the woods,

although not everyone feels the same way about him that I do.

Many can’t get past his voice, he has no range, he’s not a very

good guitar player, oftentimes he rambles ad nauseum about laying

next to dead ponies and other types of imagery-driven nonsense. All

this is true. It’s also true that he’s been a vital force in music

for 40 years, and has had his songs covered by everyone from Jimi

Hendrix to Guns N’ Roses.

He has this song on his “Freewheelin” album that just kills me.

It’s called “Girl from the North County,” and no matter where I am or

what I am doing, I just want to cry every time I hear it. It reduces

me to a ball of emotion. The lyrics remind me of the first girl I

really loved. They describe her better than I ever could.

My pops loves him, too. When I was 8, I saw him dancing around the

living room and singing along to “Positively Fourth Street.” At that

point, I realized two things:

1. Bob Dylan was pretty cool.

2. My dad definitely spent his fair share of time stepping out of

the bounds of society in his youth.

Yeah, his voice has never been technically sound -- especially as

he’s gotten older. It sounds like a blown muffler on a Harley

Davidson mixed with a guy gargling sand, but I love it. There’s a

feeling and emotion in there that is far more important than being

able to sing like Celine Dion. This is all subjective, of course.

Try laying in the dark with the headphones on and listening

intently to every word of “Moonshiner” without getting the chills. If

you try this and don’t get the chills, you’re no one I want to spend

time with.

My dad always explained Dylan to me by saying, “It’s not how he’s

saying it, it’s what he’s saying.”

From the introspective, yet global appeal of 1964’s “The Times

They Are A-Changin” on “The Times They Are A-Changin,” to the

old-timer’s take on still finding love and dreams in “Bye and Bye” on

2001’s “Love and Theft,” he never lost his ability to sum up how we

are all feeling in just a few words. The voice changes, but that

doesn’t mean the sentiment does.

* PAUL SAITOWITZ is a human being.