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Discussion on: Music Monday — What are you listening to? (Favorite Lyricists Edition)

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Michael Tharrington

Well, if my GIF above of Dylan above didn't give it away, I'm a big Bob Dylan fan.

I think the first spark really started when I was 14 or 15 years old in the early 2000s. I'd gotten my first guitar, an acoustic, and had started learning cowboy chords... I was falling deep in love with classic rock, especially the 60's/70's stuff. About this time I saw a documentary on PBS called No Direction Home that was all about Bob... particularly his early influences and move from folk into rock. I was immediately hooked and wanted to be Bob Dylan.

I got into reading his lyrics and along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road, these are probably the things that most influenced me to wanna be a writer, musician, and vagabond.

Dylan has been there throughout my whole life. His writing style, persona, and music have morphed throughout his time and as my life changes, occasionally taking unexpected left turns and molding me into many different versions of myself, seeing Dylan do the same has given me comfort and inspiration to whichever version of myself feels right at the time. The relatively recent Dylan release "I Contain Multitudes" is a great take on this idea.

There are so many great Dylan tunes... from "When the Ship Comes In" to "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" to "Like a Rolling Stone" to "Hurricane"... the list goes on and on. However, my current favorite has to be "Tangled Up in Blue":