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Dan Bern: "Jerusalem"

07-03-2018 | By John Marks | Issue 98

Another contribution from John Marks of the blog site The Tannhauser Gate. This one brief, and controversial in some musical quarters. 

Nonetheless, this is John's point of view, and this section of Positive Feedback is entitled, "Audio Discourse."

Therefore, read on...

Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor

My post about Gidon Kremer & Co.'s chamber-orchestra version of Astor Piazzolla's "Oblivion" (from the soundtrack of Marco Bellocchio's film version of Pirandello's Henry IV) had as its jumping-off point a rumination on the Nobel Prize in Literature. After listing many literary luminaries who never got the award, I did say, "Still and all, there are a few unimpeachable selections (Bob Dylan, in my opinion, is most definitely not among them)."

In my opinion, handing the award that should have gone to James Joyce but never did, to Bob Dylan, just sealed the deal as far as the Nobel Literature Prize's being a cross between the Nobel Peace Prize and a popularity poll. Who is next? Danielle Steel? (After all, she has sold 800 million copies of her more than 150 books.)

So, I have long thought that it was past high time that Mr. Zimmerman could use being taken down a peg or two. I am hugely glad to report that Dan Bern has done just that for us (and if "Jerusalem" is not a Bob Dylan Parody, time is out of joint… ).

Dan Bern's "Jerusalem" has it all: the mind-numbingly repetitious guitar playing; the whiny vocal; the total self-absorption of the lyrics; the apocalyptic grandiosity of the vision; and, most of all, the passive-aggressive approach to affairs of the heart ("Accept my love, don't test my love/ ‘Cause maybe I don't love you all that much"). I particularly love that the singer's therapist's name is Dr. Nusbaum, which is close to the German for "Nut Tree."

One might quip that the specialty of Dan Bern's house is "Filet of Bob Dylan."

Well done!

Thanks to Positive Feedback's Clark Johnsen for introducing me to this song.