There’s something to be said for trusting an artist to the point where you suspend your judgment. This is what I will do with anything by The Mountain Goats or Lambchop. But then I have to keep myself aware that when other people hear recent stuff by TMG, they might just hear a guy with a nasal voice and an affinity for adult contemporary production, and Lambchop might just sound like lazy lounge music. That is to say: it can be a worthwhile trade to ignore an artist’s shortcomings in order to appreciate what they do well, but outsiders are going to find it incomprehensible when you start insisting that the shortcomings are in fact strengths. And this shortcomings-to-strengths thing is what the Weekly Standard guy is complaining about.

Sometimes I try to imagine what kind of music Bob Dylan would have written if he’d never had to wrestle with fame.

I like John Sellers’s description of growing up with a Dylan-fanatic father.

Also, I’m 25, not 27. That was just a typo. Ack. Need to check my comments better.

But heck, is that what this was about? Feeling like your elders are judging you for not absolutely adoring the same music as them? Funny, you’d think Boomers of all people would get that. :P

Attack on Morrissey? That wasn’t my intention at all. I love The Smiths and think Morrissey is superior to Dylan. My point was merely that just because I love a band I grew up—which is admittedly an acquired taste—does not mean all future generations must respect them.

A lot of this could have been said about lot of people. I feel roughly the same about Dylan as I do about U2: some really great music, some tripe that fans – like fans of anything – will forgive or rationalize. Nothing wrong with that, it goes with longevity and being prolific. But it’ll always give ammo to haters just as much.

That said, fellow Joe, I take your attack on Morrissey in the comments way more personally.

Of all the ways I’ve ever been described, I have to say that is one of the funniest. ; )