In the current issue of Jewish Currents is an article on Bob Dylan by Marek Breiger (someone who has shared some wise observations with RWB readers in the past). It’s called “Bob Dylan: Reconciliation and Atonement”, and is in particular a reflection on what Dylan’s memoir “Chronicles” adds to our understanding of Dylan’s continuing connection to family and to his Jewish roots. I might quibble with one or two points, but it’s a very fine read. Snippet:

Dylan’s songs in 1968 rejected violent and revolutionary solutions. They were, instead, about the need for atonement and reconciliation. Dylan was not interested in demonizing the generation of his parents.

In one of the greatest songs from that era, “Tears of Rage,” he writes from the point of view of a father who is losing his daughter to a set of circumstances he cannot reverse but can only plead against. A daughter is not only leaving home; she is rejecting her parents’ love. “We carried you in our arms/ On Independence Day” the father sings and then continues: “And now you’d throw us all aside/ And put us on our way.”

In a departure from songs like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and even “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Dylan in 1968 wrote as a father wanting to protect his children — and as a son who has lost his father. He understands now the pain of a broken family. In “Tears of Rage,” the father begs the daughter to return home: “We’re so alone/And life is brief.” These words spoke to and about millions of young people and their parents in the late 1960s and early 70s. Dylan’s song does not point fingers at the parents or daughter but recognizes what so few of his fellow artists realized at the time: the tragedy of families being torn apart, and the humanity of both parents and children beyond any political definitions. Politics was less important to Dylan than the emotions of human beings.

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