A new Bob Dylan song. And a long one, too. Couldn't get very far into it without googling the lyrics, which, after reading them, reminded me more of a Robert Service or Robert Frost poem than one by Walt Whitman or Allen Ginsberg (recall that it was the then-86-year-old Frost who read, or tried to read, an ode at JFK's 1961 inauguration).
But even more than Frost, I was reminded of a more recent collagist film by Jean-Luc Godard, Film Socialisme (2010), which is as unwatchable as Dylan's song is unlistenable. Which is not to say these works are unnecessary. If we appreciate the contributions elder artists have made to the culture, it is important to consider what they make of the culture today, in their later years, even if we don't like how their latest looks and sounds.
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