Riverboat wrote:
Mrs. Timmy wrote:
Whoever convinced Dylan to put down his pen and get behind a microphone should be summarily executed.
You're my wife's new best friend. Just thought you should know.
As for the prog rock classification by
Wickedpedia Wikipedia, I suppose the Carpenters are acid rock pioneers after using a distorted guitar solo in Goodbye to Love (one of my all-time favorite songs, by the way).
The article doesn't say that Bob Dylan is a progressive rock artist. It says that one thing that defines progressive rock is poetic lyrics, such as the kind of poetic lyrics written by Bob Dylan. Poetic lyrics alone are not enough to qualify as 'progressive' and the article doesn't say that it is, it specifically says that to qualify as progressive an artist has to meet at least a few of a variety of characteristics, and not just one characteristic.
Among the characteristics that define progressive rock are
poetic lyrics (literally the only thing that Bob Dylan has in common with progressive rock)
extremely complex chord changes (Dylan? nope)
unusual time signatures (Dylan? nope)
a tendency to avoid the traditional 'verse/chorus' format and to make songs with no chorus or bridge (Dylan does this sometimes, but not often enough to call it a defining trait of his work)
dynamic contrast, which means, a tendency to organize songs so that they have an acoustic part and an electric part (does Bob Dylan do this? Not that I can tell)
Instrumentation, which means a tendency to either write a lot of instrumentals or to write songs with long instrumental portions between the parts with singing, or maybe a song might begin with a 3 or 4-minute instrumental portion before the singing begins. (again, Dylan doesn't do this)
the tendency to use unusual instruments that are not usually found on a rock album, such as an organ, a mellotron, or in the case of Jethro Tull a flute, or maybe even a full symphony (this definitely doesn't describe Bob Dylan's work)
I could go on, but the point is clear, despite the stereotype 'progressive', DOES NOT MEAN 'really long songs built around elaborate solos that emphasize technical skill