Boomer folkies get their snipe on
Until now, baby boomers could just chuckle in disinterested glee at the insipid character assassination practiced by GenNext musicians, actors and people who are simply famous for being famous.
And, really, why not? Paris Hilton calling Lindsey Lohan a hack is not terribly (or any other kind of) interesting.
But now, now we have this:
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Joni Mitchell belly flopped into the same kind of curdled vat of egotitistical insult by calling Bob Dylan “fake:”
Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.
I know, you’re saying, “But Joni changed her name, too. She was born Roberta Joan Anderson.”
Quite right. She addressed this too:
As for my name, my parents wanted a boy, so they called me Robert John; when I came out a girl, they just added two letter A’s to that. Then I married Chuck Mitchell; I wanted to keep my maiden name — I had a bit of a following as Joni Anderson — but he wouldn’t let me.
Yeesh.
C’mon people now.
I guess Joni is just trying to get her name back out to the public.
Here comment about Bob is stupid. No, Bob does not have a great voice but no one can sing his songs as good as he does.
I was lucky enough to see him historically booed when he performed at Forest Hills, Queens. The folkies didn’t like him going electric but it was the smartest move he ever made.
My opinion? Bob is the best poet of the second half of the last century. His music will endure while it takes people as old as me to know who Joni is.