BOB DYLAN CONFRONTS HIS OWN LEGACY ON “ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS”
BOB DYLAN CONFRONTS HIS OWN LEGACY ON “ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS” “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about” - Oscar Wilde In “I Contain Multitudes,” the opening number on his new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Bob Dylan tells us something we already know. He is a man of contradictions, which he has previously attributed to his astrological sign, Gemini. In interviews, when asked about anything, his answers, like his songs, are almost always a surprise, coming out of nowhere, and heading somewhere unexpected. Offbeat observations and suspicious disclosures. Has he ever uttered the phrase, “Yes, I agree with you?” If he has, would he have been putting us on? When he is praised, he deflects. When imitators steal him blind, he is not flattered. On this song, and album, Dylan finally owns up to his own legacy. Rough and Rowdy Ways, like much of Dylan’s output, is a protest album. What’s he protestin’? Whadaya got? Twenty years ago, if not 50, Bob Dylan had already r