What a good article. Interestingly, I read this just after reading Bob Dylan's pretty fascinating speech (delivered ac couple of days ago at musicales.
Bob Dylan stresses the importance of how many times he listened to a song and how much of an influence it had on what he wrote:
"For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I'd heard it just once.
If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too. "
Dylan says this repeatedly about many of his songs (I really do recommend reading his speech).
I do think there's some merit to this (though of course I don't think it's quite that simple). It's also interesting to keep something in mind. It's easy to do some things 100 times, it's harder to do other things 100 times. I've listened to plenty of songs 100 times - I think the interesting thing about Dylan was that he was listening to these songs with an unusual engagement, and that they were (at the time) somewhat unusual songs to be listening to 100 times.
I'd say it's hard to read Joyce's Ulysses 100 times, but Ulysses isn't an undiscovered work. Probably the real key is to listen to or read something 100 times that people don't realize understand the value of quite yet and that takes considerable time and effort to understand. That takes some passion, and a willingness to be considered a bit odd.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-gr...
Bob Dylan stresses the importance of how many times he listened to a song and how much of an influence it had on what he wrote:
"For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I'd heard it just once.
If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me -- "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too. "
Dylan says this repeatedly about many of his songs (I really do recommend reading his speech).
I do think there's some merit to this (though of course I don't think it's quite that simple). It's also interesting to keep something in mind. It's easy to do some things 100 times, it's harder to do other things 100 times. I've listened to plenty of songs 100 times - I think the interesting thing about Dylan was that he was listening to these songs with an unusual engagement, and that they were (at the time) somewhat unusual songs to be listening to 100 times.
I'd say it's hard to read Joyce's Ulysses 100 times, but Ulysses isn't an undiscovered work. Probably the real key is to listen to or read something 100 times that people don't realize understand the value of quite yet and that takes considerable time and effort to understand. That takes some passion, and a willingness to be considered a bit odd.