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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died a few days ago. When he retired a month earlier, he said,
“Invincibility is irreversibly established in the world. My work is done.”
That’s a beautiful exit.
I think he helped the Beatles cope with their sudden and massive fame; I’m not sure it made their lives any easier but their wonderful music improved. For that alone, we owe him a good wish as he sails out across the universe…
Rufus Wainwright’s wonderful version of the song is here.
Jai Guru Dev.
I agree with Kris Kristofferson that Dylan is the major artist of the second half of the twentieth century. (Picasso was his choice for the first 50 years, which also sounds right.) What does that mean? It means you should pay attention to him, that you should know his work.
When Dylan hit the scene in the mid-Sixties, he made it cool for entertainment to be intelligent. The Beatles turned the world upside-down by telling us (and making us feel) that “Fun is the one thing money can’t buy” (that’s a thought that’s been forgotten…). Dylan’s songs tickled our brains and nudged us into asking, as the famous refrain from Like a Rolling Stone goes, “How does it feel?” The answer to that question set a lot of people free.
In terms of technology Dylan is interesting. His basic tech is the song, a sister to the poem but even more delightful and portable and memorable. The song is softer than software.
Famously, Dylan added electric instruments to his music at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when he used the Paul Butterfield Blues Band as his back-up. I think we can site that moment as the instant when technology hit the bloodstream.
