Tangled Up In Blue

I’ve never been particularly subtle about my love for Robert Allen Zimmerman and his alter-ego Bob Dylan.

My obsession for the musical titan goes beyond his prodigious creative spirit to his personal choices as a human being and his ability to always find new and novel ways to surmount any given problem. 

As this wonderful Pitchfork clip makes plain, the Minnesota native was wallowing in a personal and public quagmire by 1974, engaged in a long and painful separation from his wife. Thawing out with a sudden return to New York, Dylan lived alone and enrolled in painting classes under Norman Raeben, a passionately dyspeptic Russian-born painter who was prone to berating his students (Dylan included).

This period of introspection, devoting his time and energy to a completely new art form allowed him to reconnect with himself and his priorities. It also led him to recording Blood On The Tracks, one of his most poetic and self-reflective LPs from the 1970s. 

While our own moments of despair can feel like they’re insurmountable, having the courage to venture out into unchartered territory has the power to rethink the impossible.

Investing in the unexpected is not only enlivening. It returns us to our intended path.

Xo