Did you catch the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame induction the other night with Willie Nelson, Double Trouble, and others? Willie's voice is more or less a whisper now, but still interesting and compelling...and, of course the reason for the title is to aggravate Crispin after the last anti-Dylan rant. No Dylan, and it would all still be "moon...spoon...goon...macaroon...love..dove..above..shove" in music. I get it that he doesn't like Dylan...there's a lot of Dylan that I, as a certified Dylan nut, don't really care for. I really don't care for the Beatles. Seriously. But, I'd be a fool to deny their impact and influence. It would be as silly as ignoring Bob Wills or Memphis Minnie in Country or in Blues. Crispy knows this well, and acknowledges it....He just doesn't like the guy. He's Crispin's "picked sturgeon."
Well, I don't like pickled sturgeon either, but my approach is to ignore it. Pretend it doesn't exist in my universe. Smile politely when offered it someplace -- I go to some odd places -- as if offered something by an Alien Space Hostess. Crispin likes to pick at it, sniffing, snorting and making faces. Like an unhappy version of Browning's Duke in My Last Duchess, he occasionally rants about it and then goes off to mutter in the corner.
Meanwhile, over at Vets Today...
And, just for the record, Beyonce is one of the best cover artists for blues and soul music that has ever picked up a microphone.
