GROSSETO – Buon compleanno a Bob Dylan, che oggi compie 80 anni.
Nato Robert Allen Zimmerman, ha legalmente cambiato il suo nome in Bob Dylan nell’agosto 1962. Distintosi anche come scrittore, poeta, pittore, scultore e conduttore radiofonico, si è imposto come una delle più importanti figure a livello internazionale in campo musicale, in quello della cultura di massa e in quello della letteratura.
Oltre ad aver di fatto plasmato la figura del cantautore contemporaneo, a Dylan si devono anche l’ideazione del folk-rock (in particolare con l’album Bringing It All Back Home, 1965), il primo singolo di successo ad avere una durata non commerciale (gli oltre 6 minuti della celebre Like a Rolling Stone, 1965) e il primo album doppio della storia del rock (Blonde on Blonde, 1966).
Il video promozionale del brano Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965) è considerato da alcuni il primo videoclip in assoluto. L’album Great White Wonder (1969) ha lanciato il fenomeno dei bootleg, mentre la tripla antologia Biograph (1985) è considerata uno dei capostipiti dei box set.
Tra i molti riconoscimenti che gli sono stati conferiti vanno menzionati dieci Grammy Award, tra cui quello alla carriera nel 1991,il Polar Music Prize nel 2000, il Premio Oscar nel 2001 (per la canzone Things Have Changed, dalla colonna sonora del film Wonder Boys, per la quale si è aggiudicato anche il Golden Globe), il Premio Principe delle Asturie nel 2007, il Premio Pulitzer nel 2008, la National Medal of Arts nel 2009, la Presidential Medal of Freedom nel 2012 e la Legione d’Onore nel 2013. Il 13 ottobre 2016 gli è stato conferito il Premio Nobel per la letteratura «per aver creato nuove espressioni poetiche all’interno della grande tradizione della canzone americana»
Prima di lui solo George Bernard Shaw era riuscito a vincere sia un Nobel sia un Oscar. È stato anche nominato Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres dal ministro della cultura francese Jack Lang a Parigi il 30 gennaio 1990.
La rivista Rolling Stone lo inserì al secondo posto nella lista dei 100 miglior artisti, al settimo in quella dei 100 migliori cantanti e, nel 2015, al primo in quella dei 100 migliori cantautori.
Nel corso degli anni Dylan ha ampliato e personalizzato il suo stile musicale arrivando a toccare molti generi diversi come country, blues, gospel/spiritual, rock and roll, rockabilly, jazz e swing, citando anche musica popolare inglese, scozzese e irlandese.
Hurricane
Augurando buon compleanno a Bob Dylan, lo festeggiamo con uno dei suoi più grandi successi: Hurricane.
E’ l’estate del 1975, e Dylan scrive la sua prima canzone di protesta di successo in dodici anni, sposando la causa del pugile Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, che era stato imprigionato per triplice omicidio a Paterson, nel New Jersey. Dopo aver incontrato Carter in prigione, Dylan scrisse Hurricane, sostenendo la sua innocenza.
Dylan venne a conoscenza della storia di Carter leggendo la sua autobiografia, The Sixteenth Round (1974), che Carter stesso gli aveva inviato, conscio del suo precedente impegno per i diritti civili.
La prima versione fu registrata il 30 luglio 1975, ma per evitare denunce da parte dei diretti interessati (citati per nome e cognome nel testo), gli avvocati della Columbia Records convinsero Dylan a registrare una seconda versione (quella presente nell’album) con il testo modificato in modo da non citare direttamente i nomi delle persone coinvolte.
A dispetto della sua durata (8 minuti e 32 secondi), la canzone fu pubblicata come singolo e arrivò al trentatreesimo posto nella classifica di Billboard.
Carter sarebbe stato scarcerato solo nel 1985, quando il giudice della Corte Federale Haddon Lee Sarokin sentenziò che non aveva avuto un processo equo, affermando che l’accusa era “basata su motivazioni razziali”. Il 26 febbraio 1988 caddero definitivamente tutte le accuse.
TESTO di HURRICANE
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!”
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously.
“I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands
“I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops
“One of us had better call up the cops.”
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that’s just the way things go.
If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
‘Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin’ around
He said, “I saw two men runnin’ out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates.”
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, “Wait a minute, boys, this one’s not dead”
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the mornin’ and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye
Says, “Wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!”
Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin’s in South America, fightin’ for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin’ the screws to him, lookin’ for somebody to blame.
“Remember that murder that happened in a bar?”
“Remember you said you saw the getaway car?”
“You think you’d like to play ball with the law?”
“Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night?”
“Don’t forget that you are white.”
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, “I’m really not sure”.
Cops said, “A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we’re talkin’ to your friend Bello
Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You’ll be doin’ society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin’ braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain’t no Gentleman Jim.”
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay
And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder “one,” guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That’s the story of the Hurricane,
But it won’t be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he’s done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Fonte: Wikipedia.
