Music: Freaky Fresco of Hell

Back in the middle '60,. Bob Dylan was the king of popular music, a figure to whom even the Beatles and the Rolling Stones paid due and reverential homage. Many of Dylan's partisans even suggested that he might be the best young poet in the country. His lyrics combined paranoia, pop art and elusive, often violent imagery into a carefully crafted chaos that sounded a bit like Rimbaud writing rock and roll.

Then Dylan racked himself up on a motorcycle and went into that famous retreat for almost two years. When he reappeared his life was less troubled, his music quieter and...

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