Monday, April 05, 2010

It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry

Report in The Guardian this morning that 68 year-old folk-fossil, Bob Dylan has been banned from performing in Beijing and Shanghai: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/04/china-blocks-bob-dylan-gigs

Bob must be pleased that somebody still regards him as "dangerous" almost 1/2 a century on.  I wonder which of his lyrics the cultural apparachniks of the Chinese Communist Party regard as the most subversive? Songs of social justice evidently frighten those Chinese ex-revolutionaries now.

My letter entitled "A 'dangerous' rock star?" was published in The National Post on April 7, 2010, p. A15: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2771383

2 comments:

Charles Burton said...

Comment from a friend: "I don't know why they are worried. I've been to several BD concerts and I never understood a word he said."

Jacques said...

According to Foreign Policy, the East Asia tour may have been cancelled because of the tour promoter's exorbitant fees. It would explain why the whole tour was cancelled rather than just skipping the China concerts.