Once upon a time I so much as mentioned Bob Dylan in a post, and it rapidly became one of my largest traffic spikes ever. And there wasn’t even any meat in that post, just a friend comparing Dylan and Shakespeare.
Well this time I’ve got a better link and I’m hoping that some of those Dylan fans stuck around to appreciate it. Our friend and long time contributor Bardfilm wanted to make the connection between Bob Dylan’s folk narrative in a song like “Seven Curses”, and the Shakespeare’s problem play Measure for Measure. He did this for his class (he teaches Shakespeare for a living), so this is not just some random grab for web traffic. This is an entirely independent project that *deserves* some recognition. That’s different.
What he’s done is to sing Measure for Measure. In 5 minutes. As Bob Dylan. To the tune of Seven Curses. Accompanied by a video, with finger puppets.
Regular fans of the site may have already seen this link go by on Twitter or the Facebook page, but it dawned on me this morning that it really merits a post of its own so that the blog readers who only stop by via RSS feed can see it as well. Normally I don’t play the “blog post pointing to a blog post” game, because that’s a game that results in way too many links and not enough original content. I’m making an exception here because of the quality (and quantity!) of content in this most. I think more people need to see it. Truthfully I’m hoping that we can get this little effort enough attention that he’s convinced to do it again. I’ve always been a big fan of learning and memorizing Shakespeare through song, and stuff like this is a golden opportunity.
I call this post Where My Dylan Fans At, and I mean that. All it took originally was for one Dylan fan to post my link on a Dylan fan board, and traffic the likes of which I’ve never seen came pouring in. I’m hoping that someone can extend that same favor to Bardfilm’s effort. I don’t even want you to link this post – link directly to him.
[And for the record he’s neither asked me to post this, nor even knows that I’m doing it (though I expect he’ll notice soon enough)]
First!
Well, thank you very much. You're very kind. I enjoyed making it, and, given enough time, I'll produce some more.
Shakespeare is so astonishingly pervasive that he can easily make his way into everything—simply everything.
Thanks again!
kj