Bob Dylan on Record-Making and Brian Wilson

By Michael DeMartin

Only hard-core Brian fans know that he recorded a duet with Bob Dylan back in the eighties for Brian's song "The Spirit Of Rock And Roll." On the surface it seems like an odd pairing, but these two guys are arguably the most respected pop musicians of their times: Dylan for his lyrics and Brian for his music. Okay, the results weren't exactly magic, but it's kind of cool that these guys know and respect each other.

Anyway, here's what Dylan has to say in the brand-new Rolling Stone coming out. Truer words have never been spoken...

"The records I used to listen to and still love, you can't make a record that sounds that way," he explains. It is as if having taken his new material down to the crossroads of the recording studio Dylan isn't wholly sure the deal struck with the devil there was worth it. "Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn't make his records if you had a hundred tracks today. We all like records that are played on record players, but let's face it, those days are gon-n-n-e. You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really. You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like -- static. Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it. I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.' ". . .

YOU CAN READ THE INTERVIEW BY CLICKING ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST. IT WILL TAKE YOU TO ROLLINGSTONE.COM