Bob Dylan was playing a concert in Des Moines tonight. Bob Dylan as a singer was one of those “jokes on us” things that got out of hand. 50 years ago the powers that be in the music industry said hey, “We control who gets heard, and who doesn’t, just how far can we go?” One of them came up with the bright idea, “Hey! Lets take the worst voice that ever croaked out a note, and make him a star!” Oh yeah, really funny, Robert Allen Zimmerman became Bob Dylan and the rest is history. How else do you explain the Bob Dylans, the Rod Stewarts, and the rest who never should have been recorded, let alone become stars? If the music industry told you they had a singing frog, would you buy his records also? (Didn’t your parents ever warn you about doing stupid things? “If all your friends bought a Bob Dylan record and jumped off a cliff, would you do that too?”) Americans have been sold a bill of goods as regards the music foisted upon us. It is really obvious on the Oldies stations and their limited play lists. You see really fast who owns what artists. Makes you kind of sad when you contemplate the artists we’ll never hear because of the music industry’s near monopoly control. How does it feel?

Jim Roach

                                                                 The Singing Frog

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