Dylan Sells Out to Starbucks

[dissent1977]

His protest songs made him the figurehead of the anti-establishment movement that defined America during the 1960s. But yesterday Bob Dylan was facing accusations of selling out after it emerged the singer had agreed an exclusive deal to sell some of his rarest tracks at Starbucks, the coffee shop chain targeted by anti-globalization protesters as a symbol of American cultural dominance.

Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962 features the much sought-after material recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, a focal point of the folk revival in the early 1960s. Tracks include rare versions of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall and Don't Think Twice It's Alright, as well as folk standards Barbara Allen and The Cuckoo.

Bootleg versions of the album, which will be released on August 30 and will only be available in Starbucks outlets across the US and Canada, have been touted among Dylan fans for years but this is the first to be professionally produced and remastered.

By yesterday afternoon fans on Dylan discussion boards were already venting their fury. "This sucks," wrote one doleful fan on the website Expectingrain.com. "He's belittling his music." Another disgruntled fan opined: "He certainly doesn't need the money. Maybe he's doing it to directly discredit the public's view of him as an anti-establishment protest singer?"

More: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0629-03.htm

I want to respect Dylan, but I just don't understand why he would do this if he is not completely selling out.

[Heidi]

1. It's _his_ music.

That's just the truth. It's his and he can do whatever he wants with it. I'm not going to make any judgments about his decision and the thinking behind it. (He was accused of "selling out" when he did the Victoria's Secret video, too, but I found that video sort of beautiful and engaging.)

[dissent1977]

2. Sure it is his music

But I wish he would be putting it to better use than this. I always wanted to view Dylan as a politically conscious person, and how he could support a cutthroat corporation like Starbucks is beyond me.

[Heidi]

9. I absolutely support your right to object . . .

to what Dylan does with his music. But I do think that they're supporting _him_ , rather than the other way around. I'm a long-time Dylan fan, but I would bet that he doesn't much care what we think of his political conscience. :shrug:

[Zomby Woof]

3. He's not selling out

He's just honoring his oldest tradition of all: Fucking with his audience. I think he enjoys seeing just how many things he can do that will keep earning him that label. Remember, when he plugged in back in '65, he was called a sell-out. It keeps him in the game to continually confound fans and detractors alike.

He is going against type and daring his audience to keep worshipping him. As he once said, "Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters."

No amount of giving his music away to Starbucks or whoever, changes his music or what it means, unless YOU let it.

I won't let it.

[dissent1977]

6. I have never worshipped Dylan

Not even close. I enjoy some of his music, and I did respect him but am now questioning that respect. If he wants me to buy his album then don't give Starbucks the exclusive rights to it because I won't set foot in there.

[Heidi]

10. More ZombyTroof . . .

and I thank you for it.

[Melynn]

4. Dylan has always done off beat stuff that defies convention

Just when people think they have Dylan pigeon holed into a category, he does something entirely different.

Regarding "selling out" to Starbucks, I don't think it is much of a sellout. Isn't Starbucks a company that gives money to a lot of progressive causes?

[dissent1977]

5. They are a company that destroys the environment and...

treats their workers like crap. Whether they give money to progressive causes or not, they are certainly not a progressive company.

[Zomby Woof]

7. I knew lots of Starbucks employees

I lived at Ground Zero (Seattle) for 15 years, before and during their international presence. With lots of employees, there is going to be divergent opinion on their satisfaction.

Most of the workers I knew enjoyed, or at least had no problem, working for them, and Starbucks treats their employees far better than most corporations do.

I find that most criticism of Starbucks comes from second or thirdhand diatribes like Naomi Klein's screed "No Logo", and not actual FACT. It is easy to bash when reading blogs on the Net as a source, to fuel ideological prejudices (making many on the Left indistinguishable from their unfortunate counterparts on the Right), and not getting out there and MEETING the people.

[dissent1977]

8. You have to meet employees outside the US too though

Look at the labor conditions in the places they are actually growing the coffee beans. I don't think you would be too impressed.

[xultar]

11. He's not a sell out. They would have had to buy it somewhere so

why not Starbucks.

Why, they'd rather him give it away for free?

[WilliamPitt]

12. He sold out to Victoria's Secret years ago

so this is whatever.

Hunter S. Thompson was the last holdout, the last one who never, ever sold out.

[ForrestGump]

13. He's a victim of lofty expectations not necessarily in line with his own

He's a commercial recording artist and songwriter. Always has been. He's said that he didn't ever really want to be considered some genius social-commentary poet but, basically, wanted to be Elvis. He wanted to be a rock star. Along the way he may well have penned some pretty potent examples of social consciousness, but to accuse him of 'selling out' assumes that he was ever an aesthete who considered commercial success beneath him.

He never sold out -- I have a hard time agreeing with assessments of just about any rock/pop/etc star who's accused of 'selling out,' for that matter -- because he just keeps on doing what he wants to do and people who feel let down by his choices reveal more of their own narrow viewpoint than they do the truth of Dylan's life.

By way of example, check this snippet:

Dylan: I'd Rather Be Elvis
Herald-Sun - Melbourne
Dec 4, 2004

He spoke for a generation when he sang "The times they are a-changin" in 1964 and it all came true.

But Bob Dylan says he's no prophet and is more comfortable with the idea of being like Elvis Presley. In his first television interview in 19 years, he says grandiose comparisons make him uncomfortable.

The folk-rock legend, 63, says the hero worship of the '60s generation often leaves him feeling like an imposter.

"It was like being in an Edgar Allen Poe story and you're just not that person everybody thinks you are, though they call you that all the time," he says, according to advance extracts from an interview to be broadcast tomorrow on the CBS network in the US.

" 'You're the prophet. You're the saviour.' I never wanted to be a prophet or a saviour," he said.

"Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No."

Much of Dylan's discomfort comes from the mystique fans attach to his personality and his work.

"My stuff . . . (they) were songs. They weren't sermons," he said. "If you examine the songs I don't believe you're going to find anything in there that says that I'm a spokesman for anybody or anything really."

<snip>

[gmoney]

14. Eh, it's being overblown.

It's 43-year old material that's been floating around for years. It's not like he sat down and wrote "The Vente Cappucino Blues" or "Mmmm, Try A Shot of Amaretto and a Biscotti" or "The G8 is Great" or something.

Maybe he's in Mark Felt mode... I don't know. Cashing in while the getting's good. He is a professional musician, after all. He could even be having money problems -- maybe he shorted Google stock at $95.

Maybe he wanted maximum exposure for this release, and he knew that if he just did it through his label as part of the "bootleg series" he's been doing, the same 20,000 people would buy it who buy EVERY Dylan release, and it would drop out of sight. This way, he assures that it'll sell some copies to "looky loos" who read about the fuss, and I bet it will triple sales, plus he probably has a guarantee from Starbucks.

Bands are doing these exclusive deals all the time with places like Best Buy, Target, Apple, etc. It's almost always minor material, such as live versions, remixes, and the like.

I'm not wild about the idea, but as Heidi so sagely points out, it's his music. (Always count on Heidi for the level-headed, clear-eyed view of things.)

Now, if Hermes refuses to let him go shopping after hours, THEN I'll get outraged.

[asthmaticeog]

15. Oh, whatEVER.

Dylan's earliest releases were on, if memory serves, Columbia records, even back then a very large, bottom-line oriented company, a part of CBS (again, if memory serves). Every release he's ever put out has been tainted by big commerce - he's had the money and the influence to put his music out independently for decades now, but he's never done so. Sellout is not an issue when discussing a cash-generating behemoth like Bob Dylan.

[Deja Q]

16. If you own a bootleg, get Steinberg Clean or ANY audio cleanup program;

you can restore the music yourself just as how the pros do.

Easy peasy.

I have the Guess WHo greatest hits album on CD, circa 1990. They rereleased it in 2003 with restored tracks... but why spend the money when 4 of the songs weren't on the new one either?

Dylan can go enlist himself.