At Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, they’re looking forward to Dylan’s October 16th gig (backed by Elvis Costello and Amos Lee) at the Nutter Center, according to student newspaper, The Guardian Online.

The event presents more than an opportunity for members of the community to see a concert; it will bring artists of “iconic” status who have produced music that has impacted society and culture to the Dayton area, according to David Baxter, communication professor.

Bob Dylan was “at the vanguard of folk music’s protest genre” during a time when the U.S. was teeming with political turmoil as an anti-establishment movement rallied around the civil rights movement and American involvement in Vietnam, according to Baxter.

Songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Times are A-Changing” [sic] were among the first to address these issues, forever making the name Bob Dylan synonymous with the social movement and controversy that swirled around the 60’s.

“Bob Dylan’s music came at a time when there was a lot going on in America. He was at the forefront of writing songs with a social conscious [sic] that were used as a sort of rallying point for several causes and movements,” said Baxter.

Oh well. Leaving all that aside, what about the following? Lines like this appear in a lot of articles on Dylan’s upcoming tour:

Dylan is touring to support the October release of a three-disc, 51 track career retrospective bearing the simple title, “Dylan,” the 45th album of his career, which spans five decades.

Why do people keep insisting that Dylan is touring to promote Sony’s newest “best of” collection of his music? The guy has been doing over a hundred gigs a year for the better part of the last twenty years. The current tour is, self-evidently, business-as-usual.

He just has to get himself out there, or else all those rallies will have no point.

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