Alright, if you had a dime for every time someone was called the “new Bob Dylan” or any other kind of Bob Dylan other than the real one, you’d have at least the price of a Happy Meal. But, although that label may be nothing more than lazy journalism, his story is interesting.

When singer-songwriter Mohsen Namjoo takes the stage at Stanford University on Friday, he will be doing what he was never able to do in his homeland of Iran: perform in public.

Dubbed the “Iranian Bob Dylan,” Namjoo created music that led to his banishment from Iran even as his young fans there, who discovered his performances on YouTube, were becoming mesmerized by his poetic protests against the theocracy and its endless crackdowns.

[...]

Still, Namjoo distances himself from “mere political proclamation. “I have to tell you that my only career is music.
“… I don’t delve into Islam,” he says. Later, he adds, “For me, the primary thing is the aesthetic of music — and of course, so much the better if, while rendering a musical work beautifully, there is also a message expressed.”

[...]

In “Shams,” Namjoo performs verses from the holy book. That raises the ire of those orthodox Muslims who consider recitation of the Quran to be blasphemous outside of devotional settings, let alone as part of a rock tune that resounds like the Clash.

About two years ago, when an early pirated version of “Shams” was posted on YouTube, Quran societies in Iran likened it to Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses.” Last year, an Iranian court sentenced Namjoo in absentia — he was studying at the University of Vienna at the time — to five years in prison.

“They hate him,” says Iranian filmmaker Babak Payami, who produced Namjoo’s new album. “But something is changing in Iranian culture — the disintegration and dissolution of taboos — and Mohsen’s music is a big indication of that shift. He hits the bull’s-eye.”

Music can have a salutary subversive effect, as it did behind the old Iron Curtain, in tandem with other tantalizing tastes of a freer world outside. When it comes to the world of repressive Islam, I think it would be naive to think that some songs are going to change things. However, to the extent that things do change, there will, no doubt, be some songs sung in the process.

From YouTube, Namjoo’s tune Shams:

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Mohsen Namjoo — “Iran’s Bob Dylan” — sentenced to five years in prison
• Look out kid
• Welcome to Modern Times