(三)
等一下… 我說「撫慰人心」嗎？提到 Bob Dylan 時，尤其是 Dylan as a live performer 時，「撫慰人心」這種說法還算是有意義的語言嗎？
先聽聽《滾石》音樂雜誌創刊編輯 David Dalton, 在他2012年這本無與倫比精彩的《Who Is That Man: In Search of the Real Bob Dylan》書中，旁徵博引了諸多論者的觀點後，對當今舞台上的 Dylan 是怎麼形容的：“His indifference to his fans had reached a level of absolute contempt.”
他對歌迷的的漠視冷淡，已經到了極度輕蔑的化境了。(p. 302)
“He's become just a freak show people come to see, the man who was famous long ago….His shows are now more often than not described as train wrecks.”
他如今的演唱會，已經變成人人好奇想瞧瞧的畸形人秀…這人在很久以前名滿天下…如今他的演唱會，簡直就像是火車互撞的災難現場。(P. 303)
“If only he'd been died from that motorcycle accident in 1966…his brilliant creations would have been unsullied by his later fumblings…. He would have died a true saint and we wouldn't have had to deal with his subsequent messy, confusing final decades.”
要是他在1966年的機車事故中喪生了，他無人能及的天才創作，也就不會被他後來那些胡言亂語遮蔽玷汙了…他就可以成為我們心中完美無瑕的聖者；我們也可以不必還在這邊，搞不定他接下來幾十年裡亂七八糟、不知所云的東西。(P. 316)
Dalton 對 Dylan 拳拳到肉、刀刀見骨的批判，讀來真是大快人心，卻又同時令我心中淌血：
“You can't compare Dylan with anybody else, especially with his old self, much less with other pop stars. He is a living bodhisattva, carrier of the sacred reliquary of the‘60s. His shows are a bit like trundling the image of a saint from fair to fair in the Middle Ages.”
你不可能拿任何其他人來和 Dylan 相提並論，尤其不能拿過去的他，和如今的他自己互相比對，就更別提其他的流行大咖了。他是當代活佛，一九六零年代文化聖骨匣的「捧斗人」。他永無休止的演唱會，有點像是中世紀時期，從一個市集到另一個市集，走唱搬演的「神蹟劇」。一個殉教者的芻像，在舞台上危危顫顫地演出。(p. 333)
特別值得記載於此幾句「重磅實錘」的定論，摘自 Dalton 此書的最後三章，論及 Dylan 喜歡在演唱會上，自以為是地胡謅瞎唱，惡搞所有他為大眾清晰記憶的經典歌曲，讓聽眾倒盡胃口。
“Usually the melodies are gone, the singing is often staccato, small phrases stripped of their singable singnatures….it was nearly impossible to make out the words if you didn't already know them….I kept thinking that if any of these classic tunes came out in the form they were performed here, they'd have been long forgotten.”
原來的歌曲旋律都不見了，而且唱得斷斷續續，只聽見一些無法串連辨認、支離破碎的樂句…你要不是早已熟記在心，否則根本不可能知道他在唱什麼…我一直在想，如果 Dylan 當年的那些經典名曲，以他今天的方式來演唱的話，早就被人忘光光了。(p. 332, Dalton引自美國國家廣播電台音樂主持人Bob Boilen的評論。)
再看下一句令人毛骨悚然的評論。Dalton 此處特別引用的是，半世紀以來，至今仍是最權威 Dylanology 巨著，《Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan》三巨冊的音樂史家Michael Gray 對他的評價：
“[Michael Gray] sees Dylan as a sort of effigy of himself, ‘a little wooden figure not so much going through the motions as being conveyed along them like an object on an assembly line.’”
在 Michael Gray 眼中，如今的 Dylan 只是一尊他自己的芻像，「不只是隨便做做樣子而已，還更像是傳動帶上面搖頭晃腦的一個小木偶。」(p. 333)
在昔日熱血鐵粉 Gray 的筆下，今天的 Dylan 已經像個沒有血肉靈魂的芻像，一尊自己的芻像，在不停向前滾動的輸送帶上，僵硬呆板地擺動手腳，張口發出嘈雜的怪聲，日復一日進行著刪除所有粉絲共同情感記憶的過時「神蹟劇」。
嗚呼哀哉！
(未完待續…)
