Apparently Will.I.Am is The Bob Dylan of Our Generation
June 17, 2009
Apparently Will.I.Am is The Bob Dylan of Our Generation
Tim Wambolt Acknowledges the Similarities
After watching the Pepsi commercial where Will.I.Am is crowned the Bob Dylan of our generation, I felt obligated to investigate why my favorite lyricist of all time was being recycled into a member of The Black Eyed Peas.
Looking deeper into this matter, I discovered that both Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am actually do have a lot in common. For example, they have both won musical awards. Bob Dylan won the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Grammys and he also won the Pulitzer Prize for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power from the literary world. And Will-I-Am shared the Nickelodeon Blimp Award with the three other members of his music group, The Black Eyed Peas, given at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards for favorite kids' music group of 2007. So maybe this commerical is accurate, maybe Will.I.Am really is this generation's Bob Dylan:
Now with that video in mind, let's go ahead and take a closer look at all the many similarities in their lyrics.
Both Lyricists express a great deal of originality in thier writing:
Originality:
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
Originality:
And we don't party hardly, we just party hard
And not because we bored, we party 'cause we born to party
We gonna move our bodies, with our hands in the air
And wave 'em all around, like we just don't care
Both Lyricists use creative metaphors:
Metaphors:
"Equality," I spoke the word, as if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
Metaphors:
She got a big o' butt (Damn!) I like the way she move it
Come be my buttercup and let me double scoop it
Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am both express emotional realizations with subtlety:
Darkness at the break of noon, shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon, eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon, here is no sense in trying
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn, suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn, plays wasted words
proves to warn, that he not busy being born, is busy dying
CHUNKY!
I Like Em Big, I Like Em Chunky (ChunkY!)
I like em big, I like em plumpy (PLUMPY!)
I Like em round, wit something something (SOMETHING!)
Aint Nothing Wrong Wit Loving Chunky
CHUNKY!
Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am both make premonitions regarding the changing future:
Come gather 'round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Imma be brilliant wit my millions
Loanin out a billion, I get back a trillion
Imma be a brother, but my name ain’t Leemin
Imma be ya banker loading out semen
Honeys in debt, but we bouncin them checks
I don’t really mind when they bouncin them checks
Imma be, imma be imma be imma be Rich
Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am also both ponder the past:
I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
whether Judas Iscariot had god on his side
I collect the dough, see me in a Will.I.Am suit
But I wasn't that cute when I didn't have the loot
And I smoke herb but I'm still real nice with the verse
So hey, fuck what ya heard
Both Lyricists have written expressions of dissapointment in others:
As some warn victory, some downfall, private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call, to make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all, except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark, as human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark, to flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far, that not much is really sacred.
It's the funk that make you jump, sexy honies shake they hump
Got them dummies spendin money just to get up in yo' junk
Both Dylan and Will.I.Am have often written lyrics about money:
They say that patriotism is the last refuge, to which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king
Let me ask you one question, is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could
I think you will find, when your death takes its toll
All the money you made will never buy back your soul
Girl I love yo special way so go help me spend my money
Now baby look I got nothing but money, honey
I ain't try to buy you I just wanna buy you all them things
That you always wanted girl so let's go shopping
Both Dylan and Will.I.Am have written lyrics on the subject of dancing:
Take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
If I could work it out
Then that means I must be the luckiest nigga in the house
'Cause your donque is steady Po-po-po-po-poking out
She got the donque (yeah...)
Now baby make it sway, just make them hips
Pop-pop-pop-pop and do ya thang
And last but not least, the subject that all great lyricists write about; love:
Ramona, come closer, shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city though breathlike, get deathlike at times
And there's no use in tryin' to deal with the dyin', though I cannot explain that in lines
I met a girl down at the disco, she said hey, hey, hey let’s go
I could be your baby, you can be my honey, lets spend time not money
I mix your milk wit my cocoa puff, milky, milky cocoa
Mix your milk with my cocoa puff, milky, milky right
Conclusion:
Sorry Pepsi, but the moral of the story is, (and please digg this article with the button below if you agree with me) that even if you were to take every single lyric that Will.I.Am has ever written in all of his notebooks and gathered them all together in a large file cabinet to be combined together into one giant song, Bob Dylan could still write something better just by jacking off onto the side of that file cabinet and rearranging the letter magnets with his cum!
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