The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : A deal that is no surprise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 01, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A deal that is no surprise

Mike Marqusee

Bob Dylan's struggle to shed his association with early-1960s idealism will not blunt the irony of Starbucks' announcement.

"ONE MORE cup of coffee before I go/To the valley below ..." Will Starbucks customers be dwelling on death's incoming darkness as they sip their mocha frappuccinos and listen to Bob Dylan?

Clearly the coffee house chain is confident that its appeal can withstand even the most mordant Dylan lyric. It has just announced a deal for the exclusive marketing rights to a new Dylan CD, or rather a new release of one of Dylan's earliest recorded concerts, a historic performance at the Gaslight coffee house in New York's Greenwich Village in the autumn of 1962.

The alliance will dispirit many of the master's fans, but it should come as no surprise. Dylan has been at war with his protest image since at least 1964, when he publicly renounced the Left and "the movement." He has flirted with Christian fundamentalism, played the White House and the Vatican, let a bank use "The Times They Are A-Changin" as a TV jingle and starred in a lingerie advert. "I used to care, but things have changed," he drawled bleakly in one of his later songs. The Starbucks deal seems to confirm that self-assessment.

But Dylan's struggle to shed his association with early-1960s idealism will not blunt the irony of Starbucks' announcement. Coffee houses such as the Gaslight were once breeding grounds of dissent and nonconformity. The espresso was cheap, the furnishings improvised and the music defiantly non-commercial.

With its corporate regimentation and single-minded dedication to maximising profit, Starbucks is diametrically opposed to the ethos of the Gaslight. In fact its cut-throat policies have pushed independent coffee houses out of business. Yet it likes to present itself as the inheritor of the old coffee-house ambience — informal, hip and socially responsible. In other words, it has a huge investment in persuading us all that it is something it is not. And that is one reason why it is willing to pay handsomely to be linked to folk-era Dylan.

Long ago, Dylan warned us about heroes with feet of clay: "Don't follow leaders, watch your parkin' meters ... " Regardless of his apparent determination to demean his own artistry, in his great songs he offers an enduring indictment of the tyranny of commodities: "Money doesn't talk, it swears." So when the apocalyptic lyrics of Hard Rain ring out at Starbucks later this summer, they may not carry the same charge as they did at the Gaslight in 1962, but they'll still challenge anyone who really listens to take a step beyond caffeine-hyped consumerism. —

(Mike Marqusee's Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the Sixties, a revised version of his Chimes of Freedom, will be published in the autumn.)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

A partnership on a fast track

Towards sustainable development

A Bill that takes away more than it gives

Health as someone else's wealth

For a new paradigm

India is entering uncharted, risky territory

A deal that is no surprise