A female artist to compare with Dylan?

beaker
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Tue May 15, 2012 10:54 am

From my perspective, to compare another musician to Bob Dylan I would have to think of an artist who has written many quality original songs that have a high degree of consistency. I am speaking both in terms of lyrical content and musical content and arrangement. If I had to pick a woman who fits this criteria, my best suggestion would be Joni Mitchell because she has many very well written, thoughtful songs. She is an artist not a pop singer. That is why I would choose Joni over a pop star like Madonna. But I don't think even Joni Matches up because her body of work is not as large, and overall I don't think she is quite as iconic. Bob Dylan himself said that in the future the person he may be compared to is Elvis ( I know, not a woman).


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neverfoundthetime
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Tue May 15, 2012 11:08 am

Maybe if we put a skirt on Donovan we could get a half-pint-sized English Dylan?

And you are just rattling the cage with Madonna, right Tony? She just triggers a major cringe effect in me, I'm afraid. :(


jimcjimc
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Tue May 15, 2012 1:32 pm

neverfoundthetime wrote:
Maybe if we put a skirt on Donovan we could get a half-pint-sized English Dylan?

And you are just rattling the cage with Madonna, right Tony? She just triggers a major cringe effect in me, I'm afraid. :(
Yes, we need more cage rattling :laugh: . And, just in case the Aussies are being modest. I will nominate

Olivia Newton-John


tovo
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Tue May 15, 2012 1:43 pm

neverfoundthetime wrote:
And you are just rattling the cage with Madonna, right Tony? She just triggers a major cringe effect in me, I'm afraid. :(
No not at all. I'm just trying to generate a good discussion not stir people up. Really I don't think that anyone, regardless of gender, truly compares with Dylan in terms of influence but there's Dylan and then there's others who have had a massive influence. I don't think you can dismiss Madonna in this regard. There are many artists that don't do anything for me personally but I have to acknowledge the impact they have had.


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neverfoundthetime
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Tue May 15, 2012 5:38 pm

I know you're not stirring things up Tony ;) I just can't get past my knee-jerk reaction to Madonna.

I'd hold up Gordon Lightfoot to Dylan in volume and content. I recognise Dylan as the bard for sure and so many of his songs have been covered by so many others so he is a song-writing genius ... I just love Gordo's stuff much more.


carpet
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Tue May 15, 2012 6:05 pm

Donovan is Scottish, so the skirt is already there muahaha (I can say that cos I am too).

I was gonna say Joni Mitchell for sure, but Alanis Morissette also crossed my mind - very original and must've been a huge influence on all modern and modernish female guitarist singer/songwriters.


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Tue May 15, 2012 6:55 pm

She's of a totally different generation from Joni and Bob, and not as well known to the general public, but Ani Difranco has had a huge influence on young, female (and probably some male) musicians, in both the folk and alternative scene. Her style is very unique and she started her own label far before that was common. She's also a feminist icon and, despite being in her early 40s, has a big following amongst young women.



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neverfoundthetime
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Wed May 16, 2012 5:45 am

Donovan is Scottish, so the skirt is already there muahaha (I can say that cos I am too).
Of course, Donovan is Scottish... then I need to claim him as British instead of English!
Its pretty neat that he thus comes with a skirt :-).

Ani Difranco is a powder keg, that's for sure Suzi!


dburns99
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Wed May 16, 2012 7:10 am

suziko wrote:
She's of a totally different generation from Joni and Bob, and not as well known to the general public, but Ani Difranco has had a huge influence on young, female (and probably some male) musicians, in both the folk and alternative scene. Her style is very unique and she started her own label far before that was common. She's also a feminist icon and, despite being in her early 40s, has a big following amongst young women.

Been in love with Ani for almost 20 yrs....so yeah.....probably some males.


suziko
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Wed May 16, 2012 7:29 am

suziko wrote:
She's of a totally different generation from Joni and Bob, and not as well known to the general public, but Ani Difranco has had a huge influence on young, female (and probably some male) musicians, in both the folk and alternative scene. Her style is very unique and she started her own label far before that was common. She's also a feminist icon and, despite being in her early 40s, has a big following amongst young women.



dburns99 wrote: Been in love with Ani for almost 20 yrs....so yeah.....probably some males.


I realize Ani has plenty of male as well as female fans. :) She's beautiful, talented, smart and witty- what's not to like? I meant in my previous statement that I know she's had a huge influence musically on many contemporary female artists. It's entirely possible she's had an influence on male artists as well. For example, I remember having a talk with Cori (lueders) about some of the back and forth songs between Ani and Greg Brown (eg. "This Bouquet" from Ani, "Vivid" from GB and "The Marriage Chant" from both).


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