Expecting Rain

Subterranean Homesick Blues

A person wrote me a breathless email to let me know that Subterranean Homesick Blues was the first rap song. I never thought that myself, but I can go along with the idea. It's interesting what insights Bob's songs give to people.

The Answer is Blowin' In the Wind, A Bob Dylan Lyric Quiz

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I´m not sure what the exact qualifications are. But can Hot Rod Lincoln by Charlie Ryan be considered as rap?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MS9fk1u6kA

How many early rappers have ever claimed to have been inspired by 'Subterrenean homesick blues'?

See: Berry, Chuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyipWCVP ... re=related

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absurd. it is just a different kind of rock. just because the rhyming lyrics are delivered rapid-fire it is supposed to be a rap song??

-justin

Exactly. Anyone who claims that Bob Dylan "invented" rap obviously lacks a fundamental understanding of rap/hip-hop music and its cultural history.

One can have "a fundamental understanding of rap/hip-hop music and its cultural history"? Is this a new liberal arts college music appreciation course?

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Only for people who think that white baby-boomers invented everything. Anyone who believes that should listen to Bob's radio show. You can trace what Bob was doing on SHB straight back to Chuck Berry then to Louis Jordan then to Cab Calloway. Plus I'm sure a ton of other people I'm missing along the way.

We did!!! We did!!!

John McLaughlin invented fire, Queen Jane invented sarcasm and Over the Hill invented disapproval.

Claudette, as we know, invented the hoochie-coochie (I'd post the video but I don't want to get banned again).

Of the stuff that's left me & the Rev in about a 30%/70% split.

the first rap song was unfortunately edited by those darned biblical knob-heads who re-wrote moses original lyrics:

heres some tablets made o' stone
one a day and you'll atone
the word o' gord is here alone

dig it israelites, get down wid it
false idols kiss my ass....

dont diss no brothers bitches
never scratch no itches
dont go givin' the eye to yr bro
covet his ass or that of his ho

dig it israelites, get down wid it
sodomites to hell wid it....

some day soon come a dude called jeez
he gonna make the whole world sneeze
but first be locusts plagues and such
so boot up yr taxi get on the bus

(dont burn mah bush bitch, its a game for suckas)

these tablets gotta be taken once a day
thats the moses way i say
get with the hood down egypt way
n' yr first borns mine (by the way)



and so on -


desmond dekker adapted it but the original beeswax recording by Bro' Mose (only one known copy) is in a refrigerated japanese safe along with the first ramones demos and a copy of the i-ching bound in human skin. the verse about chopping bits of willie off has been banned for reasons of national security....

respect y'all - word to the herd

Isn't Rap a form of "Talkin' Blues?" Well that is all that bob is about in a way. In most of his songs he is "Talking in a way" Although Nashville Skyline was the closest Bob got the being a Country Crooner...

Charley Patton's recording of O Death is at least as good a candidate as Dylan's Chuck Berry imitation, and it was recorded in 1934.

The rhymed sermon dates back to at least Jupiter Hammon, born around 1711, died around 1805. Hammon, Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton (b. circa 1797) especially, are all important source points for what we now term "rapping."

Be assured, whoever may have been the first rapper, it was most definitely not a white person.

I googled the history so I know this is true, first there was pre-history, then white baby-boomers, then enlightenment.

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That's how I always heard it.

White people... woo....

That's right. Everyone with any REAL cultural knowledge knows that it was Lou Reed. He even wrote a horrible song about it, and makes sure to point it out every chance he gets.

Plenty of blues singers were doing rap songs as far back as the twenties.

Yes, SHB is a rap song, no doubt & I'm sure Ice T or Chuck D would agree...

But hey....anyone heard "Too Much Monkey Business?" (apart from Long Johnny) - Chuck Berry.

Do you people listen to ONLY Bob Dylan?