Bob Dylan and American Idol

(See here) as reported by MSN the latest developments on the hit American TV show American Idol.

First, let me thank American Idol for delivering "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson to the American airwaves. I did not realize that this song owes its hitting the airwaves to American Idol. I really love the female voice in song and Kelly Clarkson owns a good one.

But what I want to know is whether American Idol possesses the ability to deliver to the American People a new voice such as Bob Dylan? Can American Idol rise to the level it will provide a new American Hero that sing songs that wrench at the American conscience like Bob Dylan did with his generation?

Every generation needs a Bob Dylan. I have yet to see anything out of "Generation X" or "Generation Y" that rises to the level of Bob Dylan.

Yeah, yeah, Bob Dylan was not perfect. Bob has sought to distance himself from his position as "voice of a generation". At times I sometimes think that Bob, too, is willing to sell out on us. I am waiting to see if Bob, in his present endeavors, can still be the voice of a generation and just what he thinks that voice should say. Is (was) Bob Dylan something special? Or was he just another facade that was out to make a buck?

I do not hold much hope for American Idol to present us with a "new voice" within the political spectrum. Bob Dylan would never have won the competition. His voice was not pretty enough, his physical aspect was not perfect enough.

Nowadays we try to submerge any group of artists that dare to take a position on any political position like what happened to the Dixie Chicks. Them Dixie Chicks had beautiful voices and they put together beautiful music. But because they dared express an opinion?

Perhaps I am being selfish, but I want songwriters who write and sing their own songs. I want artists who sing out to me on the radio songs that tear at my conscience.

When I did a google of one of my favorite songs from the old years I discovered that, after all, one of the songs I attributed to Bob Dylan came from Neil Young. It goes:

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming

We're finally on our own

This summer I hear the drumming

Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it / Soldiers cutting us down; Should've been done long ago .... What if you knew her / And found her dead on the ground; how can you run when you know?"

I wonder what Neil Young has been up to recently? Perhaps he has not sold out on us like Bob Dylan may have?

Perhaps America needs a new TV program called "Canadian Idol"? (Neil Young was/is a Canadian!)