GHANA’S BOB DYLAN, GUESS WHO?

It is hard to claim too much for a man who in every way revolutionized modern poetry, American folk music, popular music and the whole of modern-day thought; even the strong-artists have the power to actually change our lives, but surely Dylan does-and has.  Such was the words used in describing Bob Dylan. Try guessing who you can attribute these qualities to among Ghanaian artists.

Following the foot steps of Dylan your mind is tune to the qualities and inspiration themes of his music.  Bob Dylan has been called a prophet, a poet, a genius, and a Christ at various times in his career. He has been seen as an angry young rebel, a bitter, lashing oracle of the impending doomsday, a self-satisfied artist expounding the joys of salvation, and finally a true messiah leading us into the new consciousness. In short, Bob Dylan has been a powerful force on the social and political conscience of an entire generation.

I know by now you would be fighting with your thought to know the Ghanaian equivalent of Bob Dylan. The answer will elude even the most elucidated Ghanaian music journalist. Considering the fact that in the late summer of 1967, 200,000 young people from both sides of the Atlantic gathered on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel to pay tribute to a man they had long followed. The crowd waited in poor facilities through two days of preliminary concerts and adverse weather conditions, making clear their commitment to the performer they had come to see. Though the performance lasted less than an hour and was three hours late, the huge audience was wild with enthusiasm, caught willingly in the magic of the words and sounds of this prophet they had oftened turned to.

In the quest to find out the Ghanaian Bob Dylan, where can one turned for clues. Turning the Ghanaian history pages of music we find the likes of Osibisa, Ephrim Amo, and Philp Gbgeho among others. But turning the contemporary pages of music you can hardly come up with a name.

When an old man sitting in his chair remarks that youth of today aren’t listing to better music, it is because he has listen to the likes of Bob Dylan. He knows how it fired and inspired their generation. 

If we are to thump our chest and say the old man is wrong as Ghanaians, we better be ready to  come up with name of a musician who has rally the youth  and gave them hope, change the course of music and history, served as the light of a civil movement and voice of the oppressed.  Only then can we say the old man was wrong.  Guess who the Ghanaian Bob Dylan is? I am still searching, maybe you know.