????鮑勃?迪倫能夠激勵(lì)人心嗎,？作為資深迪倫粉絲，我的答案是確定無(wú)疑,。上世紀(jì)80年代初期,，我還是一名少年吉他迷。那時(shí)我就開(kāi)始聽(tīng)迪倫的音樂(lè),。當(dāng)時(shí)我發(fā)現(xiàn)了《放任自流的鮑勃?迪倫》（The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan）,，這張專輯在我出生前兩年發(fā)行。我會(huì)坐在當(dāng)時(shí)所念寄宿學(xué)校的宿舍里,，在自己的先鋒卡帶機(jī)上著魔似地按倒帶和播放鍵,，直到搞清楚迪倫在寫(xiě)給前女友的甜苦情歌《不必多想，一切會(huì)好》（Don't Think Twice, It's All Right）中所使用的彈撥技巧,。

????當(dāng)時(shí)我的情感經(jīng)歷還是一張白紙,，所以這首歌為何會(huì)對(duì)我具有如此大的感染力，原因并不明顯。原因并不是因?yàn)榈蟼愂俏夷且淮说穆曇?。?dāng)然,，前提是這個(gè)詞如果可以拿來(lái)描述我們這撥成長(zhǎng)于里根時(shí)代、遠(yuǎn)離政治的預(yù)科生的話,。但是,，跟大多數(shù)同齡人一樣，我夢(mèng)想著有一天能夠在全世界留下自己的印記,。迪倫在那方面似乎很有一套,，讀一讀他在上世紀(jì)60年代以及之后的功績(jī)，無(wú)論是從誠(chéng)摯的民謠歌手到憤怒的搖滾歌手,，從暗諷的嬉皮士到和悅的講述者,，還是從圣愚到褪色的藍(lán)調(diào)樂(lè)手，他看起來(lái)總能領(lǐng)先同代人一步,。我十分欣賞他這一點(diǎn),。像所有偉大的演員一樣，迪倫在扮演每一個(gè)角色時(shí)都具有絕對(duì)的說(shuō)服力,，但接著他就又轉(zhuǎn)移到新的角色中去了,。

????當(dāng)然，迪倫的角色詮釋之所以有趣,，只是因?yàn)樗囊魳?lè)非常偉大,。我從高中畢業(yè)已近30年，當(dāng)我聽(tīng)到極具超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義風(fēng)格的《地下鄉(xiāng)愁藍(lán)調(diào)》（Subterranean Homesick Blues）,、阿爾?庫(kù)珀在《像一塊滾石》（Like A Rolling Stone）開(kāi)篇小節(jié)那高亢的電子琴前奏,、迪倫在《弱者的歌謠》（Ballad of a Thin Man）中猛烈地詰問(wèn)瓊斯先生、自己從《血之軌跡》（Blood on the Tracks）——插一句,，這是我買(mǎi)過(guò)的分手主題專輯中最棒的一張——任意挑選一段進(jìn)行彈奏,，我仍然會(huì)感到興奮。

????在我最喜愛(ài)的一首歌曲中,，迪倫寫(xiě)道：“當(dāng)救護(hù)車(chē)已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)去,，最后唯一剩下的聲響，只有灰姑娘,，在那條荒涼小街上,，默默地掃地?！蔽覐奈醋哌^(guò)那《荒涼小街》（Desolation Row）,，而迪倫自己也沒(méi)有。但對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō),，它就跟《阿爾丁森林》（The Forest of Arden）,，或簡(jiǎn)?奧斯汀筆下攝政時(shí)期英國(guó)的村落和莊園，或托馬斯?品欽筆下的占領(lǐng)區(qū)一樣真實(shí)。在我心目中,，這些虛構(gòu)的地方在某種程度上比我前往雜貨店時(shí)走過(guò)的街道更為真實(shí),，因?yàn)槲腋雨P(guān)心前者。

????所以沒(méi)錯(cuò),，迪倫確實(shí)激勵(lì)了我,。但他的這種激勵(lì)是否是那種予人動(dòng)力、勵(lì)志自助的激勵(lì)呢,？作為一位文化人物,，鮑勃?迪倫是否能夠跟霍雷肖?阿爾杰、戴爾?卡耐基,、托尼?羅賓斯,、史蒂芬?柯維以及奧普拉?溫弗瑞這些人相提并論？我們是否應(yīng)該參照迪倫的生活和工作來(lái)尋找結(jié)交朋友,、影響他人以及如何謀生這些問(wèn)題的答案呢,？

????是的，財(cái)經(jīng)網(wǎng)站市場(chǎng)觀察（MarketWatch.com）的專欄作家喬恩?弗里德曼就是這種觀點(diǎn),。他在《忘記今天：鮑勃?迪倫在（再）發(fā)明創(chuàng)造、遠(yuǎn)離懷疑論者以及發(fā)起個(gè)人革命上的天賦》（Forget About Today: Bob Dylan's Genius For (Re)Invention, Shunning the Naysayers, and Creating a Personal Revolution）一書(shū)中寫(xiě)道：“我認(rèn)為,，憑著他那不可思議的天賦,，迪倫能夠向人們提供人生教益。弗里德曼試圖通過(guò)活潑,、簡(jiǎn)短的章節(jié)來(lái)證明自己的觀點(diǎn),，這些章節(jié)從迪倫那載入史冊(cè)的漫長(zhǎng)音樂(lè)生涯中截取特定的片段，并從中提取出道德教益,。

????Is Bob Dylan inspiring? As a lifelong Dylan fan, my answer is yes, absolutely. I started listening to Dylan as a teenage guitar nerd in the early 1980s, when I discovered The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, an album released two years before my birth. I would sit in my dorm room at boarding school, obsessively hitting rewind-play on my Pioneer cassette deck until I figured out the picking pattern that Dylan used in "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," his bittersweet sendoff to an ex-lover.

????I had zero romantic experience at the time, so it's not obvious why that particular song affected me so much. It's not like Dylan was the voice of my generation, if you can apply that portentous word to a bunch of politically disengaged preppy kids growing up in the Reagan era. But like most teenagers, I dreamed about one day putting my mark on the world. Dylan seemed cool that way: Reading about his exploits in the Sixties and later, I loved how he always seemed to stay at least one step ahead of his own generation, mutating from earnest folkie to angry rocker, from snide hipster to genial country raconteur, from holy fool to weathered bluesman. Like all great actors, he inhabited each new role with absolute conviction and then moved on to the next one.

????Dylan's role-playing is only interesting, of course, because his music is so strong. I've been out of high school for nearly 30 years, and I still get excited when I hear the breakneck surrealism of "Subterranean Homesick Blues", or when Al Kooper's towering organ riff kicks in during the opening bars of "Like A Rolling Stone," or when Dylan savages the hapless Mr. Jones in "Ballad of a Thin Man," or when I play anything off Blood on the Tracks, for my money the best breakup album of all time.

????In one of my favorite Dylan songs, he writes: "And the only sound that's left/After the ambulances go/Is Cinderella sweeping up/On Desolation Row." I've never walked down Desolation Row, and neither has Dylan. But it's just as real to me as the Forest of Arden, or the villages and manor houses of Jane Austen's Regency England, or Thomas Pynchon's Zone. In some ways, these fictional places seem more real than the physical streets that I navigate on my way to the grocery store, because I care about them more.

????So yeah, Dylan inspires me. But is he inspiring in a motivational, self-help-ish kind of way? As a cultural figure, does he belong on the same list as Horatio Alger, Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins, Steven Covey, and Oprah Winfrey? Should we consult Dylan's life and work for answers on how to win friends, influence people, and locate our cheese?

????Yes, argues MarketWatch.com columnist Jon Friedman. "I think Dylan can teach people life lessons based on his mysterious genius," he writes on page one of Forget About Today: Bob Dylan's Genius For (Re)Invention, Shunning the Naysayers, and Creating a Personal Revolution.Friedman attempts to prove his case with short, zippy chapters that extract morals from particular episodes in Dylan's long and relentlessly chronicled career.