Bob Dylan & Business - "Play It .... Loud"

Robert Allen Zimmerman, more widely known as Bob Dylan, is one of the greatest recording artists of the last century. A giant of popular culture whose music was front and centre of the new counterculture that took hold in the 60’s.

A poet, a literary genius, he’s even won a Nobel Prize for his art and was revered in folk circles.

But few, other than geeky musos such as myself, will have heard of the 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall concert.

Dylan had decided to split his concerts into two parts; acoustic and solo for the first half and electric with the Band for the second. Dylan had built a passionate fan base dedicated to the folk scene and his move into using electric guitars and a new sound, infuriated crowds.

In this clip here, a member of the audience shouts “Judas” at him, just as they begin “Like A Rolling Stone”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrlLDG0ynU

His response? To call the audience member a liar then turn to his band and say “play it f**king loud!”. It’s one of the great moments in popular music, a two-finger salute to the nay-sayers.

Many years later, one of the claimants to have shouted at Dylan, asked about his reaction at the time, replied, "I kind of think: 'You silly young bugger’”.

--------------------------------------

We live in a society right now where it seems difficult to blow against the wind. Groupthink, the inability to speak freely and openly, the closing down of debate, are all dangerous to a modern, connected world. They are dangerous to us at our companies.

As we move further into an incredible year for Business, the Dylan story reminds me of a number of things we should be cognisant of, not just in Security or Engineering, but our companies as a whole.

• Take a chance to succeed - let’s disrupt and not do what’s ‘easy’ or popular
• Don’t follow the herd
• Groupthink is dangerous - try and understand when it’s happening and challenge it
• Have integrity and do what you feel is right
• Don’t be frightened of presenting brave new ideas; “A man with new ideas is a madman, until his ideas triumph.”

You won’t please all of the people all of the time, but sometimes you just have to turn to your band and say “play it f**king loud”