The times they ARE a changin’

As a marketing professional, my clients naturally expect me to deliver marketing services. Were I to offer plumbing or surgical services, they’d probably be taken aback.

Simultaneously, as a writer I’m expected to try new things and push my own limits. Doing the same thing, day after day, will bore both you and me.

And because it’s experimental, some of my writing will be successful, other times not so much.

Artistic experimentation can be a good thing. Without it we’d have no Sistine Chapel ceiling or Mona Lisa.

So it is with all creative folks, who push the envelope and have both the occasional hit and the occasional failure.

This jumped to mind when I heard of Bob Dylan’s new album, “Shadows in the Night.”

Dylan, who made his career singing such classics as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Blood on the Tracks,” has started singing the great American songbook.

My two cents is it’s a mistake.

Dylan made his bones singing protest music with Joan Baez, guiding both the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.

He has a 50-year relationship with his audience, and they are entitled to have certain expectations fulfilled. Mimicking Frank Sinatra doesn’t fit that mold at all.

Sinatra holds a justifiably large place in the music world, but his style is not what we’d anticipate from Dylan. He might have succeeded in a duet with Tony Bennett, but echoing ol’ Blue Eyes? It just doesn’t work for me.

I fully respect Dylan’s desire to try new things. If he’d pulled a Paul Simon, incorporating African rhythms with American folk music, I’d probably have been first in line to buy it.

And maybe I should have seen this coming when I saw him shilling for Chrysler, Chobani, Apple and Victoria’s Secret.

But somehow the guy who sang “Tears of Rage” now singing “Autumn Leaves” strikes me as a bad career move.

Admittedly, he’s not asking me for career advice.

At 73 he wants to try something new. Maybe transitioning from “It Ain’t Me Babe” to “Some Enchanted Evening” will succeed.

Yet as a customer to whom you made a lifetime of promises, I’ve gotta tell you: You ain’t goin’ nowhere with this one, Bob.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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