Candles versus lightbulbs

In watching the movie about Bob Dylan's move from folk into experimenting with other forms of music, a couple of lines in the script struck me quite forcibly (Mangold & Cocks, 2024). They arise when Bob Dylan is being confronted by Pete Seegar in the Viking Motel room full of musicians and other "movers and shakers" prior to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival towards the end of the movie (O'Shaughnessy, 1873). There is some to-ing and fro-ing about how Bob Dylan's musical oeuvre is changing, with Pete suggesting Bob is letting down the folk team, and Bob getting angry about being confined in a musical genre box by Pete. The implication is that Bob wants to play some of his new music on electric guitar (Mangold & Cocks, 2024). 

Bob's agent, Albert Grossman says to Pete: “You’re scared that the kids out on that lawn [at the folk festival] might like it.”

“And why would I be afraid of that?” retorts Pete.

"Because you’re pushing candles and he’s selling light bulbs.” (Mangold & Cocks, 2024, 1:53:40)

Wow. "You're pushing candles and he's selling light bulbs" (Mangold & Cocks, 2024, 1:53:40). What a line! What brevity in conveying the two worlds that are appearing, and the chasm yawning wider between those worlds. 

It is a masterful summation of what happens when the world moves on. One of us is left with the old technology, the classics, the tried and true, the traditional way of doing things; while the other is heading for the new, bright and shiny thing, the edgy, the fresh, the novel and the sharp. Neither is wrong: but neither is right either.

Really, this is just a difference in approach. But change is what happens when we develop. And when we develop, we grow in ways that are not necessarily predictable. We are unlikely to stay in the same place: we are likely to evolve.

And that will upset some people who want us to remain the same. 

Sam

References:

Mangold, J (Writer, Director), & Cocks, J. (Writer). (2024). A Complete Unknown [motion picture]. Searchlight Pictures.

O'Shaughnessy, A. E. W. (1873). Ode. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54933/ode-