Kesha. Let’s not go into the Dr. Luke thing again. A court dismissed her claims last month and moving on — on her terms — is what she’s doing. She just proved it at the Billboard Music Awards, coming out with a measured, poignant performance of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” It was Dylan after all, in another famous song, who wrote that “he not busy being born is busy dying.” Kesha looked born again on the BBMA stage — new sound, new era, new woman, new purpose. It spoke to her resilience, just the way Dylan’s defiant lyrics speak to an independent mind. If her former music business masters want Kesha to step in line, she has a response from Dylan at her disposal: it ain’t me babe. It ain’t me you’re looking for, babe.
Just now Kesha’s defining who she isn’t, and planting the seeds of who she will be. The first is a gift from Dylan — those incendiary words to hang her righteous obstinacy on. The second will be her own creation. As yet another Dylan lyric has it: “Someday everything’s gonna be different, when I paint my masterpiece.” And so with Kesha. See below:
