Another Look at Bob Dylan
I wasn't going to say any more for now, but I have to talk about this on-line chat with the writer of the newsweek article/interview (which you can find somewhere on that vast and confusing web site if you look around).
It's always struck me, this. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking I have an instinctive understanding of Bob Dylan. Not just his early music, but all his music. And, no matter what his demeanour on stage, I was always with him, understanding the humour in what he does, both on record and on stage.
And, as I said, I'm pretty sure the fans contributing questions to the on-line discussion feel that they, too, instinctively understand Dylan. But then they go and ask the same, dumb, obvious questions, over and over. Like this: "Will the film 'Eat the Document' be released anytime soon?"
Not forgetting the perpetual fascination with the "3 important subjects":... "His motorcycle accident in 1966 (was it a pretext to sober up?), his first divorce and his Christian phase. Did you ask him about that? What did he say?"
It must be hard is hearing idiots asking him the same questions, over and over again, for 40 years.
In his replies to the questions, David Gates implies a lot of the same frustration. I'm personally chuffed that Dylan has chosen to write, in this first volume, about New Morning - because it's one of my favourites. As perverse as he always has been, of course he's going to ignore the ones everyone always bangs on about, and talk about something else. It's like when he was at Live Aid, he couldn't resist mentioning the plight of American farmers (hence the subsequent Farm Aid).
His life follows the same pattern. They mark him as a protest singer, so he releases Another Side... as a protest against that. They mark him as a folkie, so he goes electric. They mark him as the spokesman for a generation, an enigma, a visionary, and he releases Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. When are people going to pay attention?
Someone publishes an article about a lucid, open, friendly chat he's had with Dylan, and a "fan" asks, "Dylan seems like an extremely difficult interview subject, even all these years later. What was the game plan for your session with him, and did you approach the interview with any trepidation?"
What the fuck?
It's always struck me, this. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking I have an instinctive understanding of Bob Dylan. Not just his early music, but all his music. And, no matter what his demeanour on stage, I was always with him, understanding the humour in what he does, both on record and on stage.
And, as I said, I'm pretty sure the fans contributing questions to the on-line discussion feel that they, too, instinctively understand Dylan. But then they go and ask the same, dumb, obvious questions, over and over. Like this: "Will the film 'Eat the Document' be released anytime soon?"
Not forgetting the perpetual fascination with the "3 important subjects":... "His motorcycle accident in 1966 (was it a pretext to sober up?), his first divorce and his Christian phase. Did you ask him about that? What did he say?"
It must be hard is hearing idiots asking him the same questions, over and over again, for 40 years.
In his replies to the questions, David Gates implies a lot of the same frustration. I'm personally chuffed that Dylan has chosen to write, in this first volume, about New Morning - because it's one of my favourites. As perverse as he always has been, of course he's going to ignore the ones everyone always bangs on about, and talk about something else. It's like when he was at Live Aid, he couldn't resist mentioning the plight of American farmers (hence the subsequent Farm Aid).
His life follows the same pattern. They mark him as a protest singer, so he releases Another Side... as a protest against that. They mark him as a folkie, so he goes electric. They mark him as the spokesman for a generation, an enigma, a visionary, and he releases Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. When are people going to pay attention?
Someone publishes an article about a lucid, open, friendly chat he's had with Dylan, and a "fan" asks, "Dylan seems like an extremely difficult interview subject, even all these years later. What was the game plan for your session with him, and did you approach the interview with any trepidation?"
What the fuck?
posted by Anonymous at
Friday, October 08, 2004
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