Dylan then
Dylan today
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From the interview on 60 Minutes, the first in 20 years!
Over more than four decades, Dylan has produced 500 songs and more than 40 albums. Does he ever look back at the music he’s written with surprise?
“I used to. I don’t do that anymore. I don’t know how I got to write those songs. Those early songs were almost magically written,” says Dylan, who quotes from his 1964 classic, “It’s Alright, Ma.”
“Try to sit down and write something like that. There’s a magic to that, and it’s not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic, you know? It’s a different kind of a penetrating magic. And, you know, I did it. I did it at one time.”
Does he think he can do it again today? No, says Dylan. “You can’t do something forever,” he says. “I did it once, and I can do other things now. But, I can’t do that.” […]
What does the word “destiny” mean to Dylan?
“It’s a feeling you have that you know something about yourself – nobody else does – the picture you have in your mind of what you’re about will come true,” says Dylan. “It’s kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it’s a fragile feeling. And if you put it out there, somebody will kill it. So, it’s best to keep that all inside.”
What a great interview! Dylan talks like he sings, with a drawl, drawing out the vowels. He was forthright and humourous, also self-effacing. He says he was never that public ‘Bob Dylan.’
And how do I feel about Dylan? I love him more than ever, not as an icon but as a great human being. In 1988, I submitted this painting below to CBC radio for a contest. The prize was a complete-works-mongraph album. Sadly I won second prize, an orange CBC T-shirt, as the winner was a woman who had been cured of alcoholism from listening to Dylan’s Christian albums. I left the painting with the CBC and suggested that they give it to their Dylan expert, Prof. Rob Bowman of Toronto. He sent me a thank you note.
Bob Dylan, 1988 watercolour on paper,
The image is a composite of a couple of album covers and my own colours. My son later complained that he wanted that painting, so I got the slide made into a large print and framed it for his Christmas present. I’m very happy to share it with you now, hope you don’t mind.
I’m a big fan of his son-in-law Peter Himmelman.
I just recently bought my husband some Phil Och’s CD (he was a singer-songerwriter of protest songs during the Viet Nam) much of his live music mentions Dylan as “G-d” 🙂
Thank you!
OMIGAWD! Phil Ochs.
I saw a one man play about him, at a Vancouver Fringe Festival. It was rivetting to have him come to life like that, along with the songs. Phil’s life was so tragic but his songs are not dated. I had most of his albums. Thanks for the reminder, I’m going to get his CD.
My husband had mentioned “small circle of friends” when I showed him something I had posted about how I had lost some “friends” after the elections because of their willfull ignorance… He’s ten years older than I am so we each turn each other on to various music and we both are very ecletic… so we have a huge “library of music” yet we always find something new to share.
anyways…
He mentioned Phil Ochs and I googled some quotes of his.. WOW. Very timely, eerily so you know.
I surprised him with two live CDs a few weeks ago (I read several reviews that said he was better live)
There and Now Phil Ochs Live in Vancouver 1968 (my birthyear)
and
Phil Ochs in Concert (which I really really like as he does alot of talking to the audience – I believe this is where he makes mention of Dylan a few times 🙂 )
My sons middle name is Dylan (I know that’s a stagename) … my husband is a huge fan and it was our running inside joke that I could never fully appreciate the Dylan songs unless they were covered by another. So it was my turn to fold (draw a truce) when I suggested “Dylan” as our first child’s middle name. 🙂
You know, me and my best friend of about 10 years were talking about how much of a god Dylan was and how much we need voices like his right now.
Gonna have to send her this link so that she can see that wonderful painting!
To have such an artist in our midst. I love your work, Sybil. I hope we can see more.
Just curious. Did you create that while listening to his music?
Yes, I was playing his music during those days.
He was making fun albums with “The Travelling Willburys” then he made “Oh Mercy.”
My favourties were,
Blond on Blond
Street Legal
Blood on the Tracks
or would that be Senator Zimmerman?
There will be a Senator Al Frenken.
“Senator” Dylan, he is too shy of the media.
One interview in 20 years.
Dylan’s “Chronicles Vol I”. He covers the period when he had just arrived in New York, some of his time in Minneapolis, and then, years later, the making of “Oh Mercy.” You get a feeling what it’s like for an obsessed young man trying to fulfill his destiny and make it in the music business. Then you get a feel for what it’s like for an old pro to put out yet another album. It’s nicely written and a good story.
Dylan never considered himself a prophet. He was frightened and freaked out by those who did.
a true American Icon, of the people, by the people, and FOR the people ; )
And yet so humble, and so right on target.
He is not so popular on this blog.
But he wouldn’t care about stuff like that.
well then, they need to listen a lil’ more, not just hear the words ; )
The original meaning was something like ‘having a god breathe through you’.
Dylan was inspired for a time, and wrote songs bigger than he was. Like all inspired artists, he had much less control than his adoring fans thought.
So, no, not a prophet. Unless by prophet you mean someone through whom the gods speak, for a while.
That is why he assumed all those poses and constumes, saying “It is just me.”
But, good writers and especially poets often foretell the future because they are tuned in to the ‘breath of the gods’ – ‘the wellsprings of creativity’ – whatever you call it. Artists and poets are the first to be rounded up by any facsist regime.
Beautifully said and sadly so true.
what I see in him is his struggles and how he defined them. I remember way back when he had the same struggle as many did then and that was about religion, change in anything, ideals, becoming, admitting, loving, caring, staying, going, well just about all the feellings one could have in ones heart and soul they gave us in music…. We all at some point or another had awakenings/disappointmnts of/in one fashion or the other…the latter 50’s and the 60’s and 70’s each presented the revolution into the dynamic of which we all evolved out of. It took ppl like dylan and joplin and hendrix and all like them to bring this to where we are today…not just in music but in politics. I just wished, for nastalisia sake that we could go back just for one day and relive some if it’s good parts. Wouldnt that be wonderful…just 24 hours to be in heaven. Dylan just was one of the lucky ones who managed to stay alive and continue the good fight…thank God
Thank you Sybil. I knew we had some type of connection, and now I know what it is! I’m a huuuuuuuge Dylan fan, who was born and raised in Hibbing – so my roots with Dylan run deep. Your picture is so awesome (I mean that in the truest sense of the word) and it’s so wonderful that your son appreciates it. Which is something I’ve noticed at all the Dylan concerts I’ve attended.
Parents and their kids coming together joined in the spirit of the music. (But it’s the teenagers pointing out to their parents that it smells like weed ;^)
A friend of a friend used to oversee one of Dylan’s properties in MN, and a couple years back he finally quit out of frustration. Apparently, each time Dylan showed up (with his latest bevy of beauties) he’d instruct the person to take down a certain wall on the first floor because he didn’t like it. So the individual would act on his instructions and take down the wall. Next visit, Dylan would tell him he wanted a wall constructed (in the same place the person had just removed one). This went on for years, and the individual just couldn’t take it any more – no matter what he was paid.
Dylan said he never wanted to be the voice of a generation, and he said his lyrics were never intended to be political in nature. But you listen to something such as Oxford Town – and the power of his lyrics as they relate to civil liberties, and it’s breathtaking. (Hey! I wonder if sjct dropped acid with him :^)
You should have won first place, Sybil. Seriously. (Bless you for sharing this)
Thanks for your kind words on the painting, always appreciated.
University of Victoria has a Dylan scholar, Stephen A.C SCOBIE, who teaches “Bob Dylan, critical theory.” Wonder what Dylan would say about his course.
That story about the walls is really amusing and somewhat characteristic. Dylan did try building walls around himself for privacy and then he would go out on the road and do concerts, “tearing down the walls.”
Dylan says his songs came from ‘well-springs of creativity’ but think of what he was taking in at the time. He was absolutely obsessed with lyrics and recordings. He gathered a ton of resources in his mind and then it would come pouring out.
“Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?”
Those lines in “Hard Rain” are from an ancient Scots ballad, for example. He had a turn of phrase that is exquisite, like “pale afternoon.” That evokes those short winter afternoons in Montreal. I could go on…
It’s the greatest creative process. The student needs to wallow in the subject matter up to his/her ears and then let it pour out. One hopes in some kind of order.
Wonder what Dylan’s speech will be when he accepts the Nobel Prize for Literature?