You have to love Dylan if for nothing but his sense of humor, the way he admittedly fed his first publicist a line of bullshit in an early interview for most of the inside copy for his first Columbia album Bob Dylan. It set a precedent that would become a sort of cat and mouse game that he would play and does play to this day with practically anyone who asks questions of him, in particular the press. My favorite personal favorite is that he came to New York on the back of a freight train ~ it just feeds into the whole mythology of Dylan. It’s the way he knew he had to be perceived to be a success in his business. That part of that gig meant creating a somewhat troubled past:. The mythology of being an orphan of sorts, a traveler and truth seeker: the mythology and life of Woody Guthrie, one of Dylan’s early idols.
Perhaps in some ways he was. How funny then, that on the album Bob Dylan there is the song “Freight Train Blues” ~ the best part, it’s sung so quickly that it’s difficult to make out the words. But the way the Dylan can hold a long note to sound like the blowing train whistle is impressive. I get the sense he wishes he came on a freight train. It would be more romantic than the actual way, which is less romantic but surely far more comfortable. But a freight train would make him more like his hero Woody Guthrie.
The truth is, Dylan came into New York in the back of someone’s car, and he came to see Woody. At the time Guthrie was hospitalized for Huntington’s. Dylan hitched rides from Madison, Wisconsin and onward (was it a Chevy Impala or some such?) and arrived in New York in January 1961 to see Guthrie, to play the village, to get famous.
Dylan had told friends back home he’d go to NYC to see Woody and he did. Within days of arriving to New York, he went to see Woody and played for him, which thrilled both men and more Woody believed that “the kid” had talent. Within time, Dylan’s admiration was so great, that he adopted an Oakie accent and even began to sound like Guthrie. Apparently, Dylan was a great mimic and did the job well, both in song and spoken voice. His obsession with Guthrie was a huge factor in Dylan’s fame, for were it not for him, Dylan may not have headed for New York at all.
Initially, Dylan played the folk clubs, but he had to try hard. First, he didn’t play as well as other musicians as some felt, and more, some felt he stole melodies and did not understand the tradition of folk tradition had progressed for years. Dylan was faced with the coldest winter New York had seen in seventeen odd years and with no stable place to live, instead living off the kindness of various friends and strangers. One interesting fact that I’ve never heard until recently: Dylan had only being playing the harmonica for only six months when he arrived in New York, impressive for someone who cut an album a relatively short time later. He cut the album in two days, costing Columbia records a reported mere $402.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
It's groovy the way Bob mixed songwriting and playing with conscious mythmaking aka lying bullshit in interviews and liner notes to strike a complex and shifting character and storyline. It's almost like he was some kind of artist.
For making his name, and establishing his unique personnae, going back early I'll vote for for his 115th dream. The pure joy of his epic misadventure is irresistable. Particularly the scene at the bank, where he's gone to ask for a loan to bail his friends out of jail. "They asked me for some collateral, so I pulled down my pants."
After giving up on this new world, on his way out he passed Christopher Columbus on his way in, "And I just said, 'Good luck.'"
As to being the Hebrew with the fabricated personnae, as well as most of what he really knew about Woody, you should consider Dylan's true original mentor: Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
Covering his tracks, Dylan dropped poor Jack like a hot potatoe once he got big. Loyalty has not particularly been his strong suit. Nonetheless, Jack Elliott was the longtime Guthrie confidant who actually taught Dylan most of the practical musical stuff that Guthrie was already to wore out and sick to do.
He surely zoomed right past his mentor artistically, but Dylan's first couple of albums sound very much like Elliott.
After the first couple of albums, Dylan was adding so much new to the mix to be past much recognition of those roots. "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35," say, doesn't sound anything like Ramblin' Jack or Guthrie.
I said, 'You know, they refused Jesus too'
And he said, 'You're not him'
2 - sade
hey gadfly; i think it is interesting too the way Dylan mixes his conscious myth-making with the truth. it makes and has made him more famous than perhaps if he had just been straight w/ us... a sad testimoney to our society but i believe an accurate one. You tell great stories. I hadn't heard all of them ~ i know loyalty was never Dylan's strong suit, but that said, he seemeed seems rather, to always expect it in return... so maybe he is more loyal than we see or maybe he is just a child screaming for more more more or maybe he's just like the rest of us. Confused, paradoxical, and self-wanting most of the time (by this i mean wanting for the self, poorly worded. Sorry).
You offer up a lot and i don't know what's true but i'll have to take your word for it for now.
I'm halfway through Chronicles and expect to have a review up sometime in the next three weeks or so (i'm going away so can't really blog from where i'll be)...
Thanks for your thoughts though...
s.
3 - Al Barger
Oh, I'm totally in favor of Dylan's made up mythological biography and all that. Those things have been a significant part of his art.
Now Elliot Charles Adnopoz, the son of a Jewish doctor from Brooklyn, filled out his mythological desires to be a cowboy by running away from home as a teenager and joining a rodeo. He made his stories legitimate with pretty much a lifetime of, as per a song prominent in his repertoire, "Hard Travelin'" He was riding the rails with Woody, and often literally singing for his supper.
Robert Zimmerman never did no wandering, not of that hard kind, so his versions of those stories weren't literally true. Instead, he legitimized his mythology with awesome songwriting and record making. This does the rest of us far more good than if he had been literally riding the rails.
Ramblin' Jack was talented, but he wasn't focused and professional. He was too busy traveling and getting into little adventures to concentrate his efforts consistently on the making of music.
Dylan may not have actually hopped freight trains, but he wrote the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "All Along The Watchtower," so that more than makes up for it.
You need to see the Ramblin' Jack documentary even just for the insights into original model Dylan myth making, or get up on the soundtrack album for just some kickass music.
4 - sade
i agree ~ i need to see this documentary.
i too am in favor of his made up mythology because it worked for him and without it, i'm not so so sure he would be where he is. it is all part of the Dylan legend that has worked so well for him. He knew a normal or so called normal backiground wouldn't work, and so made one up; just brilliant. I love that he did that and i love that he essentially stole Guthrie's life in that way and made it his own (and i mean that well, for i know he was a big admirer and visitor of Guthries in later years).
Dylan was and remains a fascinating person. It's really a shame he isn't more forthcoming with the press, but thats a left over from Grossman who made him somewhat paranoid i think and helped him learn not to trust anybody. Sure, journalists can be assholes and tough, but then there are those of us who would be fair and square and instead of asking questions, give my eye-teeth just to listen to Dylan speak and speak and speak and speak about whatever he felt like without making a judgement on it or turning it into anything else... that would be amazing...
well anyway. don't see that happening. will try to find this documentary you speak of: ramblin' jack?
and hey, nice to hear from you! long time no speak! email me sometime....
sade
5 - maureen
I love the guy, what can I say!
6 - sade
despite his surly attitude, he remains lovable, i think. Besides which, the surly part seems mostly directed toward the media ~ not to other people. or that's my take anyway; i could, of course, be dead wrong. I like to think of him as a decent guy and i do... otherwise, i wouldn't write so very much about him... You can find my other articles here on Blogcritics as well about Dylan if you are that interested. You may or may not find them interesting.
Cheers,
sadi
7 - Mark Saleski
i've always been amazed with the surly persona of Dylan vs. the incredible lyrics.
how does a cranky bastard write stuff like
"dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free..."?
8 - Al Barger
I might describe him as "cranky" rather than "surly." That sounds nicer. And the cranky thing makes more sense as he has gotten older.
He's real good with that judgmental stuff, an Old Testament prophet laying down warnings from Yahweh. I once put together my own Dylan mix CD, calling it "Bob Dylan's Finger of Judgment."
9 - sade
see, al,i always think of him as surly from the press interviews that he's given in which he doesn't seem cranky as much as he does like he is playing cat and mouse, do define that how you will.
whatever the matter: he is to say the least, idiosyncratic and that's fine... i think that we all are to some extent and lord knows he has reason to be ~ he's been hounded enough, people have tried to pigeonhole him too much and etc.
sorry this piece was not better ~ i felt like writing a great Dylan piece and the other pieces i think are more fluid than this one. This one is a bit convoluted, i think, but i appreciate your reading very much... as ever... and your comments.
expectingrain.com DID link to the article from www.bobdylan.com so there is one seal of approval, so that's good. In any event, let's just say he's a wee bit eccentric. That's fair.
But hey, who isn't... certainly not i.
cheers to all,
sade
10 - Al Barger
This was fine work, Miss Sade. It's hard to get a handle on Dylan, since of course the damned vandals have stolen it.
There's also Bob the funster. You could probably conjure up a good CD full of that stuff, "Highway 61" and the 115th dream and such.
That humor element has been sorely missing in his latter days. He was pretty frickin' funny in the Victoria's Secret ad though. That seemed to go right by people.
11 - Lono
Bob Dylan rules, thanks for the thoughtful piece. Especially since it concentrated on the early years, which is all I really care about. Dude totally lost me in 65. Went electric, found god, disappeared forever after that motorcycle accident, grew a beard -
bullocks to all of that. it is almost like bob died in 1965 and another person emerged from his cocoon. However, he did veyr briefly return to form in 1974 with Blood on the Tracks. A Beatles fan might say that the guy playing Dylan now is an actor hired after Dylan's motorcycle accident of 1965.
in fact, that would explain just about everything... and is every bit as believable as that nonsense about Paul dying in a car accident and having been replaced by an actor.
12 - Al Barger
Bob was doing outstanding work at least as late as Infidels in 81, which contains one of my all-time Dylan faves, "Neighborhood Bully."
13 - Steven Hart
The great writer and interviewer Studs Terkel used to have a radio show, "Studs Terkel's Wax Museum," that regularly featured lengthy conversations with artists, writers and musicians. Terkel was legendary for being one of the few radio personalities who actually read the book his guest was plugging -- read it and asked intelligent questions about it. Anyway, young Bob Dylan must have known and respected Terkel, because his appearance on the Wax Museum is one of the few times he didn't try to jerk the interviewer around. The entire show is on a bootleg that's fairly easy to track down.
14 - sade
why thank you, Al ~ that makes me feel better.
Yes, Dylan was funny a lot of the time and likely still is, but more privately and who can blame him. It's pure mirth, like the Victoria's Secret ad as well, which was also mirth. i think he does these things to tease and play and as you said, a lot of people miss that, sadly.
i'm with you on this
xo
sade
15 - sade
Lono and STeven thanks for your comments both ~ v. thoughtful and i'm interested to find this Studs Terkel interview. any idea of date etc or should i just Google STuds Terkel Dylan and see what comes up? There must be something, also, i could email a friend at expectingrain.com ~ he would know, i think but i fyou happen to have a link that would be super. I'd really like to hear that, (god i thought i'd heard and seen practically everything, yet there is always more more more...)
cheers all
sade
16 - The Duke
Wow Lono, great thinking. I had forgotten of the Triumph spoilage Dylan broke a neck over.
Perhaps the thump was a bit much.
I really dug the Band backup stuff.
Blood on the Tracks was sort of a rally, but I haven't payed too much attention since.
Oh, and the spot on Bangaladesh, both the movie and of course the release struck me as very cool (at the time). I would have to see it again to understand if it would hold as much value now as when it/they first appeared.
17 - sade
The Triumph spill was quite bad, if you believe most accounts ~~ i just bought today Bob Dylan Live at the Gaslight 1962. You can by a version of it at, god help us all, Starbucks. There are other ways to get a more complete recording from what i hear.
Anyone? cheers ~
sade