I'm going with fucking with interviewers (which he was peaking at around '66). Dude is definitely a cynic, but he's written political/protest songs since then, so he obviously engages when he wants to.
Re: Deep Bob Dylan Theory 2012
Posted: 18 Feb 2018, 3:47pm
by Silent Majority
Hurricane springs to mind from about a decade later.
Re: Deep Bob Dylan Theory 2012
Posted: 18 Feb 2018, 5:12pm
by Dr. Medulla
But, just to entertain the possibility, he may have been serious at the time but then changed his mind later on. I do find his resistance to other people's expectations his most appealing quality.
But, just to entertain the possibility, he may have been serious at the time but then changed his mind later on. I do find his resistance to other people's expectations his most appealing quality.
Maybe. Weirdly, I haven't actually read much about Dylan during that 65-66 period, so it's one of my weaker areas of understanding. It would be in keeping with how he seems to operate that, for that brief period, he was sincere in his dogma of the time, but then went in a new direction. So yeah, fucking with the interviewer but coming from a place where he was actively rebelling against what (in his view, anyways) he'd been bound to up to that point. When he successfully removed that straight jacket from himself, he eased up a bit.
Re: Deep Bob Dylan Theory 2012
Posted: 18 Feb 2018, 6:50pm
by muppet hi fi
I think it's worth noting Bob's interview in Rolling Stone just a couple years ago, where he's as blunt and literal as I've ever heard him. I forget who the interviewer was (Jann Wenner probably), but when asked what the one main problem with America was, he was pissed off and direct, saying until we come to terms with our slavery past, we, and by extension the whole world, is fucked. It's a very angry Bob, no bullshit and lots of cussing.
Contains a few comments from Paul, so may be of interest. I haven't really read much about the recording of this album - seems particularly self-defeating, even by Bob's usual standards of recorded self-implosion.
This RSD reissue of the BOTT test pressing is fucking lit. Such good takes and mixes. More vulernable and darker than the final product. I can see why Bob felt this would be too emotionally honest to release.
I've never done a deep dive into Dylan's music but I recognize so.e of his songs to lyrically be some of the best ever written.
I'm trying to bring my son around to at least appreciating Bob Dylan. His music teacher at school played Blowin in the Wind for the class and he was underwhelmed which I guess for a middle schooler is somewhat understandable.