Telegraph-Journal | Life & Entertainment - on September 8, 2006
Bob Dylan: Prophet, messiah, savior and now media hound
Music Puncturing myths, the 65-year-old rock icon is far more open with press now
Associated Press
http://www.canadaeast.com/storyImage...7041_40852.jpg
(AP)
Bob Dylan has toured endlessly, both in minor league baseball parks and stadiums over the last 10 years.
NEW YORK - At a 1964 Halloween concert in Liverpool, Bob Dylan turned to the audience and said, "I have my Bob Dylan mask on."
Dylan has for decades been aware of his mask, often chafing at his public image and responding with cryptic unpredictability and distrust of the media. In the past few years, though, his public persona has seemed less combative, and increasingly open.
He wrote an acclaimed and personal memoir (2004's Chronicles, Vol. 1), he hosts a fascinating weekly satellite radio show on XM (Theme Time Radio Hour with your Host Bob Dylan), has been interviewed by a handful of publications, appeared on camera for Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home, and - most curiously - starred in two commercials: one for Victoria's Secret, the other a new ITunes ad.
As much as any time since perhaps the mid-1960s, Dylan is operating openly in the public arena. His new, lauded album, Modern Times, debuted this week at No. 1 on the Billboard charts with nearly 192,000 copies sold - marking Dylan's first album chart-topper in 30 years (his last album was 2001's Grammy-winning Love and Theft.
In addition, a new musical based on his songs, The Times They Are A-Changin', debuts on Broadway this fall.
Princeton history professor and Dylan scholar Sean Wilentz thinks the trend is part of a "sustained creative period" beginning with the 1997 album Time Out of Mind.
"What amazes me is how normal he seems, especially as he comes (across) on Theme Time Radio Hour - a wise music lover with a great gift for words and a sense of humour," Wilentz says. "For a long time, I think Dylan's fans - and for that matter, his detractors - imagined he lived on a different planet.
"He doesn't."
Dylan, 65, has for decades struggled with out-of-this-world expectations; since the '60s, he's been viewed by many as a prophet. In Chronicles, he wrote: "The actor Tony Curtis once told me that fame is an occupation in itself, that it is a separate thing.
"And Tony couldn't be more right...Eventually different anachronisms were thrust upon me...Legend, Icon, Enigma (Buddha in European Clothes was my favorite) - stuff like that, but that was all right.
"These titles were placid and harmless, threadbare, easy to get around with them. Prophet, Messiah, Savior - those are tough ones."
The recently released book Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews assembles evidence of how Dylan can be both combative and heartfelt with the press.
Though he revels in discussing the craft of songwriting, when asked about meaning in lyrics, he remains elusive.
Joey Levy, executive editor of Rolling Stone, said Dylan's (relative) openness nowadays reflects "a greater desire to take control of his own image and myth than he's had since he was in his 20s. Certainly, that's the last time he spent this much time and energy in public telling us about himself."
And even then, he often playfully lied about his past to the press.
Some might suspect Dylan is now taking steps to control his legacy, but there seems little evidence of that. He told Rolling Stone he feels as though he's in his "middle years," not approaching retirement. He's also toured relentlessly - both in minor league ballparks and arenas.
Jonathan Cott, who edited the Essential Interviews collection, thinks Dylan "seems happy within himself."
The novelist Jonathan Lethem, who interviewed Dylan for Rolling Stone, was likewise struck by the singer's healthy attitude.
And to think it's not an intentional "campaign" probably doesn't do justice to the trickster in Dylan. In Chronicles he speaks of how the idea that he represented a generation "needed to be pulled up by the roots" - and how he then went about doing so.
Perhaps this time, the trick is simply candour.
[ September 10, 2006, 13:28: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]
