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How Bob Dylan Beat the Press

By Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher. Posted September 27, 2005.


Reporters are the 'badfellas' in Martin Scorsese's PBS documentary about the folk-rock legend.

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Surely, one of the non-musical highlights of the extraordinary Martin Scorsese film about Bob Dylan's early days, airing on PBS on Monday and Tuesday [Sept. 26 and 27], arrives when a press photographer, at a briefing, asks the young rock star to pose for a picture. "Suck on a corner of your glasses," the gentleman instructs.

Dylan, fingering his Ray-Bans, rebels. "You want me to suck on my glasses?" he asks incredulously.

"Just suck your glasses," the photog advises.

"Do you want to suck my glasses?" Dylan asks, handing them to the photog, who obliges by licking them. "Anybody else?" Bob wonders.

This exchange, from 1966, is only one of several press games/battles that play a key role in part II of the documentary, No Direction Home. In fact, they represent the climax of the film, as Dylan burns out, not just from the boos that greeted his switch from acoustic to electric but from inane questioning by the press. The film ends with Dylan begging for a long vacation, followed by end notes revealing that he had his famous motorcycle accident a few months later -- and then did not tour for seven years.

That's one way to Beat the Press.

But Dylan has always had a combative relationship with the media, and wrote one of the most scathing and, arguably, most influential attacks on the press in modern times, "Ballad of Thin Man." That song holds that memorable refrain: "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mister Jones?"

And he's still at it. Earlier this year, on "60 Minutes," Ed Bradley asked him about the passage in his recent memoir "Chronicles" where Dylan revealed that he always figured the press was something "you lied to." Bob told Bradley that he knew he had to answer to God, but not to reporters.

Of course, there was a time when some people thought Dylan was God.

In any case, the Scorsese film shows plenty of evidence of why Dylan turned off to the press long ago. Along with many of his fans, they just didn't "get" him, especially when he changed the face of popular music in the mid-1960s.

"You don't sing protest songs anymore," a reporter asks.

"All my songs are protest songs," Dylan replies evenly. "All I do is protest."

Later, someone at a press conference asks him how many other protest singers exist. It's as if the man is asking Sen. Joe McCarthy for the number of Communists in the State Department. Dylan ponders it, then replies, "About 136." No one laughs.

"You say about 136 -- or exactly 136?" the reporter asks.

"Either 136 or 142," Dylan says, settling it.

On another occasion, a reporter asks what "message" and "philosophy" he was trying to impart by wearing a Triumph motorcycle shirt on the cover of the greatest album of all time, "Highway 61 Revisited." Dylan says he just happened to be wearing it the day the photo was snapped, but the press guy persists. Finally Dylan pleads, "We all like motorcycles some, right?"


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Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is editor of E&P, former executive editor of Crawdaddy, and attended one of Dylan's electric shows in 1965.

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walldodger1969
Posted by: walldodger69 on Sep 27, 2005 3:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I knew there was something I wanted to see on TV last nite! Dang for going to bed early.

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Uncle Bobby
Posted by: Tom Degan on Sep 27, 2005 4:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A great documentary! For any of you who may have missed last night's TV program. the DVD is available and it's DEFINATELY worth the price. The companion CD (Bootleg Series Volume 7) is also full of unexpected treasures. Even if you were able to watch and tape it, the DVD is loaded with extras that last evening's show didn't have.

What an extraordinary man! What an extraordinary life! Keep 'em coming, Bob.

Tom Degan
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

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agitator church and state
Posted by: eileenflmng on Sep 27, 2005 5:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The first time I heard Dylan was in the 6th grade/1966:
Mr. Friedman the music teacher brought in his Dylan albums and I received my first spiritual experience hearing that voice deliver "Blowin in The Wind" and "The Times They Are A-'Changin"

When I first saw the images of 9/11 and after a moment of wondering if I was witnessing the beginning of the end of the world I recalled a Dylan song I had first heard in 1981:

"See the massacre of the innocent...City's on fire....phones out of order...I see the turning of the Page, Curtain rising on a New Age, The Grooms still waiting at the altar."
[FYI-in Christian lingo 'The Groom' is God]

"Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you...?"

www.wearewideawake.org

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» RE: agitator church and state Posted by: bornxeyed
Timing Important
Posted by: joyartist on Sep 27, 2005 7:00 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a 54 yr old person who's avidly followed Bob Dylan forever. Man they did a good job on this film--and the timing--very good! I hope some people noticed the SOUND of the lyrics on things like "Only A Pawn In Their Game" as it was performed--one of those moments where eternity intersects with our here and now reality--or blasts its way through the death/apathy/helplessness. I want you to know that the sound and what was being said never died--could never die within us. This kind of thing is the essence of life, hope, truth. I personally feel that when Dylan had done "Masters of War" he, in the existential sense, had fulfilled a mission so important that he could have just retired--though glad he didn't.

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» RE: Timing Important Posted by: shocknawe
passing the torch
Posted by: dryter on Sep 27, 2005 2:01 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am too young to know of Bob's folk days, having come on the scene with "Blood on the Tracks" so this documentary was very informative, and I'm very impressed with Dylan.

However, isn't it interesting to watch the passing of the torch from Guthrie to Seger to Dylan, then to whom, Springsteen, then Stipe maybe? Who will pick it up next? Who speaks for today? Oh, I forgot, we've got rap and Toby Kieth. Grrrreeeeaaattt!

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» RE: passing the torch Posted by: mym
» RE: passing the torch Posted by: ajzaprmcf
Bern, the new Dylan
Posted by: lamar on Sep 27, 2005 3:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Try Dan Bern, like an updated Dylan.

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» RE: Bern, the new Dylan Posted by: Tom Degan
» RE: Bern, the new Dylan Posted by: jammin_james
Don't try dig what we all say
Posted by: rac on Sep 27, 2005 9:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Scorsese may have put too much emphasis on how the media interacted with Dylan in the second part of his film. The main stream press tried to report on Dylan the way he was being idolized. They weren’t idiots, just over 30, clueless reporters. But then so were many of Dylan’s fans who wanted to encapsulate him as a folk artist god. Dylan would have none of it. He found an unfortunate way to exit stage left for awhile.

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The Press Dylan Faced Is Still The Same
Posted by: homeslice on Sep 29, 2005 9:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Witnessing the inanity of the questions posed by reporters to Bob Dylan 40 years ago provides strong clues why the stories packaged for consumption today are so lacking in meaning. Nothing has changed. The reporters' lack of preparation and thoughfulness then, as now, are the norm. For those who stayed tuned to PBS after Part 2 of the Dylan show, we were able to observe journalists of the same era covering serious news. Shown were clips of the media (including many future network stars) crowding the hallways of the Dallas police station to cover the unfolding Lee Harvey Oswald story. This glimpse into history has forced me to cast aside as unfounded my belief that sometime in the past journalists were better at uncovering meaning in the events they reported. While this leaves me less disappointed with journalists today, it also confirms my belief that it is okay to pay much less attention to them and the news media in general.

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Awesome documentary, but where's the footage?
Posted by: jammin_james on Sep 29, 2005 11:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I want to see ALL the raw footage of the concerts, as well as lots of the other stuff. Why can't they make that available? You know they'll never use it all in any shows like this.

As far as someone picking up the torch... even if there was someone that could do it, he/she would never be discovered these days by agents looking for the Next Big Thing, and the press would never cover them. They would simply toil in anonomity forever, and probably are right now.

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Am I the only one disappointed by the film?
Posted by: mym on Sep 29, 2005 3:00 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Martin Scorcese's two-part Dylan doc felt like a great soup and salad, but I kept waiting for the meal.
The footage was awesome, hearing him delightful, "proving" that he has always been an independent thinker interesting, but I had hoped to understand Mr. Dylan.
On of the posts on this thread explained the term "Groom" as it is used in Christianity. Mr. Dylan's Christianity, which assumes a conversion from his Jewish roots, has been mentioned in the past, but how much more interesting the documentary would have been had he commented on this aspect of his life and how it affects his music, as it must do if the poster explaining the term "Groom" is as astutue as I assume him to be.
I don't read celebrity magazines and am totally ignorant, by choice, of the private lives of boldface names, but this was touted as a biography of Bob Dylan and his music. I believe that he has been married for a long time. Is this true? Who is she? Where do they live? What about his children? Does he live a "stable" life? How does all this affect his music – this is what I would have liked to see.
Some of his greatest work has been written and published post-retreat. Why stop the doc at the accident? We must assume Scorcese is talking with Mr. Dylan in 2004 or 2005, so relevant questions to the present-day would not be out of order.
Or is this another case of Mr. Dylan working the press, this time the press represented by Mr. Scorcese. It's Bobby's right to do so, but it sure made an incomplete film.

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August 1965
Posted by: zenguy1213 on Sep 30, 2005 11:51 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I remember driving in the car late one hot August night in 1965 and listening to the "Big 8" (CKLW out of Windsor, Canada). Just after a commercial, the disc jockey came on and said that he had a new record by that "protest singer", Bob Dylan. It was the first time I heard "Like a Rolling Stone" and I was just blown away. (All that I knew of him previous to this was that he had written "Blown in the Wind" and "Mr. Tamborine Man": songs made popular by the groups: Peter, Paul and Mary; and the Byrds respectively.) If you love great music, it is one of those moments that stays with you for the rest of your life. Everyone I hung out with at that time (all of my fellow 13 year olds) had the same reaction. It was an amazing moment in music. And his performance of that song still gives me chills 40 years later. I purchased the DVD and can't wait to view it.

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Is it possible to answer the questions?
Posted by: grizzlytwolegs2 on Oct 21, 2005 5:45 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is possible to answer the questions, but it took a Bob Dylan to ask, and it took a Dylan to move spacelessly from questions to poetry. His music still rings in my soul, and his questions still illuminate my present. The message is sorrowful and hopeful at the same time, which demonstrates a sanity that is dearly experienced and wollfully missing in our collective conscienceness. Where art thou in this night of darkness? We so need a a singing light......
grizzlytwolegs2

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136 or 142....that is the answer!
Posted by: jefhadist on Nov 29, 2005 4:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Simply brilliant....incredibly right f-ing on....and it still is! How many protest singers indeed. The "media is the message"...remember? This venue right here, right now is the message/massage:) How many protest singers? How many f-ing protestors for cryin' out loud. Dylan knows. Never enough! We have to slog through the madness and chaos every minute. With braindead yahoos in charge of the city/county/state/nation/world... what hope do we have for more dylan's to get their voices heard except for that fleeting bleep, on occasion, if you look and search and examine everything closely. 136 or 142? That is also the question! Keep up good people. Something is STILL happening here and you do know what it is. We are circling back around the long way. Let's get it right this time.

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Royalty Free Beats For One Dollar
Posted by: winnx on Aug 11, 2006 5:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Royalty Free Beats For One Dollar

At

http://upbeat.tk

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0Beer
Posted by: extremist on Oct 8, 2006 10:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
0Beer
Posted by: extremist on Oct 8, 2006 10:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]