Reykjavík Grapevine - 23.05.2008, Blaðsíða 12

12 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 06 2008 | Article
The movie I’m Not There, a highly stylised ac-
count of the life of Bob Dylan, starts out by show-
ing a young black boy named Woody Guthrie
jump a train by the Mississippi sometime during
the 1930’s. Woody is here used to symbolise the
young Dylan, by showing where he drew his inspi-
ration from rather than his actual life. Dylan was
a huge fan of 30’s folk singer Woody Guthrie, who
was white, as well as black bluesmen from the
same era. As the movie progresses, he is played
by among others Christian Bale as a burnt out
preacher, Heath Ledger as a movie star, Richard
Gere as an old cowboy and Cate Blanchett as, well,
the outlandish Dylan in 1966. The film follows the
time honoured rule that when legend and truth
collide, one should always print the legend.
Dylan himself seemed to adhere to this prin-
ciple early in his career, when he would tell the
press fictional stories about himself, such as of
running away with the circus or living a life similar
to his heroes, disguised as biography. Later on he
would adopt a different tactic, as he stopped talk-
ing to the press altogether. This would of course
fuel new myths. Perhaps it was his intention to
let the music do the talking, as his 1985 career
spanning box-set bore the name Biograph. This
seemed as close to the man as the fans would ever
come
Soon afterwards, Dylan embarked on the
longest rock and roll tour in history, starting in
1988 and continuing to this day. This will bring
him to Iceland for the second time where he will
perform on May 26th, two days after his 67th birth-
day.
The Enigma of Bob
Winston Churchill once called Russia a riddle
wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Much the
same can be said of Bob Dylan. He was born as
Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, on May
24th, 1941. Later he adopted the artist’s name “Dy-
lan” before moving to New York to play in the cof-
fee shops of Greenwich Village. The name came
from the poet Dylan Thomas, who had in earlier
times been a regular at the Village dives. At this
stage, Dylan was busy mixing his own identity
with that of his heroes.
And his own times were rapidly a-changing
as his identity was. The generation born during
and after the Second World War was making their
voices heard and were demanding, among other
things, equal rights for black and whites, and an
end to the escalating war in Vietnam.
Voice of a Generation
With anthems such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and
“Masters of War,” Dylan achieved international
fame as a protest singer in the vein of Woody
Guthrie. But in 1965 he abandoned the folk style
of his earlier message songs. He hired a back-
ing band while his lyrics turned from protest to
surrealism. In I’m Not There, it is suggested that
he abandoned his belief that music could really
change the world, just as it seemed on the verge of
doing so. Some of his older fans had problems ad-
justing to his new style and booed at his concerts,
but his popularity grew more than ever.
A Second Golden Age
Even though he may not have sparked a political
revolution, he became a hugely influential song-
writer, inspiring the Beatles as well as later artists
such as Bruce Springsteen. But in 1966, exhausted
after the constant touring and having barely sur-
vived a motorcycle crash, Dylan disappeared
from view for over a year.
When he re-emerged at the end of 1967 with
the album John Wesley Harding, he seemed to be
a changed man. Older, even though still only 26,
and less interested in setting the world on fire ei-
ther politically or musically. A series of uneven al-
bums followed. Dylan finally went on tour again in
the mid-70’s to support a string of brilliant albums:
Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks and Desire.
1975’s Blood on the Tracks is his biggest selling
album to date and, for once, quality and quantity
share the same bed.
Born Again
Even though most of his songs seemed more in-
spired by his private life rather than politics, there
were some reminders of the old protest singer.
At 35, Dylan was at the peak of his powers. Then
something strange happened. After the some-
what confused album Street Legal in 1978, Dylan
emerged in 1979 as a born-again Christian. In
concerts, he now refused to play any of his older
songs and would only do religious material, re-
sulting in boos from his audience for the first time
since 1966. During the 80’s he seemed to lose both
his faith and his passion for music. His albums de-
clined both in quality and popularity, and he was
eclipsed by younger disciples such as Springsteen,
who turned Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” into an
anthem for Amnesty International in 1988.
Axl Rose and the Pope
After 10 years of diminishing returns, Dylan finally
teamed up with U2 producer Daniel Lanois which
resulted in a new masterpiece, 1989’s Oh Mercy.
Dylan again seemed to be rebooting his art and
career, as he had done 15 years earlier. However,
the follow up, Under the Red Sky, which came out
a year later, was a much inferior work. Dylan’s
influence had now reached a new generation
of rock musicians. Guns n’ Roses made his song
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” into an unlikely an-
them for metal heads, and their guitarist Slash ap-
peared on Under the Red Sky.
It was to be the last album of new songs
for seven years. Dylan turned to his roots in the
early 90’s with two excellent albums of folk stan-
dards, where he accompanied himself alone on
guitar. In early 1997 he had heart surgery, but the
Never Ending Tour continued later in the year, tak-
ing in a concert backed for Pope John Paul II at
Bologna. The pope returned the favour, giving a
sermon based on the song Blowin’ in the Wind.
Not many artists can claim both Axl Rose and the
Pope among their fans.
Masked but Not Anonymous
More importantly, in 1997 a new phase started
with the release of Time Out of Mind. The heroes
of the 60’s were now reaching the age of 60, but
whereas contemporaries such as Mick Jagger still
tried to pretend they were young, the eloquent
Time Out of Mind is in many ways the first rock
album about growing old. Full of references to
mortality and a longing for youth, it includes lines
such as: “See the young boys, with the young girls
looking so good/I’d change places with them in
a minute, if I could.” It was Dylan’s best album
since Blood on the Tracks and was followed with
the similarly themed Love and Theft in 2001 and
Modern Times in 2006. In his autumn years, Dylan
seems to be going through an artistic rebirth. And
a commercial one too, as Modern Times became
his first US number 1 album for 30 years, making
him the oldest person still alive to have a number
one hit.
In 2003, Dylan starred in and wrote the
script for the film Masked and Anonymous, which
touches on themes ranging from politics and reli-
gion to celebrity. With an all star cast, Dylan plays
an aging rock star named Jack Fate. Even though
the movie hardly unwraps the enigma of Bob, per-
haps some clue is to be found in the final scene,
when Fate says: “I stopped trying to figure things
out a long time ago.”
The Thaw
Even better was the appearance of a surprisingly
candid autobiography, “Chronicles,” a year later.
While not a full biography, it offers an in-depth
view of certain points in his life, such as the
Greenwich Village years and the recording of Oh
Mercy.
As well as appearing in the Martin Scors-
ese documentary No Direction Home, the best
so far on Dylan’s life, Dylan became host of his
own radio show, “The Theme Time Radio Hour,”
showcasing his encyclopaedic knowledge of 20th
century popular music.
All this activity and previously unheard of
openness towards has led some Bobcats (as fans
sometimes call themselves) to speak of Bob Dy-
lan’s Glasnost, in reference to Gorbachev’s policy
of openness to the public and press after the se-
cretive days of the Soviet Union.
Text by Valur Gunnarsson
Bob Dylan’s Glasnost
“Winston Churchill once
called Russia a riddle
wrapped in a mystery in-
side an enigma. Much the
same can be said of Bob
Dylan.“
Bob Dylan has enjoyed a long and succesfull career,
but he never seemed to find the right hair stylist.
Illustration by GUÞ