Posted on 11/06/2012 2:43:16 PM PST by don-o
Ah, Bobby, he can still grab the headlines whenever he feels like it, even on election day! The story multiplying via the wires is from Bob Dylan’s concert last night in Madison, Wisconsin. As ever, we won’t know for sure what he really said until we get the audio, but the way it’s being reported, when he came back after the encore (and probably while he was introducing the band) he said: “Don’t believe the media. I think it’s going to be a landslide.”
Previous to that he’s also quoted as having said, “We tried to play good tonight since the president was here today.” The president, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, was in Madison earlier that day.
Why do I say he’s predicting it will be Mitt Romney in that landslide? Well, only because I give credit to Bob Dylan for not being a fool, and he’s been traveling plenty around the country and probably has as good a feel as any for what the mood is. No one with more than three brain cells expects a “landslide” for Obama, so it’s a process of elimination.
More than all that, of-course, he’s no doubt just tweaking people a little and having a chuckle. Nevertheless, the media predictably have jumped all over these remarks with a huge chorus of headlines announcing, “Bob Dylan predicts Obama ‘in a landslide’.” As I said, we don’t know exactly what he said unless we hear it, but even as quoted by the Obama-sympathetic-journalists, I don’t see where he is predicting that the landslide will be for Barack Obama. The money quote is simply: “Don’t believe the media. I think it’s going to be a landslide.”
“Don’t believe the media” is right.
A couple of months ago, this is the same Bob Dylan who was chased around by the interviewer in Rolling Stone, trying to get him to say something positive about Barack Obama—anything! One of Dylan’s exasperated responses was the following:
Look, I only met him a few times. I mean, what do you want me to say? He loves music. He’s personable. He dresses good. What the f*%k do you want me to say?
He utterly evaded saying anything about Obama’s political outlook and agenda. When asked about the “reaction against [Obama],” he merely compared him to past presidents, including specifically George W. Bush, making the point that “Anybody who’s going to take that job is going to be in for a rough time.” (What would Bruce have thought of that?)
When pressed on whether he thought that “some of the reaction against Obama has been in reaction to the event that a black man has become president of the United States,” his answer—again with noticeable exasperation—rejected that premise entirely.
Do you want me to repeat what I just said, word for word? What are you talking about? People loved the guy when he was elected. So what are we talking about? People changing their minds? Well, who are these people that changed their minds? Talk to them. What are they changing their minds for? What’d they vote for him for? They should’ve voted for somebody else if they didn’t think they were going to like him.
The interviewer, still dissatisfied with what he was getting, went on:
Q: The point I’m making is that perhaps lingering American resentments about race are resonant in the opposition to President Obama, which has not been a quiet opposition.
Dylan: You mean in the press? I don’t know anybody personally that’s saying this stuff that you’re just saying. The press says all kinds of stuff. I don’t know what they would be saying. Or why they would be saying it. You can’t believe what you read in the press anyway.
Indeed.
“Here’s pretty close to what I said last night in Madison. I said from the stage that we had to play better than good tonight, that the president was here today and he’s a hard act to follow. Also, that we’re not fooled by the media and we think it’s going to be a landslide. That’s pretty much all of it.”
- Bob Dylan
from Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/bobdylan
As I say, I’m a fan.
I just heard a clip of a recent appearance this morning. To me it sounds like it’s painful for him to sing.
That sounds like MSM wishful thinking. Dylan has been holding steady conservative/Christian/zionist for at least 30 years.
Dylan was always somewhat apolitical and not the left-winger that the media painted him only due to his anti-war stance.
In his autobiography he noted that in the early sixties if he liked anyone politicaly it was actually Goldwater but his appreciation was for him as an individual as he had no analysis of policy issues.
Was ready to png ya...then I saw it’s your thread. LOL
Thank you. It’s a little discouraging to see the dearth of reading comprehension and basic analytical reasoning I am seeing on this thread.
Sean (the author of OP) reasons to his opinion. AP just made theirs up.
As to Bob’s exact quote - recording of the show will be available soon - and I expect his words are being discussed on Dylan sites. expectingrain.com is the best
“Take all the dust from Californ-i-ah
and all the dirt from the Oklahoma plains
Take all the coal and soot from the West Virginia mines
Its a whole lot clearer than the New York Times..
And its hard times
from contry living down to New York Town..”
remembered song fragment from some obscure B Dylan bootleg...
IMHO, He always sounded like that.
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime
Didn’t You?
That’s exactly what came to my mind. I was a huge Dylan fan from the time his first record came out, saw him quite a few times in the early days, including when he first went electric. Loved his music.
Nobody actually can understand what says, he was just ordering a pizza.
The Press have absolutely no shame. They dropped Dylan like a hot potato years ago when he announced he was a born-again Christian, writing/singing religious songs. One flip remark about Obama.....suddenly, headlines. Oy, they’re giving schpilkis.
Sometimes it is very hard to understand what Bob Dylan is saying. Maybe the press heard what they wanted to hear here and misquoted him as having said Obama here though it isn’t hard to imagine him saying Obama would win.
Dylan was quoted earlier today as saying the following: "Well, drz mannyoun derg liaccifinebb strknab, but I ornn yon flig hernebb quazz."
Which, if true, would be a simple twist of fate.
Yesterday someone said he was endor sing Obama
<You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Amen. Let’s all pray that it’s blowing everything to the right.
That’s what AP said.
Without any factual basis. None.
Surprised? I hope not.
It’s all good.
We should not forget that he had a very successful tour in 2005 with Merle Haggard.
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