Bob Dylan on American Music and the Problem With Pop (Bob ain't a globalist)

Rolling Stone ^ | 4/29/09 | dylan/brinkley

[pissant]

Do you recall where you were at when Obama was elected? Did you feel part of that energy with the campaign? Do you feel like he's a good person?

Well I mean, how do you know? The people that are in history that I study up on are people like Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Scipio, maybe George Washington, Lincoln, those kind of guys. And I don't know much about any of these other guys that run for office.

snip

I want to just follow-up on that globalization talk you had with Sarkozy.

Yeah, I ask him, I said, "With all these bailouts and stimulus packages, all these bailouts throughout the country. I'm just wondering whether globalism is dead in the tracks? Ya know, is it over?" He doesn't say yes, he didn't say no.

But what intrigued me was you saying that we must get back to being the United States.

Oh, and he could get back to being France.

Boy, you're an individualist, aren't you? Does globalism therefore get oppressive to you? The global Internet? Global economics? Are you missing what some critics call the older, weirder America?

I NEVER thought the older America was weird in any way whatsoever. Where do people come up with that stuff?? To call it that? What's the old weird America? The depression? Or Teddy Roosevelt? What's old and weird? Well, musically, no. Musically we play a form of American music and that's not gonna go away. Whatever happens in the world won't affect that whatsoever. But you know globalism is, I would think, about getting rid of boundaries, nationalities. You're apart of one big world, no? It might take people awhile to get used to that. I don't like the trend.

[dennisw]

Dylan said he liked 0bomo plus this interviewer should have asked ol Bob what he thought of global warming. That would have been worth a laugh

[Mr. Blonde]

Bob singing Desolation Row earlier this month. Some of Bob's early songs work better with his voice now and some don't. This one definitely works better.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Thanks I’ll definitely check it out. Interesting observation about then and now. His reading can also vary from night to night depending on his mood and state of mind I imagine.

[Mr. Blonde]

When Jann Wenner asked him in ‘07 his response was, “Where’s the global warming? It’s freezing here”.

[mjp]

I study up on are people like Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Scipio

He knows about Scipio. I'm impressed

[Mr. Mojo]

Great arrangement. ...especially the funky organ.

[eclecticEel]

It seems he wanted to completely dodge any and all Obama questions - more power to him.

[period end of story]

Great album.