How a Bob Dylan Anthem Made Frank Zappa Want to Quit Music (Criticizes Counterculture)

Frank Zappa was not a man who had many heroes. He was wary of the ways of the world and had the wherewithal to view his peers for what they were rather than celebrating them like idols and sinking into the past of their output. Zappa was all about pioneering the future and he felt hero-worship was a hurdle that got in the way of that.

Nevertheless, he was only human, and some tracks seem so heaven-sent that it would be a sin not to revere the ground that their sound resides over. This is the case with the defining American rock ‘n’ roll anthem of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan.

In the song, Dylan crucifies the crux of counterculture’s exposed achilleas heal—and he does it with such disdain that the world would never truly be the same when his cutting intellect, stirring poetry and the brilliance of the soaring melody all mingled into one pop culture opus.

Bob Dylan’s rage: Exploring 10 of his most cutting, nasty, caustic lyrics Read More

Zappa’s appraisal of the track is pretty much that. “When I heard ‘Like a Rolling Stone’,” Zappa told the writer Clinton Heylin, “I wanted to quit the music business.” That is quite a statement considering that when it was released in July 1965 Zappa was yet to release an official studio album and he would go on to unleash 62 of his own.

He continued: “I felt [that] if this wins and it does what it’s supposed to do, I don’t need to do anything else.” The song heralded the same sort of iconoclasm and societal incision that Zappa would champion throughout his career, but much like the moustachioed guitar God, Dylan’s anthem is actually more cult than you might think.

While the track is revered as a masterpiece and is rightfully recognised as one of it not the greatest song of all time, it somehow only wound up only reaching 41 on the US Billboard end of year charts. As Zappa wearily continued, “But it didn’t do anything. It sold but nobody responded to it in the way that they should have.”

While the brilliance of the anthem might not have been fully reflected in its reception, it has a legacy as rich as any that proves befitting of the masterpiece itself. Commercially it might not have accrued great masses and the revolution hidden in the welter of the words might not have fully materialised, but as Paul McCartney once said, with the song “he showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further.”

In truth, there is an unrelated quote from another iconoclast named Serge Gainsbourg that helps to define the legacy of the grisly, thistle-grabbing anthem. “Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty,” he once said, “because it lasts.” ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is still yet to gather any moss as it blazes a trail of just what rock ‘n’ roll music can be, and with that timeless intent in mind, Dylan went electric, embraced charged particles, and changed the world for a second time in a matter of years… Thankfully, it didn’t sell so many copies that Zappa hung up his hat before we had even seen it.

Report: Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa 1982 meeting was recorded by engineer

* December 23rd, 2010 1:18 pm ET

When Bob Dylan met with Frank Zappa in 1982, the session was recorded by an engineer, according to Zappa tape archivist Joe Travers.

On December 22, 1982, Dylan appeared, unannounced, on Zappa's doorsteps. According to Michael Gray, in his book Mother! Is The Story Of Frank Zappa (Proteus, 1984, pages 148-9), "I get a lot of weird calls, and someone suddenly called up saying, 'This is Bob Dylan. I want to play you my new songs'." Zappa went on to say that he had never met Dylan before, but could see someone (via a video screen) in the cold, with an open shirt, and no coat. Gray quoted Zappa, telling Karl Dallas, that Dylan played eleven new songs on the piano, humming the lyrics. "I thought they were good songs. He seemed like a nice guy . Didn't look like it would be too hard to work with him." For decades, both Dylan and Zappa fans have wondered what may have transpired during this meeting. It turns out that the session was recorded. Masato Kato interviewed Travers over the telephone for Player magazine in the spring of 2009. Here's what Travers had to say:

What happened was, when Bob came to the house, and went and had a meeting with Frank, Frank's engineer at the time, his name was Mark Pinske. And Mark ran off cassettes of the meeting at the time that they were having it. And unfortunately, those cassettes were lent out, and given out to people, and, they are not around any longer. So, unfortunately, those master cassettes of Bob and Frank at the studio talking about a possible working relationship do not live in the vault. They live somewhere else out there in the world.

One moment that has been documented was this quote from Pinske, Zappa's chief recording engineer/live sound engineer from 1980 to 1987:

My favorite moment with Zappa in the studio was when…I got back at him for saying, “I'm not a robot you know, I can only stay interested in these things for mere moments.” That was when Bob Dylan asked him what kind of engineer “this here Pinske was.” Frank said, “He gets a better drum sound in 20 minutes than most engineers can get in hours.”

I was fortunate enough to meet Zappa at WBCN's Prudential studios in 1977, while he was promoting his album, Läther. After the interview, we all got in the elevator, and Zappa was telling a story and quoted Dylan, saying "more people die in colleges than in old-age homes."

Thanks to Masato Kato.

Hell hath no fury like a man cuckolded -it’s NOT political.

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/5730/

The song is about socialite, Edie Palmer. A one time girlfriend of Bob Dylan, who cheated on him, with a number of people, while he was an up and coming musician, and eventually left him for the artist Andy Warhol. Their lives went different ways, with Dylan moving on to fame and fortune, and Palmer becoming destitute, and dying a homeless drug addict. Sadly, the song is black humour on Dylans part, mocking the girl after she was dumped by Warhol, and quickly lost the brief fame she had as his girlfriend.

Most of the song hints at a rich, fame hungry girl, who was maybe destined for a fall. But there are many hints to what happened to her, after falling on hard times:

“You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns. When they all come down and did tricks for you”

This refers to the many suitors that Palmer had. Many men, trying to impress and court her, and how much she loved it. Dylan refers to them as “jugglers and clowns”, as in, men trying to entertain her, trying to catch her attention. Dylan thought of them quite literally as desperate clowns. He comments that she had little care for their feelings, and probably refers to himself as one of these “clowns”, as he was well known to have pursued Palmer vigorously, as a younger man.

“You said you’d never compromise. With the mystery tramp, but now you realize. He’s not selling any alibis. As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes. And ask him do you want to make a deal?”

This refers to the fact that Palmer resorted to prostitution, not literally, but in Dylans eyes. It was well known that Palmer slept about a lot, mostly for gifts, and fame – generally sleeping with anyone she though of as “hip” – Dylan being one of them. He’s commenting that she used to make fun of “working class people”, and considered herself a better class, but at the same time was (in Dylan’s opinion) prostituting herself to the same people, for fame.

“You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat. Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat. Ain’t it hard when you discover that. He really wasn’t where it’s at, after he took from you everything he could steal.”

“The diplomat” was one of many names Dylan referred to the artist Andy Warhol. Dylan and Warhol were known enemies of the New York art scene. Dylan, the legitimate artist, and star, whereas Warhol was more “shock” value person, who attained fame by courting the media, and trying to shock. Dylan disliked Warhol, and his “factory” immensely, and felt of them as untalented wannabes. He called him “the diplomat”, as although he had an exterior image as a wild artist, he was in his early 40s, and very wealthy, so Dylan felt it was all an act, and he was in fact a very establish piece of New York society. “Chrome Horse” he is obviously referring to a car. The Siamese cat line is referring to Warhol’s almost comedic artistic decadence. The imagery of a man walking around town with a Siamese cat (very rare at the time) on his shoulder, was Dylan explaining how ridiculous he felt Warhol was, and how much attention he craved. “He really wasn’t where it’s at, after he took from you everything he could steal”. Warhol’s 60s fame was seen as a “fad” at the time, and Dylan was basically saying “you backed the wrong horse”, as in the late 60s, Dylan really was the biggest artist/star in the world, rivalling the Beatles, and Warhol had slipped into obscurity.

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