He made several very deliberate moves to alienate the organized left, from switching to electric guitar at a major folk festival to pursuing a traditional marriage.
One particularly harsh and excellent detail was his song "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" with lyrics similar to popular communist anthem "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill." Dylan's ex-girlfriend Joan Baez, herself a Communist, had sung "Joe Hill" to great acclaim. She had basically made a living off being known as Dylan's ex and for covering his songs in a bland, syrupy way.
Dylan's song basically takes "Joe Hill" - a boring, trite song that makes a murdering leftist out to be a saint - and transforms it into a haunting lyric about a real saint.
He also put out a country album in the time period of "Easy Rider" when the hippy culture most mocked and hated country as a right-wing, regressive style.
And of course, his well-known phase of born-again Christianity shows that he does not share his 60s contemporaries bias against traditional religion.
While he is definitely not a Republican, does not interest himself in policy questions, etc. I think that Bob Dylan is not ashamed of being American and actually loves this country and the people who live here - even the people who live in rural Mississippi and Nebraska.
That alone places him in a very different category than anyone on the Left today.
That alone places him in a very different category than anyone on the Left today.
Agreed. All he wanted to be is a singer. Still today, he'll sing anywhere. The man is a poet extraordinaire ..