The knockin' on Dylan's door drove him nuts (Bob Dylan: hippie-hating gun owner?)

All contents © 2004 Daily News, L.P. ^ | Originally published on September 27, 2004 | BY JANE H. FURSE

[Behind Liberal Lines]

It's not easy being a counterculture icon - just ask Bob Dylan.

The unwitting voice of the Make Love, Not War Generation has written a memoir chronicling the agonies of fame, which include a plague of peaceniks so intrusive that he kept guns in his house and "wanted to set fire to these people."

In an excerpt from "Chronicles, Volume I" published in the current Newsweek, Dylan bemoans the consequences of writing "songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities."

"I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of," Dylan writes.

In fact, Dylan says he had two pistols and a rifle in his upstate Woodstock home to protect his family from his rowdiest fans.

His home was once a quiet refuge, but after his success, "road maps to our homestead must have been posted in all fifty states for gangs of dropouts."

"At first, it was merely the nomadic homeless making illegal entry - seemed harmless enough, but then rogue radicals looking for the Prince of Protest began to arrive - unaccountable-looking characters, gargoyle-looking gals, scarecrows, stragglers looking to party, raid the pantry," he writes.

"Not only that, but creeps thumping their boots across our roof could even take me to court if any of them fell off. This was so unsettling. I wanted to set fire to these people."

All he ever wanted was "a nine-to-five existence" - not to be some "Big Bubba of Rebellion."

"In my real life I got to do the things that I loved the best and that was all that mattered - the Little League games, birthday parties, taking my kids to school, camping trips, boating, rafting, canoeing, fishing," he writes.

But his genius for penning songs that spoke to a generation torn apart by the Vietnam War apparently turned him into "a scapegoat - someone to lead the charge against the Roman Empire."

For Dylan, 63, the soon-to-be-published book seems to mark the recovery from what he describes in Newsweek as a 25-year "downward spiral."

He spent three years writing this first installment, but says he didn't enjoy the process.

"I'm used to writing songs," he tells Newsweek, "and songs - I can fill 'em up with symbolism and metaphors. When you write a book like this, you gotta tell the truth and it can't be misinterpreted."

[Mr. Mojo]

Right on the money. Many point to Bring it all Back Home ('65) - an amazing album in its own right, and his first "electric" one - as the album where he broke from his "protest" past, but it was actually Another side of ('64). I suspect the Beatles listened to it a lot before recording Rubber Soul ('65).

JWH ('68) is just about as opposite an album as the one that immediately preceded it - Blonde on Blonde ('66) - as possible. The post-motorcycle-wreck album. The coming-back-down-to-earth album. Confused the critics yet again, and convinced the protest-folkies that not only was he gone for good but perhaps was never really with them to begin with.

[Mr. Mojo]

"All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities."

< / cringe >

Please don't let that be Zimmy talkin'.

[HenryLeeII]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Lennon loved Another Side, and was heavily influenced by it when writing "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."

[Mr. Mojo]

and I listen a lot to Love and Theft, it is a good one

"Mississippi" ....."High Water" ....."Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum" ......

Some good tunes on that album, for sure. But I hope he tracks down producer Daniel Lanois for his next one. The Lanois-produced Oh Mercy and Time out of Mind are among the very finest in his catalogue, imo.

[AnnaZ]

I just love Dylan, and listen to something of his at least once a week.

 

If anyone's interested, this is a pretty neat juxtaposition:

 

 

The Superhuman Crew
Painting by James Ensor/Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Published by the Getty Trust "The Superhuman Crew" brings together two visionary works of art--James Ensor's masterpiece, "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889" and Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row"--in a surprising, thought-provoking format. 48 color illustrations.

[Revolting cat!]

Please don't let that be Zimmy talkin'.

Sounds like the arts & entertainment intern in training at this metropolitan newspaper!

[InvisibleChurch]

yes, i know ... i didn't make it clear .... how do they sound?

[Revolting cat!]

I meant to say the quote from the book sounds like something that could have been written by... etc, not your comment.

As they say in D.C, I stand by what I meant to say!

[Mr. Mojo]

lol.....I know what you meant, Cat.

[don-o]

evening dylan bump

[Dr. Zoo]

I much like

Lemme start over...I really like the cadence of his voice and the way he applies Muzic to his Poetry

The first I remember of him was seeing the cover of an Album where he was walking down a NY street and had an Afro.

Didn't look so bad back then on Mr. Zimmerman.

I notice there is nothing mentioned on that website about his liking to ride motorcycles, that accident had a profound effect on him.

All the people I hung out with at that time seemed to understand everything he said. I couldn't understand it for years but loved the sound of it.

He has earned the right to blow with the wind. A major contributer to the 20th Century.

Thanks for the link

Geeze I started posting this an hour ago...got lost researching crazy acid muzic weirdos from the 60's and 70's...

:>)

yzyz

[earlyamerican]

I love that photo on that cover of Dylan

[Liberal Classic]

Hippies. They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.

[don-o]

Yes, buck a funch of hippies!

Threat or menace?

[Clemenza]

Never heard of him. I was born in 1946.

We're you raised Amish? Did you have a TV or radio in the 1960s/70s? My GRANDMOTHER knows who Dylan is and she's older than you are!

[wardaddy]

Dylan was always a Beat first.

[Clemenza]

I suspect that Mr. Zimmerman/Dylan is an "Iron Range Democrat" who has no problem with the second amendment. He did grow up in Hibbing after all.

[lucyblue]

Bob Dylan PING!

[Last Visible Dog]

Never heard of him. I was born in 1946

In what country and/or planet? Hopefully your people come in peace.

But seriously folks, you were 18 in 1964 and you never heard of Bob Dylan?

[don-o]

Get help.