Posted on 09/27/2004 5:38:26 AM PDT by 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."
Funny you should mention Donovan - I read in last Friday's Washington Post that Donovan was appearing in the Washington area pushing his new album.
As Paul McCartney said "Quite rightly" although I am sure he is saying "quite right slick"
Gun toting Dylan Bump!
That's a heck of a line.
Gore a "buddy" of Dylan's ...I think not!
At a concert on 8/3/2002 Gore showed up at Newport Rhode Island. Teh gossip columns had been reporting how Gore had been crashing or attempting to crash in on other performers shows like Springsteens. Apparently the promoters of the concert allowed Gore on the side of the stage. When Dylan came out to take the stage Al Gore stepped in front of his path so that Dylan had to acknowledged him in some way. In pure Dylan style he looked up at Gore and pointed at him and exclaimed "Hey I've seen you on TeeeVeee!" and passed by Gore without a hand shake or another word.
Everything's Broken BUMP!
B U M P for Bob!
Thanks for posting this. This is my I-love-Dylan-get-back-to-this-later note.
let's just say that Dylan and Cash harmonizing is, uhh, an acquired taste.
Thankfully, I've acquired it.
Wrong person, wrong venue. This conversation happened at MSG in New York, not between Dylan and Gore, but Dylan and Conan O'Brien. You must be confused, Gore was at the same concert.
Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man, His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.
He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.
What's anybody indebted to him for? Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully
You must be about the same age as me.
I listened to this album in college a lot also (but my girlfriend hated Dylan).
This song was my favorite. I couldn't believe someone, other than Warren Zevon that is, had recorded a PRO-war song.
The Song 'Cold Irons Bound' from the album "Time out of Mind "was stunningly good. Just amazing poetry. I am not sure whether it is folk, country, or what. But it is definitely American to the core...
I found my world, found my world in you
But your love just hasn't proved true
I'm twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
Twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
Oh, the winds in Chicago have torn me to shreds
Reality has always had too many heads
Some things last longer than you think they will
There are some kind of things you can never kill
It's you and you only, I'm been thinking about
But you can't see in and it's hard lookin' out
I'm twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
Midway through the set there was sort of an uneasy silence (this was in SF) as Julie explained how she came to Jesus and how the death of her brother has strengthened her faith. I was impressed with her. She's quite the ham.
Thought you might interested.
Finally got the UUHofP - love it. Heard him do "Higher Power" when I saw the Sweet Harmony Travelin' Revue this summer, but this version w/ the McCrarys rocks.
The "faith" thing between these two is so odd as to defy description. They used to be in what they call a "cult," and Buddy is Jewish. Julie used to record CCM records. I'm not sure exactly where they stand now, except that they are both spiritual persons. I've heard there is an interesting article about the in the newest No Depression.
later...
He's waiting for the re-release of "I Love My Shirt."
Julie is kind of loopy onstage...wasn't she in a mental hospital at one time?
There is a good article about mostly Buddy in this month's ND. I subscribe mostly for the reviews and new artist info. I hate it when they inject politics into an article or review for absolutely no reason.
Maybe Free Republic needs a C&W ping list.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.