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BOB DYLAN: THE ESSENTIAL INTERVIEWS
Now in paperback -- the definitive collection of Bob Dylan’s essential interviews from 1962 to the present
Dylan expert and longtime Rolling Stone contributor Jonathan Cott has compiled thirty-one interviews that, taken together, present the public transformation of a brilliant young man evading fame and its attendant invasion of privacy into a seasoned professional who has learned how to impart truth to those questioning him without giving away too much of his private self.
Included in Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews are all six major interviews Rolling Stone conducted with Dylan, by Jann S. Wenner, Mikal Gilmore, Kurt Loder, and Cott himself. Other highlights include Nat Hentoff’s legendary 1966 Playboy interview with the singer; Studs Terkel’s 1963 radio interview on Chicago’s WFMT; the interview Dylan gave to screenwriter Jay Cocks when Cocks was a Kenyon College student in 1964; a 1965 interview with director Nora Ephron; and an interview that Sam Shepard turned into a one-act play for Esquire in 1987. Each piece portrays Bob Dylan as an interview subject who, as Cott writes in his introduction, is "at once obviously reluctant, self-protecting, and self-concealing but equally often a stunningly direct, heartfelt, epiphanic, poetic, and, most important, playful expositor of his munificent and inspiring thought-dreams."
464 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
March 6, 2013
Amazing body of work selected here. Fascinating autobiography at times both flabbergasting and frustrating, but as Mr. Dylan has aged his honesty has issued forth on a more regular basis. Not that he outright lied about things as a younger man, he just seemed to delight in pulling our puppet strings and showing to a fault what fools we were for believing he may have the answers. It is obvious to me in this chronicle of his life through certain interviews that Dylan was searching as hard as anyone for answers, and for a time looked outside himself for Jesus to save him. He is not alone as many others have done the same thing. It all depends on the extent of the fire in ones ass as to what or who we may turn to in our horrendous hour of pain. Dylan has much to teach us now that he is definitely an elder. His autobiography Chronicles Vol. I is a good companion piece to this fine book. And not to be remiss it might be important to mention the interviews of Bonnie Prince Billy as a book in which to compare these titles to. Dylan does not like to be compared to himself but instead to other artists. It is there he will take his chances as to where he stands in the hierarchy of the performing artist as songwriter.
January 19, 2008
The interviews gathered in this collection begin in 1961 and end in 2004, from barely 20 through his early 60s. They are remarkably consistent in certain respects, though the tone ranges from unguarded to prickly, merely elusive to intentionally opaque or contradictory. They are all stubbornly resistant to any kind of analysis of his work, of any attempts to pigeon hole either his work with labels or his influences with anything like a cause and effect simplicity. So Dylan is not a protest singer or a rock and roll singer. He is not a spokesman for his generation. He has no claim to be a leader of any kind for any group. He is not anyone’s answer man. Nor does any song have a simple origin in a political motive or a personal narrative. They might capture feelings. They come out of the air or from somewhere Dylan can no longer recall. His standard response is I don’t know about that. He could have coached the Watergate crew on obfuscation. When he is relaxed or trusts the interviewer, he will talk more and be less belligerent but will hold to his basic reticence about his role, his songs, their meaning and origins. He will generously credit many colleagues past and present but back peddle from any assumptions that there is any kind of straight line from their work to his work, with few exceptions. He is, as he says, a song and dance man.
April 2, 2018
Nobody explains Dylan better than Dylan, and maybe nobody oughta try.
May 7, 2013
The more I read about Dylan and listen to him, the more mysterious and mythological he becomes. It's so backwards. The way he talks reveals how he thinks, which is unlike anyone I've ever even heard about. It is both illuminating and disorienting at the same time. This book of carefully selected interviews from 1962 through 2001 confirmed one big thing for me: Dylan is one of the most inspired and inspiring people in the past few centuries. A must-read.
March 30, 2017
Thoughts:
1. Why no one beat him with a stick in his 20's will always be a mystery.
2. Journalists came in with a point of view and never listened to an answer; they had their next statement to make.
3. Number 2 made the behavior in the first point make perfect sense.
1. Why no one beat him with a stick in his 20's will always be a mystery.
2. Journalists came in with a point of view and never listened to an answer; they had their next statement to make.
3. Number 2 made the behavior in the first point make perfect sense.
January 28, 2019
I recently read Chronicles, vol. 1 and loved it for what it is: a deliberately crafted, non-chronological version of Dylan's life. I accept that Chronicles is more of a folk ballad, using bits and pieces of historical fact, stretching the truth, and outright making things up, which tells the reader more about how Dylan's mind enjoys seeing the world than about what the actual events of his life were like.
But after I read that, I wanted to get into more of what really happened, year by year, and so I was glad to find this collection of 34 interviews with Dylan, from 1962 to 2009. I thought this would help me see Dylan more chronologically, and to understand his development as an artist.
Reading all of these interviews did give me some of that, but it also confirms that Dylan can be a difficult person to get to know. He's a true artist, and I think he wants people to discuss his songs, but he equally genuinely doesn't want to talk about meanings or interpretations. Even with that stance, though, reading the panorama of interviews gives an interesting picture of who Dylan is.
It wasn't really until the 1980s that he seemed to actually start talking like a real person in interviews. The interviews from the 1960s are full of half-truths, evasions, clever soundbytes, and persona that's not meant to be taken as a persona (and anyone who has any interest in Dylan at all should watch his 1965 press conference in San Francisco, transcribed here as chapter 8). Interviews from the 1970s see him talking about his movie, Renaldo and Clara, and then at the turn of the next decade about his conversion to Christianity.
But then later in the 1980s and through the end of the book, it seems like he feels more comfortable just being himself. He still won't be pinned down to any particular political or religious belief, nor to any specific interpretation of his songs. I really appreciate his perspective on politics, actually, and I think it would be a valuable point of view for more people to take right now:
Almost every interviewer wants to know something about Dylan's songwriting process. Where does he get his inspiration? What comes first, the words or the music? What's the best time of day for songwriting? Dylan rarely answers these sorts of questions at all. But occasionally, he gives a glimpse into how he views his craft, as in this comment in 1986:
Reading this selection of interviews helps me—someone born to a world that had already had Dylan for quite a few years—understand how influential and important he has been in music since the 1960s. I also found this volume fascinating as a look at what it has meant to be an artist of integrity in America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dylan's experience is not exactly anyone else's, but I saw a lot of resonance with other artists I know of in these same years.
But after I read that, I wanted to get into more of what really happened, year by year, and so I was glad to find this collection of 34 interviews with Dylan, from 1962 to 2009. I thought this would help me see Dylan more chronologically, and to understand his development as an artist.
Reading all of these interviews did give me some of that, but it also confirms that Dylan can be a difficult person to get to know. He's a true artist, and I think he wants people to discuss his songs, but he equally genuinely doesn't want to talk about meanings or interpretations. Even with that stance, though, reading the panorama of interviews gives an interesting picture of who Dylan is.
It wasn't really until the 1980s that he seemed to actually start talking like a real person in interviews. The interviews from the 1960s are full of half-truths, evasions, clever soundbytes, and persona that's not meant to be taken as a persona (and anyone who has any interest in Dylan at all should watch his 1965 press conference in San Francisco, transcribed here as chapter 8). Interviews from the 1970s see him talking about his movie, Renaldo and Clara, and then at the turn of the next decade about his conversion to Christianity.
But then later in the 1980s and through the end of the book, it seems like he feels more comfortable just being himself. He still won't be pinned down to any particular political or religious belief, nor to any specific interpretation of his songs. I really appreciate his perspective on politics, actually, and I think it would be a valuable point of view for more people to take right now:
Well, for me, there is no right and there is no left. There's truth and there's untruth, y'know? There's honesty and there's hypocrisy. Look in the Bible, you don't see nothing about right or left. Other people might have other ideas about things, but I don't, because I'm not that smart. I hate to keep beating people over the head with the Bible, but that's the only instrument I know, the only thing that stays true. (367)In these later interviews, he is more real about who he is and what he's interested in. We see that he actually loves literature of all kinds, whereas earlier on he had put forth an anti–higher education persona that didn't much care about literature except for Beat poets. He's a little more willing to accept that he is a celebrity, but he remains consistently bemused about it. "It's not a good idea and it's bad luck to look for life's guidance to popular entertainers," he says in 1991.
It's bad luck to do that. No one should do that. Popular entertainers are fine, there's nothing the matter with that but as long as you know where you're standing and what ground you're on. Many of them, they don't know what they're doing either. (396)These later interviews, where he describes his frustrations at studio recording, also really help to explain the long section in Chronicles where he describes the sessions for Oh Mercy, with Daniel Lanois. I see why he wanted to go into such detail about the pain of trying to get everything together just right in the studio. That one moment was typical of many times in his life.
Almost every interviewer wants to know something about Dylan's songwriting process. Where does he get his inspiration? What comes first, the words or the music? What's the best time of day for songwriting? Dylan rarely answers these sorts of questions at all. But occasionally, he gives a glimpse into how he views his craft, as in this comment in 1986:
I strive for something that feels right to me. It could be a lot of different kinds of moods and phrasings, or lines that might not seem to be too connected at the time with the music. They're all connected. A lot of times people will take the music out of my lyrics and just read them as lyrics. That's not really fair because the music and the lyrics I've always felt are pretty closely wrapped up. You can't separate one from the other that simply. A lot of time the meaning is more in the way a line is sung, and not just in the line. (349)I think that says a lot about why he won't be cornered on particular meanings. What he does is all connected, and it's both meaning and feeling. I think in his mind, it makes no sense to separate everything that's connected, nor to lock all of that into a single way of performing or understanding.
Reading this selection of interviews helps me—someone born to a world that had already had Dylan for quite a few years—understand how influential and important he has been in music since the 1960s. I also found this volume fascinating as a look at what it has meant to be an artist of integrity in America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dylan's experience is not exactly anyone else's, but I saw a lot of resonance with other artists I know of in these same years.
December 24, 2020
I approached this book as a big Bob Dylan fan (Highway 61 Revisited, Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Planet Waves being my favorite albums) but as a relative novice of his personal life and development. In fact the majority of what I know of his personal life came from my viewing of (and subsequent research concerning) the recent movie "I'm Not There." Long story short, I was aware of Dylan's reputation as an enigma and intrigued by the possibility of dispelling some of the mystery.
There's good news and bad news: this book does dispell a lot of the Dylan mystique, but it turns out that the self-concocted enigma was mostly smoke and mirrors hiding a pretty vacuous core.
Full disclosure: ever since I learned of Dylan's abrupt turn to fundamentalist Christianity (again, from the movie "I'm Not There") in the late 70's, I had harbored misgivings about his integrity. It seems like those misgivings were mostly confirmed in these interviews. Dylan first comes off as a brilliant but obfuscating trickster. But then around the mid-70's, particularly in the interviews concerning his movie "Renaldo and Clara," he just seems full of you-know-what. These are followed by the bizarre articles from his born-again period, after which he just comes across as kind of burned out, until a revival around the Time Out of Mind release. The main impression I had from these later interviews was that he was pretty much just agreeing with whatever the interviewer posited, but dressing it up to seem like he was saying something original.
The exceptions are the '97-and-after interviews, probably the most valuable of the book in terms of showing an honest Dylan making a sincere effort to explain himself; in fact, the two L.A. Times interviews with Robert Hillburn are probably the best in the entire book.
The grand impression I took away from the the collection was that Dylan started out following his passion (you don't memorize Woody Guthrie's entire catalog just to fit in), then created a mysterious persona to stand out from the crowd once he started writing his own songs. This takes brains, talent and ambition. Then he began repeating the facts of "Bob Dylan" and playing the character of "Bob Dylan" to the public so often that he gradually convinced himself that that was who he was. He developed a combative personality with the "Mr. Jones's" of the world and played word games and riddles on anyone who asked him a legitimate question, mostly in order to hide the fact that he had no idea what he was talking about.
All the while, at least part of him remained cognizant of not actually being any of those things, creating a tension which ultimately escalated into his spiritual crisis of the late 70's. In the aftermath of this episode, the early 80's, it was pretty much too late to figure out who he actually was so he gave up trying, instead leaning on the persona that he had spent years cultivating so fastidiously, hoping that it would support him for as long as he needed it. That position became untenable in the mid-90's when he finally gave in and stopped putting forth effort to nourish that persona, which is coincidentally when he started to produce his best music once more.
It is telling to me that Dylan is by far at his most earnest when he's discussing a) Christianity and b) "Renaldo and Clara," perhaps the only two ventures in which he ever fully invested himself, and both equally misguided. I plead guilty to charges of armchair psychology, but this smacks to me of someone who was always searching for fulfillment, never content with his own identity. Additionally, you have to feel a pretty spectacular void in order to turn to such a drastic solution as born-again Christianity.
This is further borne out just by looking at the "Renaldo" movie, which seems to be an amazingly narcissistic vanity project. It is basically a movie about "Bob Dylan" in which Bob, who may or may not be Bob (because there's another guy playing "Bob Dylan" who's not Bob), must decide between two beautiful goddesses who love him and are striving for his affection. This is a project that only could have been brought to fruition by someone with a complete cult of personality surrounding him. There is a palpable bitterness in his 11/16/78 Rolling Stone interview when Dylan expresses irritation at the unkind critics who would dare to not understand his movie. He even utters the cliché "I'd like to see any one of those assholes try and do what I do." (p.265)
I used to think of Dylan as a chameleon, but now I think that maybe a mockingbird would be a better analogy. A chameleon tries to blend in, whereas a mockingbird succeeds by standing out, loudly imitating as many different birds as it can. Dylan is a beautiful mockingbird, perhaps the best and most amazing ever, but there is something sad and vaguely troubling about an organism whose strength lies in its ability to dress itself as something else. He essentially admits that he does this in his most recent interviews, where he talks blatantly about robbing melodies and snippets from other traditional songs.
Yet through all the BS, I don't appreciate Dylan's music any less. His songs, lyrics and melodies are unforgettable, even if nobody (including him) knows what they mean. In fact, I think he does himself and his fans a disservice by trying to explain any of them either to us or to himself. His music is most evocative on an instinctive, intuitive and archetypal level. Dylan himself admitted that his best writing occurs as inspiration, very quickly and without him actually knowing how he's getting the idea.
Perhaps this is his strongest legacy: he is the best example of a well-oiled but ultimately empty funnel through which inspiration may flow in the most unimpeded way possible. I do not say this to belittle him; there is great value in such a talent. It's songwriting on an instinctive level, and he's the best at it. He is the artist who least gets in the way of the music he plucks from the ether. He is very much like Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter, or to a lesser extent The Band, in that ability to tap into the primal, ancient sensibilities that move us all.
It's strange that my feelings while reading this book changed and adapted almost as often as did Dylan himself. Three quarters of the way through I found myself thinking poorly of the artist, just another pretentious dick. But at the end, post-'97, he genuinely seems to come to grips with his shortcomings and actually get past most of his earlier hang ups, something which is damn impressive to witness over the course of a handful of interviews and several years.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
There's good news and bad news: this book does dispell a lot of the Dylan mystique, but it turns out that the self-concocted enigma was mostly smoke and mirrors hiding a pretty vacuous core.
Full disclosure: ever since I learned of Dylan's abrupt turn to fundamentalist Christianity (again, from the movie "I'm Not There") in the late 70's, I had harbored misgivings about his integrity. It seems like those misgivings were mostly confirmed in these interviews. Dylan first comes off as a brilliant but obfuscating trickster. But then around the mid-70's, particularly in the interviews concerning his movie "Renaldo and Clara," he just seems full of you-know-what. These are followed by the bizarre articles from his born-again period, after which he just comes across as kind of burned out, until a revival around the Time Out of Mind release. The main impression I had from these later interviews was that he was pretty much just agreeing with whatever the interviewer posited, but dressing it up to seem like he was saying something original.
The exceptions are the '97-and-after interviews, probably the most valuable of the book in terms of showing an honest Dylan making a sincere effort to explain himself; in fact, the two L.A. Times interviews with Robert Hillburn are probably the best in the entire book.
The grand impression I took away from the the collection was that Dylan started out following his passion (you don't memorize Woody Guthrie's entire catalog just to fit in), then created a mysterious persona to stand out from the crowd once he started writing his own songs. This takes brains, talent and ambition. Then he began repeating the facts of "Bob Dylan" and playing the character of "Bob Dylan" to the public so often that he gradually convinced himself that that was who he was. He developed a combative personality with the "Mr. Jones's" of the world and played word games and riddles on anyone who asked him a legitimate question, mostly in order to hide the fact that he had no idea what he was talking about.
All the while, at least part of him remained cognizant of not actually being any of those things, creating a tension which ultimately escalated into his spiritual crisis of the late 70's. In the aftermath of this episode, the early 80's, it was pretty much too late to figure out who he actually was so he gave up trying, instead leaning on the persona that he had spent years cultivating so fastidiously, hoping that it would support him for as long as he needed it. That position became untenable in the mid-90's when he finally gave in and stopped putting forth effort to nourish that persona, which is coincidentally when he started to produce his best music once more.
It is telling to me that Dylan is by far at his most earnest when he's discussing a) Christianity and b) "Renaldo and Clara," perhaps the only two ventures in which he ever fully invested himself, and both equally misguided. I plead guilty to charges of armchair psychology, but this smacks to me of someone who was always searching for fulfillment, never content with his own identity. Additionally, you have to feel a pretty spectacular void in order to turn to such a drastic solution as born-again Christianity.
This is further borne out just by looking at the "Renaldo" movie, which seems to be an amazingly narcissistic vanity project. It is basically a movie about "Bob Dylan" in which Bob, who may or may not be Bob (because there's another guy playing "Bob Dylan" who's not Bob), must decide between two beautiful goddesses who love him and are striving for his affection. This is a project that only could have been brought to fruition by someone with a complete cult of personality surrounding him. There is a palpable bitterness in his 11/16/78 Rolling Stone interview when Dylan expresses irritation at the unkind critics who would dare to not understand his movie. He even utters the cliché "I'd like to see any one of those assholes try and do what I do." (p.265)
I used to think of Dylan as a chameleon, but now I think that maybe a mockingbird would be a better analogy. A chameleon tries to blend in, whereas a mockingbird succeeds by standing out, loudly imitating as many different birds as it can. Dylan is a beautiful mockingbird, perhaps the best and most amazing ever, but there is something sad and vaguely troubling about an organism whose strength lies in its ability to dress itself as something else. He essentially admits that he does this in his most recent interviews, where he talks blatantly about robbing melodies and snippets from other traditional songs.
Yet through all the BS, I don't appreciate Dylan's music any less. His songs, lyrics and melodies are unforgettable, even if nobody (including him) knows what they mean. In fact, I think he does himself and his fans a disservice by trying to explain any of them either to us or to himself. His music is most evocative on an instinctive, intuitive and archetypal level. Dylan himself admitted that his best writing occurs as inspiration, very quickly and without him actually knowing how he's getting the idea.
Perhaps this is his strongest legacy: he is the best example of a well-oiled but ultimately empty funnel through which inspiration may flow in the most unimpeded way possible. I do not say this to belittle him; there is great value in such a talent. It's songwriting on an instinctive level, and he's the best at it. He is the artist who least gets in the way of the music he plucks from the ether. He is very much like Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter, or to a lesser extent The Band, in that ability to tap into the primal, ancient sensibilities that move us all.
It's strange that my feelings while reading this book changed and adapted almost as often as did Dylan himself. Three quarters of the way through I found myself thinking poorly of the artist, just another pretentious dick. But at the end, post-'97, he genuinely seems to come to grips with his shortcomings and actually get past most of his earlier hang ups, something which is damn impressive to witness over the course of a handful of interviews and several years.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
January 15, 2025
My favourite interviews here are the ones from 1978 - around the release of Renaldo and Clara. It's Dylan at his least obscure and most spiritually-literate, at least in regards to his interviews.
This is exceptional and required reading - even if you're just interested in the general songwriting process and the changes in recorded music from the 1950s until now.
This is exceptional and required reading - even if you're just interested in the general songwriting process and the changes in recorded music from the 1950s until now.
November 22, 2017
Like his recordings, some periods are more interesting than others. I preferred the smartass kid and the cranky elder statesman phases. This was my favorite exchange in the entire book:
Interviewer: You're not going to change drastically like Joan Baez has on her last album, more towards funk?
Dylan: I didn't think it was all that funky. Oh, maybe for her.... Funk is not something that you capture on record, funk is a way of life. It's a way you feel, you can't just make a funky sounding record. But I know what you mean. Funk has to do with throwing coins into the coffin, that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Throwing coins into the coffin?
Dylan: Yeah, funk has to do with different beliefs.
Interviewer: You're not going to change drastically like Joan Baez has on her last album, more towards funk?
Dylan: I didn't think it was all that funky. Oh, maybe for her.... Funk is not something that you capture on record, funk is a way of life. It's a way you feel, you can't just make a funky sounding record. But I know what you mean. Funk has to do with throwing coins into the coffin, that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Throwing coins into the coffin?
Dylan: Yeah, funk has to do with different beliefs.
March 28, 2025
Todos tenemos ídolos.
Espejos en los que nos proyectamos sin dejar espacio a la crítica objetiva que nos haría darnos cuenta de que necesitamos una mejor iluminación iconoclasta.
Desde que tengo uso de razón, Dylan ha sido el mío. Juglar esquivo, aristócrata solitario, poeta de energía primigenia que ha elegido pretender ser tantas cosas como forma de dejarle claro al mundo que ante todo es él mismo y va a hacer lo que le da la gana.
Cuando tenía unos 11 años, leyendo “Buscando a Bob” de Jordi Sierra i Fabra me encontré con una cita de Dylan que rezaba: “Don’t believe in me. I’m nothing more than a mirror where you want to be reflected. Where you need to be reflected for some reason. You need to break the mirrors, son”. Nunca supe si esta frase la llegó a decir Dylan de verdad o se la inventó el autor para darle voz a lo que he considerado siempre la mejor definición del arte y de mi admiración por Bob Dylan.
He tardado muchos años, pero creo que he conseguido entender por qué hay que romper los espejos en los que nos reflejamos, aunque sea tan solo para volver a ensamblarlos.
Este libro, a través de treinta y una entrevistas seleccionadas cuidadosamente, busca recrear el caleidoscopio especular que es Dylan a través de sus propias palabras. El resultado parece ser el mismo de siempre: cualquier esfuerzo por contenerlo y definirlo es vano. Se esconde a plena vista. Basta con leer sus canciones, aunque como siempre, el viaje y el proceso por intentar capturarlo es lo que hace que este espejo sea tan divertido.
Al leer este libro, siento que he conocido por fin una faceta de Bob que nunca había sido capaz de nombrar, pero que está enmascarada en todas sus canciones. Debajo de todas las florituras y las proyecciones que hacemos sobre él, tan solo hay un tipo extraño, amable, inteligente, volátil y evitativo que quiere que le dejen escribir canciones en paz, aunque eso sea precisamente lo que le condena.
La existencia de Dylan es una existencia maldita. Lo único que quiso siempre es escribir canciones y lo hizo tan condenadamente bien que ganó un Nobel de Literatura. Sin embargo, detrás del genio me he encontrado también a un tipo triste y solitario que muy pronto se dio cuenta de que correr no tiene sentido. Al final la soledad siempre te alcanza.
Quizás por eso decidió vivir eternamente en la carretera. (Y eso que en los últimos años parece haber encontrado algo de paz)
El otro día vi la película de Maingold y se me quedó grabada una escena en la que propio Bob, cansado de las expectativas que la gente tiene sobre él, dice “Everyone asks where these songs come from. But […] they're not asking where the songs come from. They're asking why the songs didn't come to them.” No habría sabido definir mejor el genio, la simpleza y la condena de Dylan.
En fin, tres años llevaba este libro en mi estantería esperándome, pero como las cosas que son familiares, siempre sabemos que podemos volver a ellas, y quizás por eso he tardado tanto en leerlo.
Ha sido un viaje divertido.
Ha sido como volver a conocer a un viejo amigo.
(PD: dicho todo esto, no sé si alguna ninguna mujer podría permitirse vivir desde ese existencialismo anárquico e individualista desde el que vive Dylan y en general, la relación de este tío con las mujeres es cuanto menos irresponsable)
Espejos en los que nos proyectamos sin dejar espacio a la crítica objetiva que nos haría darnos cuenta de que necesitamos una mejor iluminación iconoclasta.
Desde que tengo uso de razón, Dylan ha sido el mío. Juglar esquivo, aristócrata solitario, poeta de energía primigenia que ha elegido pretender ser tantas cosas como forma de dejarle claro al mundo que ante todo es él mismo y va a hacer lo que le da la gana.
Cuando tenía unos 11 años, leyendo “Buscando a Bob” de Jordi Sierra i Fabra me encontré con una cita de Dylan que rezaba: “Don’t believe in me. I’m nothing more than a mirror where you want to be reflected. Where you need to be reflected for some reason. You need to break the mirrors, son”. Nunca supe si esta frase la llegó a decir Dylan de verdad o se la inventó el autor para darle voz a lo que he considerado siempre la mejor definición del arte y de mi admiración por Bob Dylan.
He tardado muchos años, pero creo que he conseguido entender por qué hay que romper los espejos en los que nos reflejamos, aunque sea tan solo para volver a ensamblarlos.
Este libro, a través de treinta y una entrevistas seleccionadas cuidadosamente, busca recrear el caleidoscopio especular que es Dylan a través de sus propias palabras. El resultado parece ser el mismo de siempre: cualquier esfuerzo por contenerlo y definirlo es vano. Se esconde a plena vista. Basta con leer sus canciones, aunque como siempre, el viaje y el proceso por intentar capturarlo es lo que hace que este espejo sea tan divertido.
Al leer este libro, siento que he conocido por fin una faceta de Bob que nunca había sido capaz de nombrar, pero que está enmascarada en todas sus canciones. Debajo de todas las florituras y las proyecciones que hacemos sobre él, tan solo hay un tipo extraño, amable, inteligente, volátil y evitativo que quiere que le dejen escribir canciones en paz, aunque eso sea precisamente lo que le condena.
La existencia de Dylan es una existencia maldita. Lo único que quiso siempre es escribir canciones y lo hizo tan condenadamente bien que ganó un Nobel de Literatura. Sin embargo, detrás del genio me he encontrado también a un tipo triste y solitario que muy pronto se dio cuenta de que correr no tiene sentido. Al final la soledad siempre te alcanza.
Quizás por eso decidió vivir eternamente en la carretera. (Y eso que en los últimos años parece haber encontrado algo de paz)
El otro día vi la película de Maingold y se me quedó grabada una escena en la que propio Bob, cansado de las expectativas que la gente tiene sobre él, dice “Everyone asks where these songs come from. But […] they're not asking where the songs come from. They're asking why the songs didn't come to them.” No habría sabido definir mejor el genio, la simpleza y la condena de Dylan.
En fin, tres años llevaba este libro en mi estantería esperándome, pero como las cosas que son familiares, siempre sabemos que podemos volver a ellas, y quizás por eso he tardado tanto en leerlo.
Ha sido un viaje divertido.
Ha sido como volver a conocer a un viejo amigo.
(PD: dicho todo esto, no sé si alguna ninguna mujer podría permitirse vivir desde ese existencialismo anárquico e individualista desde el que vive Dylan y en general, la relación de este tío con las mujeres es cuanto menos irresponsable)
August 26, 2022
It’s fun to see Dylan’s different interview “strategies” over the years. There’s lots of BS, but that’s part of the allure. It’s frustrating to read interviews where he’s deflecting every question, but somehow it’s still enlightening. The best portions are when the interviewers get him to geek out on his influences, whether it be music, writers, or movies.
April 30, 2025
He may be called quirky; but definitely an innovative genius when it came to musical expression and poetry. Those far removed from that generation need to indulge themselves in his musical offerings. He is so much more than his chart topping songs.
January 25, 2018
Always carry a light-bulb when you find yourself taking a hike with a donkey in the mountains.
January 19, 2018
Cott, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, compiled 34 of Dylan’s most intriguing, eloquent, and bewildering interviews presented in full-length. Chronically ordered and ranging from 1961 through 2007, the story of Dylan’s life and career is presented as complete as you’ll ever get with the enigmatic and private troubadour. The reader follows a path starting with Dylan’s arrival and rise in the Greenwich Village folk music scene and his own exaggerated and untruthful upbringing then continues with such milestones such as going electric, living a quiet life out of the public eye after a near fatal motorcycle crash, dismissing being the voice of a generation, a mid-70s comeback, converting to Christianity, hitting career lows in the 80s, toying with the idea of never making another album in the early 90s, and kicking-off an ongoing late career renaissance in 1997. Depending on his mood, the types of questions, and the motive of the interviewer, Dylan can be playful, open, or defensive at a moment’s notice. Featured interviewers in this collection include Kurt Loder, Sam Shepard, Jann Wenner, and Nora Ephron. This collection is a great profile on the 20th century’s most elusive and enigmatic songwriter.
July 24, 2021
Bob Dylan is a mystery. There is no doubt about it. No amount of books about Dylan will help you to understand him. If anything, you might feel that you know him even less than you did before.
Saying that I still enjoyed reading this collection of Bob Dylan interviews. It encompasses most of his career, from 1962 to 2009, though some periods are more interesting to read about than others. My favorite interviews were about the ones where he talked about Renaldo and Clara and what that film actually meant.
And I'm still not sure what Renaldo and Clara is all about.
Sometimes his way of avoiding answering a question drove me up the wall. Especially in the 60s. I don't know how anyone agreed to interview him at that time. They probably were high or something.
So if you want to know who and what influenced Bob Dylan, this book is for you. If you want to get a glimpse of the way the man thinks and talks, you might find a few clues here and there in the book. But I think it's impossible to know who Bob Dylan really is. All we can do is enjoy his music and get inspired by his words.
Saying that I still enjoyed reading this collection of Bob Dylan interviews. It encompasses most of his career, from 1962 to 2009, though some periods are more interesting to read about than others. My favorite interviews were about the ones where he talked about Renaldo and Clara and what that film actually meant.
And I'm still not sure what Renaldo and Clara is all about.
Sometimes his way of avoiding answering a question drove me up the wall. Especially in the 60s. I don't know how anyone agreed to interview him at that time. They probably were high or something.
So if you want to know who and what influenced Bob Dylan, this book is for you. If you want to get a glimpse of the way the man thinks and talks, you might find a few clues here and there in the book. But I think it's impossible to know who Bob Dylan really is. All we can do is enjoy his music and get inspired by his words.
August 21, 2010
Any one who knows me knows I'm a "Dylanologist". I have already read many of the interviews in this compilation.
I especially recommend this compilation because it focuses on Dylan's thoughts on his development as an artist as opposed to the baser objectives of other such compilations and commentary.
I especially recommend this compilation because it focuses on Dylan's thoughts on his development as an artist as opposed to the baser objectives of other such compilations and commentary.
July 7, 2018
Some very real highlights and a couple of duds. Interesting to revisit some of things things, many of which I have read before but now are compiled in this one place. One can really tell when Bob is either taking things seriously and/or coherent vs. when he is jacking around and perhaps not quite . . . concentrating. Definitely worth it for Bob fans.
August 5, 2013
huge dylan fan and had high hopes for this book but when i stared to read it i found out it was just a book compiled of interviews throughout his career not a book for reading but a book to skim through now and again
August 31, 2013
Not sure this book contained any enlightening interviews.... many just got repetitive. Or maybe all his interviews tend to be repetitive? Part of the allure?
December 2, 2021
Loved hearing Dylan on Dylan in his own words...he can really be a hoot with wordplay. A couple favorites are 1987's "A Short Life of Trouble" by the incomparable Sam Shepard (written in play form), 2007's interview with Jann S. Wenner (who incorrectly quotes "the mystical garden" and Dylan repeatedly corrects it to "mystic garden"), and the 2009 interview with Douglas Brinkley (in which Dylan waxes lyrically about Duluth, his birthplace...and few people would choose this town for lyrical waxing).
His improvement with handling interviews is noticeable too...from prickly to more reasonable. (Imagine being asked THE SAME QUESTIONS over and over again, though...what a bore.) He seems to understand that he doesn't need to consider each question as a challenge and that answers can be funny, cagey, short, or handled in many ways.
The book I got from Amazon did not have this cover and did not have a photo of Dylan ANYWHERE, which was unfortunate. But overall...his own words are mesmerizing.
His improvement with handling interviews is noticeable too...from prickly to more reasonable. (Imagine being asked THE SAME QUESTIONS over and over again, though...what a bore.) He seems to understand that he doesn't need to consider each question as a challenge and that answers can be funny, cagey, short, or handled in many ways.
The book I got from Amazon did not have this cover and did not have a photo of Dylan ANYWHERE, which was unfortunate. But overall...his own words are mesmerizing.
November 22, 2020
Well, interesting take on the evolution of both the interviewee and the interviewer.
In the 60's, journos pretentious questions being dismissed by Dylan in a funny way. He later said that he couldn't answer those point blank shots at him without some though, and he resisted to be shoehorned as the leader of the movement.
In the 70's, the pretentiousness of the journos reached nauseous levels, quoting philosophers, writers, other musicians -you name it- just to have an aura of intellectualism when asking our hero. But a more mature Dylan made the effort to answer most of them in an honest way.
In the 80's the bard goes to hell with his born again christian bollocks. But to give him some credit, my suspicion was that he wanted to shag the beautiful black girls from his gospel chorus; although perhaps it was a way to evade stupid questions with stupid religious answers, or positioning himself outside in the birth of the neoliberalism era. Funny enough the questions are way more accommodating, which revels the reactionary nature of journos.
In the 90's and noughties the interviews are more honest, the answers have the wisdom of experience and hard learning on the road. My favourite passage is this:
"...To me America means the Indians. They were here and this is their country and all the white men are just trespassing. We’ve devastated the natural resources of this country, for no particular reason except to make money and buy houses and send our kids to college and shit like that. To me America is the Indians, period”…. “What we did to the Indians is disgraceful. I think America, to get right, has got to start there first.”
It was okay.
In the 60's, journos pretentious questions being dismissed by Dylan in a funny way. He later said that he couldn't answer those point blank shots at him without some though, and he resisted to be shoehorned as the leader of the movement.
In the 70's, the pretentiousness of the journos reached nauseous levels, quoting philosophers, writers, other musicians -you name it- just to have an aura of intellectualism when asking our hero. But a more mature Dylan made the effort to answer most of them in an honest way.
In the 80's the bard goes to hell with his born again christian bollocks. But to give him some credit, my suspicion was that he wanted to shag the beautiful black girls from his gospel chorus; although perhaps it was a way to evade stupid questions with stupid religious answers, or positioning himself outside in the birth of the neoliberalism era. Funny enough the questions are way more accommodating, which revels the reactionary nature of journos.
In the 90's and noughties the interviews are more honest, the answers have the wisdom of experience and hard learning on the road. My favourite passage is this:
"...To me America means the Indians. They were here and this is their country and all the white men are just trespassing. We’ve devastated the natural resources of this country, for no particular reason except to make money and buy houses and send our kids to college and shit like that. To me America is the Indians, period”…. “What we did to the Indians is disgraceful. I think America, to get right, has got to start there first.”
It was okay.
August 14, 2021
- Do you think of yourself primarily as a singer or a poet?
- Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y'know.
A mixture of characters portraits, conversations and attempts to get underneath the songs. Dylan is incredibly elusive, at best opaque and always in control. You don’t ever feel even close to understanding him but there is a shift after the motorcycle accident and a sense of him beginning to sound more comfortable in being Bob Dylan as he ages. He’s never not entertaining and this is a great profile.
- Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man, y'know.
A mixture of characters portraits, conversations and attempts to get underneath the songs. Dylan is incredibly elusive, at best opaque and always in control. You don’t ever feel even close to understanding him but there is a shift after the motorcycle accident and a sense of him beginning to sound more comfortable in being Bob Dylan as he ages. He’s never not entertaining and this is a great profile.
February 2, 2021
This rounds up most of the better interviews Dylan's given, with an emphasis on his Rolling Stone cover-story chats. While it's nice to have so many of these between two covers, he's such a wary subject that 400-plus pages is a bit much even for a devotee. Sometimes confounding, often evasive or gnomic, frequently funny or sly, now and then profound or poetic, rarely revealing factually. But usually interesting.
January 22, 2018
The book is nice it’s very interesting to read Dylan’s interviews during the years.
But I don’t like the man... and at some point when somebody sees Jesus everywhere it’s disturbing and hard to take him seriously... I don’t think Dylan is a nice man but he is trying to be a better person with the religion he choose...
But I don’t like the man... and at some point when somebody sees Jesus everywhere it’s disturbing and hard to take him seriously... I don’t think Dylan is a nice man but he is trying to be a better person with the religion he choose...
December 30, 2018
Dylan has always been my favorite artist. I received this book as a Christmas gift. I was surprised that although Dylan is always very wary of the press and protects his privacy, for many years he was giving long and monthly interviews. While he does get around answering some questions, I found his thought processes as fascinating as his music. A must read for any Dylan fan!
December 3, 2021
Cool
A must read for Dylan fan or anyone interested in popular culture from 1962 to the present. As might be expected, A very enigmatic guy.The interviews provide an opportunity to see what has and what hasn't changed over the years. This and Chronicles provide unbiased glimpses into who he really is and how that mind spins, at least as much as he is willing to reveal.
A must read for Dylan fan or anyone interested in popular culture from 1962 to the present. As might be expected, A very enigmatic guy.The interviews provide an opportunity to see what has and what hasn't changed over the years. This and Chronicles provide unbiased glimpses into who he really is and how that mind spins, at least as much as he is willing to reveal.
June 24, 2021
Having followed Bob for 45 years (sadly not the full 60), listening to the music, poring over the lyrics, consulting reviews and biographies and analyses, and exploring his rich oeuvre through podcasts, this feels like a core text.
July 8, 2021
Entertaining chronicle of the poet and songwriter through his own words, especially his early interviews and the late period. Consistent throughout his career, he remains baffled by the interest shown in him, rather than his music.
November 8, 2022
An excellent collection of interviews from 1962 -2009. Early in this career, Dylan was enigmatic and didn't much answer the interviewers questions. As he's grown older, he's more forthcoming, though still enigmatic. Interesting to see how much he changes/doesn't change over the years.
August 16, 2023
It's entertaining to watch Bob Dylan create his persona and perplex interviewers from the start, almost like a decades-long Andy Kaufman bit. It is required reading for anyone who wants to know more about the Bob Dylan that Robert Zimmerman wants you to know more about.
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