Friday, January 05, 2007
Bob Dylan
I listened a lot to Bob Dylan's theme time hour radio show that was played on radio's 2 and 6 over the holidays. I like Bob's patter between songs, it was some how comforting to hear his gravelly voice, He also played a good selection of older music. The guy is not stupid. I don't see that the smile addicted dick head Paul McCartney could have managed such a good job. (Not that I would have known, because I would have trashed the radio, when humble Paul started talking).
When I was at school I really liked Bob Dylan. The trouble was that I was perhaps the only person (under 20) who was into Dylan. My school chums were more into the chart material. I am sure there was a lot of underground material at the time that I should have been listening too. If I could travel back in time, I would give myself a slap and a good talking too. (Note I was listening to The Smiths and New Order of course, I was uncool at school, but I wasn't that uncool!)
At some stage in my life, I wanted to talk to Bob Dylan and try to convince him to make good records again. Ego of course. My brother lent me a copy of Bob's recent CD "Modern Times", that I like, but I am moved more by people like "Cat Power", "Mary Lou Lord", and "Jeffrey Lewis". Such is the fate of old artists.
When I was at school Dylan put out the CD "Infidels". This was his last great lyric album. It was good that my hero was making good records again. I went to see him play at Newcastle around 1985/1986. I had to take a day off school and I missed some school trip. This annoyed some of the people in the sixth form that they threatened not to support my application to go to Cambridge University if I went to see Dylan play. Being stubborn I went to see Dylan anyway, so I didn't apply to Cambridge. For some time after this I tried my hand at telling this as an amusing story. However, I seemed to have to explain things like who Dylan was that tended to reduce the comic impact of the story. Let us see if the blogosphere responds better.
One year I spent Christmas in Las Vegas. As I was walking through a casino I heard the Bob Dylan song "Jokerman" play. My life is getting strange I thought.