Rock and roll was atomic powered, all zoom and doom

March 26, 2017 2:55 PM

I can’t say who’s great or who isn’t. If somebody does achieve greatness it’s only for a minute and anyone is capable of that. Greatness is beyond your control – I think you get it by chance, but it’s only for a short time.

Bob Dylan discusses Sinatra, North Minnesota, arrangements, Joan Baez, new CDs, favorites drummers, Rock and Roll, first tracks, playing piano, John Wayne and much more in a broad, fascinating, recently conducted Q&A with Bill Flanagan
posted by timshel (14 comments total)

I love how Dylan brushes off questions about his personal life, or gives just brief glosses in response to them. E.g., to the question "You could have had some love scenes with Faye Dunaway--any regrets?" his reply is a simple "Nope." Whereas when he's talking about the songs and his approach to them, his responses are often paragraphs in length.
posted by Lyme Drop at 4:32 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's an amusing interview. Thanks!
posted by freakazoid at 5:32 PM on March 26, 2017

Highlights for me: (spoiler alerts!)




For The New Basement Tapes, T Bone Burnett put together a group with Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Jim James, Marcus Mumford and Taylor Goldsmith...

Did you say Taylor Swift?

----

When you’re on your bus, what shows do you watch on TV?

I Love Lucy, all the time, non-stop.

----

Every time I turn on PBS, they’re running another documentary about folk music in the 60s and all sorts of people from that scene are talking about you like you were best friends. Does that bug you?

I don’t know, maybe we were best friends. I don’t remember.
posted by freakazoid at 5:39 PM on March 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

[Sinatra] was funny, we were standing out on his patio at night and he said to me, “You and me, pal, we got blue eyes, we’re from up there,” and he pointed to the stars. “These other bums are from down here.” I remember thinking that he might be right.
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:59 PM on March 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

That is a beautiful interview! Thanks for posting.
posted by maupuia at 6:12 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

That Taylor Swift line made me laugh out loud. You just picture Bob kind of dozing through a bunch of this interview and then suddenly one question makes him think "the fuck?!"
posted by potrzebie at 7:10 PM on March 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

You know what that Dylan guy's problem is? He's just so addicted to music.

;-O

Something else he 's set an all-time record for. Here's his April tour sched. All Europe, a little east coast, then All Canada. (HOW does he????)
posted by Twang at 8:11 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It’s like “Mack the Knife,” but nothing like “Mack the Knife.”

I love you, Bob Dylan.
posted by chavenet at 1:42 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is my favorite Bob Dylan story of the past decade.
posted by fairmettle at 2:15 AM on March 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

That's an excellent writeup, even if you already know what happened, contains a bunch of Dylan moments.
posted by Dr Dracator at 2:56 AM on March 27, 2017

Great interview, as always with Dylan. Smart listener. It made me go back and listen to one of his albums of standards he's been doing recently. Shadows in the Night. Not bad at all. The man can still sing. Surprising, because I saw him in concert the same year he recorded the album (2014), and I couldn't understand a single word he was singing. I wanted my money back.
posted by kozad at 9:01 AM on March 27, 2017

I like his response when they ask him if relatives of people he wrote songs about bug him and ask him for favors: "Not often. Willie McTell’s niece came to see me once and showed me some old photographs. She didn’t want anything, she was just a nice person."
posted by marxchivist at 9:46 PM on March 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Coming to this late but man that's a great interview with lots of highlights (that Taylor Swift comment particularly). Aside for those mentioned above, the comment about meeting John Wayne on the set of In Harm's Way was interesting. Imagine Bob in an Otto Preminger film about WWII with John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Henry Fonda and Larry Hagman! Who was his girlfriend at the time? Paula Prentiss? Jill Haworth? Barbara Bouchet?
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:02 AM on March 29, 2017

...and in related news: Bob Dylan finally agrees to accept Nobel Prize for Literature.
posted by fairmettle at 12:06 PM on March 29, 2017