You have to love Dylan if for nothing but his sense of humor, the way he admittedly fed his first publicist a line of bullshit in an early interview for most of the inside copy for his first Columbia album “Bob Dylan.” It set a precedent that would become a sort of cat and mouse game that he would play and does play to this day with practically anyone who asks questions of him, in particular the press. My favorite personal favorite is that he came to New York on the back of a freight train ~ it just feeds into the whole mythology of Dylan. It’s the way he knew he had to be perceived to be a success in his business. That part of that gig meant creating a somewhat troubled past:. The mythology of being an orphan of sorts, a traveler and truth seeker: the mythology and life of Woody Guthrie, one of Dylan’s early idols.

Perhaps in some ways he was. How funny then, that on the album Bob Dylan there is the song “Freight Train Blues” ~ the best part, it’s sung so quickly that it’s difficult to make out the words. But the way the Dylan can hold a long note to sound like the blowing train whistle is impressive. I get the sense he <i>wishes</i> he came on a freight train. It would be more romantic than the actual way, which is less romantic but surely far more comfortable. But a freight train would make him more like his hero Woody Guthrie.

The truth is, Dylan came into New York in the back of someone’s car t, and he came to see Woody. At the time Guthrie was hospitalized for Huntington’s’. Dylan hitched rides from Madison , Wisconsin and onward (was it a Chevy Impala or some such?) and arrived in New York in January 1961 to see Guthrie, to play the village, to get famous.

Dylan had told friends back home he’d go to NYC to see Woody and he <I>did</i>. Within days of arriving to New York , he went to see Woody and played for him, which thrilled both men and more Woody believed that “the kid” had talent. Within time, Dylan’s admiration was so great, that he adopted an Oakie accent and even began to sound like Guthrie. Apparently, Dylan was a great mimic and did the job well, both in song and spoken voice. His obsession with Guthrie was a huge factor in Dylan’s fame, for were it not for him, Dylan may not have headed for New York at all.

Initially, Dylan played the folk clubs, but he had to try hard. First, he didn’t play as well sa other musicians as some felt, and more, some felt he stole melodies and did not understand the tradition of folk tradition had progressed for years. Dylan was faced with the coldest winter New York had seen in seventeen odd years and with no stable place to live, instead living off the kindness of various friends and strangers. One interesting fact that I’ve never heard until recently: Dylan had only being playing the harmonica for only six months when he arrived in New York, impressive for someone who cut an album a relatively short time later. He cut the album in two days, costing Columbia records a reported mere $402..

Whatever the myth were, Dylan proved his talent. Within months, he was signed by John Hammond of Columbia , named simply, Bob Dylan. But it would not be until Blowin’ in the Wind that Dylan would he was a force to be reckoned with. Enter Grossman, the savvy business man who knew that Dylan was a great songwriter whose music could be bigger if first sold to other singers whose work would be well accepted. It was Peter, Paul and Mary who would first break “Blowin’ in the Wind” and there are many others that were first performed by others and sold off. By now, Dylan was a national phenomenon or on his way to becoming one, but it was Grossman who would make him an international phenomenon.

Even if nobody knew how to classify or genre-ize or pigeon hole him, this made Dylan all the more interesting. But fitting Dylan into any category became a problem that would follow him throughout his career; the prophet, the folk singer, the spokesperson of a generation and so on. Dylan hated this and why shouldn’t he? Are the rest of us subject to such ruthless rules and pigeonholed as one single thing or way of being… the answer, most often is not. Dylan has even been called “The Poet Laureate of popular music.”

His songs became anthems for members of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and for the peace movement and Dylan wanted nothing to do with it. His songs became connected with world politics, symbols of a poet who could influence the world. Dylan would have none of it and so quickly changed both his look and his sound ~ again defying genre.

Gone was the Dylan of the loose cowboy of the Midwest and arrived was the all-black wearing hipster with the ever-present Raybans and the hidden eyes and peg-leg pants. Within time, he would have Grossman as his manager, a fact that would make him hugely famous but also more cynical.

But Dylan created his own myth and so we have to hold him partially responsible, even if he does not. The truth is, it helped fuel his fame. The yarns, the stories of his background were fascinating if not true. You can hear it in songs like “Man of Constant Sorrow” and “Fixin’ to Die” and others in which yarns are spun in some great blues tradition in which the truth is mixed with fiction and we are not privy to which is which or what is what. Did he or did he not feel these things ~ and we know he didn’t have any children to “leave when [he] die..]. But what does it matter ~ if we can write fiction, if we can create art, then why not Dylan. Why should he be held to some other standard.

Who doesn’t want to hear songs like “Pretty Peggy-O”, if not for the <i>“Wahoo”</i> and the pleasing, slight laugh interjected when he sings (tongue in cheek) of the rodeo and what of his amazing harmonica pieces that are so full of energy when he wants them to be. God, how can anybody have that much air in their lungs, one thinks, then I remember it’s Bob Dylan and that he managed to get away with so much more than the rest of us. That for all of the lines of B.S. he may have fed us through the press, we still love him because maybe, just maybe, we’d do the same thing if in his position, Why not have some fun, after all. The sudden fame must have been mind-blowing though Dylan says and maintains he always knew he’d be famous.

On his first album “Song to Woody” It’s a respectful and sad song, knowing that he doesn’t know as much as Woody at times and all of the people who traveled with him. Those who “come with the dust but are gone with the wind.” He sings, “I’m leaving tomorrow but I could leave today”… and that he’s been “hittin’ some hard travelin’ too.”

Dylan had always wanted to by like Guthrie. It was part of the mythology. There is even a famous photo of the two men in which both are in the same pose, a cigarette dangling casually from the lip. Woody, unlike Dylan, <i>had</i> traveled the country in freight trains and had had the life that Dylan perhaps wishes or dreamt of. Yet his respect for Woody is clear, even if he did try to show off a bit, stealing the same gig or lifestyle for himself.

We all know the truth about Robert Zimmerman as he was known We now know about Hibbing and the rather normal and nothing to write home about background. We know that is father was stern and his mother more gentle. That Dylan was far fonder of is mother than his father. It’s all too familiar and doesn’t bear repeating the whole story here. But what it <i>does</i> tell us is the impetus besides Woody, for wanting to leave. How very ordinary life would be for a talent like Dylan in Hibbing and where could he put it? Sure, there was Dinky Town and other cafés to play, but that was about it.

The early Dylan, the first really recorded Dylan has an energy and style all its own that would never be the same on any other album. It is folk-like or folk to be sure, but so full of zest and pop that I’m not surprised people had a hard time pigeonholing him. The harmonica a great deal of zip and thought Dylan is still young blood here, we get a sense of confidence. Maybe he was nervous or maybe not; it seems doubtful that he was. In fact, Dylan sounds/sings with a self-assuredness that is surprising for a new musician, even speaking when he feels like it as if he knows there will be a huge audience.

Yes he’s already seen audiences at smaller venues that grew larger as he became better known, but still, this was the bigger time. Highway 51 may be everyone’s favorite song but not mine by a long shot but “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”… is a terrific song, at once pleading and coy and yet cheeky. For a brief song, it carries a sweet punch or pinch perhaps that makes him Dylan so easily likeable and lovable.

It’s easy to see how he so quickly became so quickly a heartthrob, much like the heroes of his youth, Marlon Brando and James Dean and Little Richard. Dylan wanted to be someone other than who he was, not unusual form a kid from the Midwest , as one documentary reports. With his new songs and his simple, but unusual good looks, it seems inevitable that this fresh-faced country boy would be a star. He has a cock-assuredness about himself and confidence that is undoubtedly appealing. Long it’s been said “Be confident and others will believe in you too”; there is something to that. Dylan always said he’d be a star and whether it was bravado or not, he proved himself right and any doubters wrong.

I like Dylan like this. I like the complexity of the songs and their history that stretches back to older folk songs and melodies from America and abroad and songs that date back to older folk or blues songs. I like the Dylan of harsh and clear lyrics and tough lyrics at times too (“See That My Grave is Kept Clean”). Did we ever hear those church bells toll? Sure, “<i>it means another po’ boy is dead and gone</i>.” His lyrics stay with us “<i>When my heart stops beating and my hands turn cold…</i>” are haunting. Whether or not the melodies grew of church hymns, old blues songs, country folk and traditional Celtic, Scottish songs is irrelevant. Dylan made them his own.

We will see Bob, that your grave is kept clean and although I know you say “<i>It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there</i>” I hear the melancholy and I can relate but it pisses me off. Don’t check out. Sure, someone could say the same of me and perhaps the difference is if they did, I would care, and maybe by now, Dylan has matured enough to care too.. We are selfish, I admit, but we are left wanting more, from beginning to end, I wonder if we will <i>ever</i> get enough of Bob Dylan. He may be simple on his first album, complicated, sexy as he could and still can be on others, the way he stretches out the <i>“Oh, mama”</i> in “Stuck Inside of Mobile …” and I have to admit, my heart melts just a little, perhaps more, every time.

sadi ranson-polizzotti