I’m not going to try to encapsulate his entire career in this blog post. For that, just check out a pretty complete entry in my sister site, wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_dylan
No, today I’m gonna focus on one aspect of his adventure. I’m shining a spotlight on the era I like to call “Pissed Off Bob Dylan”. This is the period from the summer of 1965 until May of 1966. This is a period of intense growth for the Bard that lead to a rejection from his most fanatical of followers but fomented the creation of some of the most creative and exciting rock and roll ever produced.
Dylan started out as a protest singer, specializing in what he termed “finger pointing” songs. These were songs that pointed out the injustices in society in lyrical terms that had never been in popular music before. By 1964, he turned his unblinking eye towards relationships. While some of his most ardent apostles were unhappy with this change in direction, they were happy that it was still acoustic based music and hoped that their own little Woody Guthrie would continue his march for a better world. But Mr. Zimmerman had other ideas.
According to legend, four loveable lads from Liverpool rekindled his interest in loud electric rock and roll. According to “The Love You Make” by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines (an incredibly detailed and evenhanded book about the Beatle’s history), Dylan heard the line in “I Wanna Hold your Hand”, I can’t hide and thought they were singing I get high. He met them, introduced them to marijuana and saved rock and roll from 3-minute pop songs. But this tiny spark made him think wistfully of his teenage years when his ambition in life was to join Little Richard’s band and play loud in your face rock and roll.
So in the spring of ’65, he released Bringing It All Back Home. The first single was the mind-blowing “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. In one stroke, Dylan unleashed an ass kicking rock song that also laid the groundwork for rap. Don’t believe me? Check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J4O2-nsFBA
Need less to say, people who were waiting for the next “Blowin’ In the Wind” were a little bit confused. They viewed rock music as simplistic music for kids. Dylan then destroyed the notions that rock could only be childish music by releasing the single “Like a Rolling Stone”. Suddenly, rock music could be about everything and anything. Never had anyone wrote a song that captures the exhilaration and spine tingling intensity that rock and roll is. Rolling Stone magazine has consistently rated this song as the greatest and most important song of the modern era.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3mAX5xdxo
That summer he played the Newport Folk Festival. He had played there the previous 2 years and for the faithful it was like seeing Mohammed in Mecca. Dylan got the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to back him and unleashed four loud and electric rock and roll songs on the unsuspecting crowd. A mixture of booing and cheers can be heard on the soundboard recordings from that night. Many myths have sprung up from this performance. My favorite is that Pete Seeger was looking for an ax to cut the electric cables. He followed this electric explosion with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Get the point people? So after giving this big middle finger to his faithful fans, what’s a troubadour to do? Go out on a worldwide tour.
For whatever reason, this tour is incredibly well documented. I have a few shows from the beginning of the tour in the fall of 1965. There is also a 26-cd box set floating around on the Internet. This has every note he played plus many of his press conferences from the 1966 leg of the tour. You can hear the evolution of his playing as well as his comments, ranging from bemusement toward his audiences’ reaction, to anger and almost condensation towards the people.
People who were well aware of his transformation from protest folk singer to electric rock and roll heathen; yet were still angry when they would show up and he wasn’t playing protest songs.
In another simple twist of fate, Dylan recruited rockabilly singer Ron Hawkins’ backing band known as the Hawks to join him on his world tour. The Hawks would go on to become the Band. They continued their long journey around the world while facing more and more hostility from the audiences.
By the time Dylan gets to England for the end of his tour, he is emotionally and physically exhausted. He was abusing speed pretty heavily so this didn’t help matters. Here is a great clip of the inspiration that he had from his chemical cocktails
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj2CPqX-tLc&feature=related
Which brings us to my favorite live album of all time; The Bootleg series Vol. 4, The Royal Albert Hall show from May 17, 1966. It was a famous bootleg that was actually recorded in Manchester, England. Since I became enlightened, I had read about this show but had no way of getting a hold of a copy. I went to a few record conventions but had no luck in securing a copy. It was finally released officially in 1998 and it was everything I hoped for and more. The first disc is his acoustic set. It was mostly his surreal songs with a few love songs sprinkled in. The second disc is nothing but electric kick ass rock and roll. I was immediately transplanted back to when I was a teenager and discovered the raw power of this music. The Band is on fire behind him as he redefines what rock and roll can be. At the end of it you can hear an audience member yell “Judas!” Dylan was rather angry for being compared to the man who betrayed Jesus. You can hear exactly how Dylan felt about this as they launch into “Like A Rolling Stone”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm1pLiyrGyw
Here is a complete version of the song
Following this tour, Dylan had a “motorcycle accident” that allowed him to retreat from the public eye and sit out the rest of the 60’s. But he did kick start a revolution with the simple act of plugging in and raising hell. Happy birthday Mr. Dylan and may you stay forever young.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
great stuff man....been listening to zimmy all day
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