Time Out of Mind: The Lives of Bob Dylan (91 page)
Read Time Out of Mind: The Lives of Bob Dylan Online
Authors: Ian Bell
1
. 22 January 1978.
2
. 11 March 1976.
3
.
Rolling Stone
, 24 February 1977. ‘Night of the Hurricane (Or Was It Just an Idiot Wind?)’ ran the magazine’s headline.
4
. Issue of March 1978.
5
. Issue of 26 January 1978.
6
. Interview with Gregg Kilday, 22 January 1978.
7
. Interview with Philip Fleishman, 20 March 1978.
8
. Issue of 11 September 1976.
9
. ‘The State of the Union: 1975’, first published in
Esquire
, May 1975, reprinted in
United States: Essays 1952–1992
(1993).
10
. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge,
The Right Nation: Why America Is Different
(2004), p. 72.
11
. Levon Helm and Stephen Davis,
This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band
(1993, 2000), p. 312. Danko had been arrested in Japan in 1996 for possession of heroin. The multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel, co-writer with Dylan of ‘Tears of Rage’, had hanged himself in Florida in 1986. Over time, Robertson bought out the interests of each member in The Band save Helm.
12
. The incident is discussed in David Fricke’s sleeve notes to the 2002 reissue of
The Last Waltz
album, broadly confirming the account given in Helm’s book.
13
. Joel Selvin,
San Francisco Chronicle
, 4 April 2002.
14
. See Sounes,
Down the Highway
, p. 360.
15
.
Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley
, p. 638.
16
.
Melody Maker
, 29 July 1978.
17
. As recalled in an article by J. Hoberman in the
Village Voice
, 13 November 2007.
18
. As republished in the wholly self-effacing
Teenage Hipster in the Modern World: From the Birth of Punk to the Land of Bush – Thirty Years of Apocalyptic Journalism
(2005), pp. 132–4.
19
. Issue of 13 February 1978.
20
. Interview with Robert Hilburn, published 28 May 1978.
21
.
Masterpieces
, valued by many fans thanks to the inclusion of a handful of previously unreleased tracks, would soon be imported to Britain and America at horribly inflated prices.
22
. In 1999, the album would be remixed and remastered by Don DeVito, once again Dylan’s nominal producer. The result was a great improvement, but the exercise did not solve all of
Street-Legal
’s technical problems.
23
.
The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia
, p. 643.
24
.
Rolling Stone
, 24 August 1978.
25
.
Song & Dance Man III
, p. 216.
26
. The versions of Dylan’s lyrics preserved by
bobdylan.com
and by his
Lyrics 1962–2001
are often unreliable guides to the words as he has performed them on the albums. To put it kindly, the process of transcription – by whose hand, we don’t know – has been erratic. It may be that Dylan himself has rewritten passages. Again, we don’t know.
Similarly, the arrangements of the words in verse form in
Lyrics
and at
bobdylan.com
are often at odds with the recordings. Sometimes, in fact, book and website disagree. All that being the case, I have used the words as they are heard on the albums and ordered the lines to reflect Dylan’s performance.
This verse is a case in point. Book and website say ‘But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination …’ There is no ‘brace yourself’ on the
Street-Legal
album and the backing vocalists provide a clear line break after ‘burning’.
27
.
Melody Maker
, 29 July 1978.
28
.
Rolling Stone
, 13 July 1978.
29
. Issue of 1 July 1978.
30
. The monologue, as contained in ‘circulating’ bootlegs, is derived from a necessarily abysmal mono recording made by a member of the San Diego audience. Contrary to the impression given in a couple of biographies and disseminated in various reference sources, there is no extant Dylan interview in which the story is told.
1
. The description of a presence in the hotel room, the room moving, Dylan’s claim to have been ‘relatively content’ and the declaration that he was ‘willing to listen’ are statements taken from an interview with Robert Hilburn,
Los Angeles Times
, 23 November 1980. The descriptions of an unseen hand, of trembling and of being ‘knocked down’ are from an interview conducted by Karen Hughes in Dayton, Ohio, on 21 May 1980 during Dylan’s third gospel tour. The Hughes piece was published in New Zealand’s
The Star
on 10 July 1980.
2
. Hilburn,
Los Angeles Times
interview, 23 November 1980.
3
.
Ibid
.
4
. From the Dylan fan magazine
On the Tracks
, autumn issue, 1994.
5
. Karen Hughes,
The Star
, 10 July 1980.
6
. According to Cameron Crowe’s booklet for the 1985
Biograph
compilation, Dylan devoted five months to Bible studies in the first half of 1979. The claim is nowhere corroborated.
7
. Bert Cartwright,
The Bible in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan
(1985, rev. and expanded 1992).
8
. Interview with Mikal Gilmore,
Rolling Stone
, 27 September 2012.
9
.
On the Tracks
magazine, autumn issue, 1994.
11
. With Gulliksen no longer involved, the contemporary Vineyard Association has an interesting habit of describing Wimber as its ‘founder’.
12
. Interview with Kurt Loder,
Rolling Stone
, 21 June 1984.
13
. Interview with Dan Wooding for the ASSIST (‘Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times’) Christian news service in Anaheim, California, 25 April 1999.
14
.
The Right Nation: Why America Is Different
(2004), p. 325.
15
.
Ibid
., pp. 83–5.
16
. ‘Satan had mobilised …’ The Reverend Jerry Falwell, Southern Baptist evangelical founder in 1979 of the Moral Majority. Mickelthwait and Wooldridge, p. 84.
17
. In its issue of 14 April 1980,
Time
magazine reported Reagan’s declaration during a televised interview. The magazine observed, however, that he ‘seemed shaky about the evangelical concept of personal belief’. Reagan’s best guess was ‘I suppose I would qualify’.
18
. The Barna Group is a self-described ‘research and media development organisation’. It has also been called ‘an evangelical Christian polling firm’. Its methods are both respectable and rigorous, however, and its findings are not always welcomed by born-again creeds.
19
. Joan Acocella, ‘Seeing and Believing’,
The New Yorker
, 2 April 2012.
20
. Interview with Mikal Gilmore,
Rolling Stone
, 17 July 1986.
21
. John S. Dickerson, senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. The piece was published in the
New York Times
Sunday Review, 15 December 2012.
22
. In Britain in 2010, according to a Eurobarometer poll, 37 per cent reported a belief in God; in France the figure was 27 per cent. Both countries found majority support instead for an impersonal ‘spirit’ or ‘life force’. The 2011 census in England found 59.4 per cent professing Christianity while ‘no religion’ was given as 24.7 per cent.
23
.
www.vineyardusa.org/site/task-forces/blessing-muslims
24
. Nicholas de Lange,
Judaism
(1986).
25
. Report by the ASSIST News Service, 10 March 2011.
26
. The interview appeared via continentalnews.net, a news service specialising in Christian issues, on 1 October 2012.
27
. ASSIST News Service, 10 March 2011.
28
. Interview with Karen Hughes,
The Star
, published on 10 July 1980.
29
. See
Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America
, ed. William M. Ashcroft and Eugene V. Gallagher (2006),
Vol. 2: Jewish and Christian Traditions
, pp. 193–7.
30
.
Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved
(2006), p. 81.
31
.
Ibid
., p. 11 and p. 16.
32
. Interview with Kurt Loder,
Rolling Stone
, 21 June 1984.
34
.
Daily News
, 8 June 1986.
35
. 13 January 1984.
36
. In a videotaped interview posted on YouTube in January 2013, Friedman cast doubt on whether sexual abuse was a significant
averiah
(sin). He also questioned why victims should feel damaged. The rabbi further stated that ‘there is hardly a kid who comes to a yeshiva [religious school], to a program, that hasn’t been molested’.
37
. 21 June 1984.
38
. Interview conducted in September of 1985 and published in the December issue of
Spin
.
39
. ‘Don’t You Ever Pray?’, Chris Cooper interview with Helena Springs, published in
Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan
, ed. John Bauldie (1990), p. 125.
40
. See, generally,
Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelation
(2012) by Elaine Pagels.
41
. See Adam Gopnik’s review of Pagels, ‘The Big Revival’,
New Yorker
, 5 March 2012.
1
. Interview with Bert Kleinman and Artie Mogull for the Westwood One network. First broadcast on 17 November 1984.
2
. Jerry Wexler and David Ritz,
Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music
(1993), Chapter 2.
3
.
Mojo
magazine, January 1997.
4
. See Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang,
Heaven: A History
(1988), pp. 335–41.
5
. 12 July 1979.
6
. See Matthew Zuckerman’s essay, ‘If There’s an Original Thought Out There, I Could Use It Right Now: The Folk Roots of Bob Dylan’ (1997). It can be found at
http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/div/influences.html
.
7
. See Robert V. Wells,
Life Flows On in Endless Song: Folk Songs and American History
(2009), p. 112.
8
. Chris Bohn,
Melody Maker
, August 1979.
9
. ‘Amazing Chutzpah’,
New West
magazine, 24 September 1979.
10
.
Rolling Stone
, 20 September 1979.
11
. Interview with Scott Cohen, September 1985, published in
Spin
magazine in December 1985.
12
. Interview with Scott Marshall for the Dylan fan magazine
On the Tracks
, issue 17, autumn 1999.
13
. ‘Don’t You Ever Pray?’, Chris Cooper interview with Helena Springs, published in
Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan
, ed. John Bauldie (1990), p. 125.
14
.
http://www.tonywright-art.com/Pages/AlbumDetails/Dylan-Saved.html
15
. The first Dylan quotation comes from an interview with Paul Zollo published in the 1991 winter issue of
SongTalk
magazine. The second fragment – in which Dylan also said that ‘Every Grain of Sand’ was a ‘very painless song to write’ – comes from an interview with Robert Hilburn published in the
Los Angeles Times
on 9 February 1992.
16
. Interview with Robert Hilburn, 23 November 1980.
1
. Micklethwait and Wooldridge,
The Right Nation
, p. 71. The National Elections Studies database at the University of Michigan is cited.
2
.
New York Times
, 19 April 2005.
3
. Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda,
Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance
(1994), Chapter 12.
4
. Address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Washington DC, 20 March 1981.
5
.
Rolling Stone
, 15 October 1981.
6
. The last of three complete takes captured at that session according to Michael Krogsgaard’s painstaking ‘Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions (Part 5)’ published in
The Bridge
(Issue 1, summer 1998).
7
.
Still on the Road
, pp. 187–95.
8
. See Krogsgaard, as before.
9
. See Howard Sounes,
Down the Highway
, pp. 394, 400–2.
10
.
New York Times
, 9 March 2013, citing the General Social Survey.
11
. From the introduction to Faye D. Ginsburg’s
Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community
(1989, rev. ed. 1998), pp. 1–2. As an intriguing, if inadvertent, sidelight on Dylan’s North Country upbringing, the anthropology professor at one point remarks that her Jewishness was regarded as ‘culturally strange’ in Fargo. This was in 1981, not 1941.
12
. 13 January 1984.
13
. Many accounts continue to insist, for as much as it matters, that the son in question was Jacob (later Jakob) Dylan. Since Jewish law says that a boy becomes a
bar mitzvah
on reaching the age of 13, this doesn’t seem likely. Jacob didn’t reach that age until 9 December 1982, whereas Samuel was 13 until his birthday on 30 July.
New York
magazine’s informant had also made it clear that the ceremony was to take place in LA and not in Israel, as has sometimes been reported. Dylan was leaving New York in March 1982 because ‘He has to be in California by the 20th for his son’s
bar mitzvah
’.