For now, here is an excerpt from an interesting interview. (of course, you could say that this is just the persona he wants to project, but I think it is still good to look at.)Originally Posted by sarah
Q: When do you tend to do the most writing? When you're on tour or when you're home for a few weeks?
BOB: I don't know. Some things just come to me in dreams. But I can write a bunch of stuff down after you leave . . . about, say, the way you are dressed. I look at people as ideas. I don't look at them as people. I'm talking about general observation. Whoever I see, I look at them as an idea -- what this person represents. That's the way I see life. I see life as a utilitarian thing. Then you strip things away until you get to the core of what's Important . . . in the larger scheme of things, the government is irrelevant. Everybody, everything can be bought and sold.
Q: Isn't that pretty pessimistic for someone who everyone thought was so optimistic and inspiring in the '60s?
BOB: I'm not sure people understood a lot of what I was writing about. I don't even know if I would understand them if I believed everything that has been written about them by imbeciles who wouldn't know the first thing about writing songs. I've always said the organized media propagated me as something I never pretended to be . . . all this spokesman of conscience thing. A lot of my songs were definitely misinterpreted by people who didn't know any better, and it goes on today.
Q: Give me an example of a song that has been widely misinterpreted.
BOB: Take Masters Of War. Every time I sing it, someone writes that it's an antiwar song. But there's no antiwar sentiment in that song. I'm not a pacifist. I don't think I've ever been one. If you look closely at the song, it's about what Eisenhower was saying about the dangers of the military-industrial complex in this country. I believe strongly in everyone's right to defend< themselves by every means necessary . . . you are affected as a writer and a person by the culture and spirit of the times. I was tuned into it then, I'm tuned into it now. None of us are immune to the spirit of the age. It affects us whether we know it or whether we like it or not.
In the early '90s when I escaped the organized media, they let me be. They considered me irrelevant, which was the best thing that could have happened to me. I was waiting for that. No artist can develop for any length of time in the light of the media, no matter who it is. If the media was commenting on every article you wrote, imagine what it would do to you.
Q: Do you worry, that the latest rash of awards and acclaim will make the media start focusing on you again?
BOB: No, that time has passed. Once they move away and lose track of you, they'll never catch up with you again. They're off searching for someone new to put a label on.
Q: Do you see yourself touring indefinitely?
BOB: I don't see myself doing anything indefinitely. I see myself fulfilling the commitments at the moment. Anything beyond that, time will have to tell.
Q: So, how do you feel personally? Do you feel pretty good about things?
BOB: Any day above the ground is a good day.
Here is the URL: http://www.artsandopinion.com/2005_v4_n1/dylan.htm


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