Bob Dylan on the President (UK Times)

[Jackeens]

April 6, 2009

Bob Dylan on Barack Obama, Ulysses Grant and American Civil War ghosts


Bill Flanagan: You liked Barack Obama early on. Why was that?

Bob Dylan: I’d read his book (Dreams of My Father) and it intrigued me.

BF: What struck you about him?

BD: Well, a number of things. He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.

BF: In what way?

BD: First of all, Barack is born in Hawaii. Most of us think of Hawaii as paradise – so I guess you could say that he was born in paradise.

BF: And he was thrown out of the garden.

BD: Not exactly. His mom married some other guy named Lolo and then took Barack to Indonesia to live. Barack went to both a Muslim school and a Catholic school. His mom used to get up at 4:00 in the morning and teach him book lessons three hours before he even went to school. And then she would go to work. That tells you the type of woman she was. That’s just in the beginning of the story.

BF: What else did you find compelling about him?

BD: Well, mainly his take on things. His writing style hits you on more than one level. It makes you feel and think at the same time and that is hard to do. He says profoundly outrageous things. He’s looking at a shrunken head inside of a glass case in some museum with a bunch of other people and he’s wondering if any of these people realize that they could be looking at one of their ancestors.

BF: What in his book would make you think he’d be a good politician?

BD: Well nothing really. In some sense you would think being in the business of politics would be the last thing that this man would want to do. I think he had a job as an investment banker on Wall Street for a second - selling German bonds. But he probably could’ve done anything. If you read his book, you’ll know that the political world came to him. It was there to be had.

BF: Do you think he’ll make a good president?

BD: I have no idea. He’ll be the best president he can be. Most of those guys come into office with the best of intentions and leave as beaten men. Johnson would be a good example of that … Nixon, Clinton in a way, Truman, all the rest of them going back. You know, it’s like they all fly too close to the sun and get burned.


http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6043331.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1


--------------------------------------

From the archives, this is a June 2008 UK Times article:

Bob Dylan says Barack Obama is 'changin' America

His 1964 track 'The Times They are a-Changin' became the anthem for his generation, symbolising the era-defining social struggle against the establishment.

Now Bob Dylan - who could justifiably claim to be the architect of Barack Obama's 'change' catchphrase - has backed the Illinois senator to do for modern America what the generation before did in the 1960s.

In an exclusive interview with The Times, published today, Dylan gives a ringing endorsement to Mr Obama, the first ever black presidential candidate, claiming he is "redefining the nature of politics from the ground up".

Dylan, 67, made the comments when being interviewed in Denmark, where he stopped over in a hotel during a tour of Scandinavia.

Asked about his views on American politics, he said: "Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor.

"But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama.

"He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to."

He added: “You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future."

Dylan's endorsement contains much symbolic significance. The legendary singer-songwriter, who has an art exhibition opening in London next week, became a focal point for young people worldwide when he released the album 'The times they are


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4076339.ece

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article4074327.ece

[Faygo Kid]

1. This is very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Bright and thoughtful.

[graywarrior]

2. Wow, great post!

Thanks. Unsual for the Bobster to say anything about politics. and I agree with his assessment of the book.

[hileeopnyn8d]

3. You know

that's exactly how I would expect a conversation with Bob Dylan to go. Something tells me he would have quite the conversation with our President.

And I think this could be said about Bob's writing as well -

"His writing style hits you on more than one level. It makes you feel and think at the same time and that is hard to do. He says profoundly outrageous things."

[Cha]

4. It is quite intriquing..Prez

Obama's roots. Made him a natural for foreign policy.

[jefferson_dem]

5. What can I say...

My two favorite public figures of all time converge.



http://bp0.blogger.com/_EwHFDoNVVRY/RvXYZMBB2nI/AAAAAAAABlA/k7GiL1Xz9S0/s320/Bob+Dylan.jpg

---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY7tErBvxS0

DIGNITY
Words and Music by Bob Dylan
1994 Special Rider Music

Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searchin' high, searchin' low
Searchin' everywhere I know
Askin' the cops wherever I go
Have you seen dignity?

Blind man breakin' out of a trance
Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance
Hopin' to find one circumstance
Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary-lou
She said "I don't want nobody see me talkin' to you"
Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew
About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed
I would've gone deeper, but there wasn't any need
Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men
Wasn't any difference to me

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade
House on fire, debts unpaid
Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid
Have you seen dignity?

Drinkin' man listens to the voice he hears
In a crowded room full of covered up mirrors
Lookin' into the lost forgotten years
For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues
Said he'd give me information if his name wasn't used
He wanted money up front, said he was abused
By dignity

Footprints runnin' cross the silver sand
Steps goin' down into tattoo land
I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light
In the bordertowns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat
I'm on the rollin' river in a jerkin' boat
Tryin' to read a note somebody wrote
About dignity

Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind
Combin' his hair back, his future looks thin
Bites the bullet and he looks within
For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take
To find dignity

[goclark]

6. Love them both

:patriot:

[stillcool]

7. Great line..

"You know, it’s like they all fly too close to the sun and get burned."

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Those wax wings will

get you every time.

[Danascot]

8. Bob Dylan is Amazing

I wish he'd do more commentary. I'd listen to anything he had to say.

[Colobo]

9. Dylan is a true American intellectual.

[Clio the Leo]

11. Even I couldn't give Barack's step-father's first name off the top of my head...

... maybe if I'd thought about it for a few minutes perhaps.

Unlike some of us here, you can tell Mr. Dylan has read the book. ;)