Dylan’s got a love for the classics
Iconic artist opens up about his career, his hair and the relationship he had with Frank Sinatra
An old rock ’n’ roll legend has it that Bob Dylan and George Harrison were supposed to record with Elvis Presley, but The King was a no-show. As Dylan tells it, though, Presley “did show up, it was us that didn’t.”
In a rare interview with writer Bill Flanagan, posted to Dylan’s website March 22, Dylan was more generous with details of his personal life and his music than he’s been in years.
His last two albums, Shadows in the Night and Fallen Angels were covers of standards. On March 31, he will release his 38th studio album Triplicate, a 3-disc mega record of classics such as Stormy Weather, As Time Goes By and The Best is Yet to Come.
Here are the most fascinating, poetic or outright funny take-aways from the interview.
On nostalgia:
Dylan’s recent focus on standards might seem odd, until he explains how deeply he has come to love them in his later years.
Though his recent cover songs might seem “nostalgic,” Dylan sees the songs as being of the “here and now.”
“From 1970 till now there’s been about 50 years, seems more like 50 million. That was a wall of time that separates the old from the new and a lot can get lost in this kind of time. Entire industries go, lifestyles change, corporations kill towns, new laws replace old ones, group interests triumph over individual ones, poor people themselves have become a commodity. Musical influences too — they get swallowed up, get absorbed into newer things or they fall by the wayside.
“I don’t think you need to feel bummed out though, or that it’s out of your clutches — you can still find what you’re looking for if you follow the trail back. It could be right there where you left it — anything is possible. Trouble is, you can’t bring it back with you, you have to stay right there with it. I think that is what nostalgia is all about.”
On his childhood in Minnesota:
Making clear that he grew up in northern Minnesota — it “has its own Mason Dixon line,” he said — Dylan spoke about the “extreme” weather, “frostbite in the winter, mosquito-ridden in the summer, no air conditioning when I grew up, steam heat in the winter and you had to wear a lot of clothes when you went outdoors.” But he found strength in the elements.
“Your blood gets thick. It’s the land of 10,000 lakes — lot of hunting and fishing. Indian country, Ojibwe, Chippewa, Lakota, birch trees, open pit mines, bears and wolves — the air is raw. … In the north it’s more hardscrabble ... ”
After travelling the world, he has learned, “people are pretty much the same wherever you go.”
On Frank Sinatra:
Dylan’s past two records were packed with covers of standards Frank Sinatra made popular, to the point that many considered them tributes to Ol’ Blue Eyes. Sinatra, of course, wasn’t around to hear them. Dylan did share a relationship with the crooner, though. Another slice of rock ’n’ roll legend has it that Bruce Springsteen and Dylan were invited to Sinatra’s house for a dinner party.
As it turns out, Sinatra was a quiet fan.
“I think he knew The Times They Are a-Changin and Blowin’ In the Wind. I know he liked Forever Young, he told me that. He was funny, we were standing out on his patio at night and he said to me, ‘You and me, pal, we got blue eyes, we’re from up there,’ and he pointed to the stars. ‘These other bums are from down here.’ I remember thinking that he might be right.”
Dylan was a performer on a televised tribute to Sinatra. All the other artists sang Sinatra songs. Not Dylan, who played his own song, Restless Farewell. “Frank himself requested that I do it,” Dylan said. “One of the producers had played it for him and showed him the lyrics.”
On his hair:
Dylan’s hair was such a part of his image, Milton Glaser famously created a poster in which he added psychedelic, colourful swirls to the singer’s locks. Flanagan asked what we’ve all wondered: could Dylan slick that hair down?
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do that. I was trying to look like Little Richard, my version of Little Richard. I wanted wild hair, I wanted to be recognized.”
On rock ’n’ roll:
Dylan ostensibly began his career as a folk musician, and his full-force leap into the world of rock ’n’ roll is still discussed today. Though he said he listened to Glenn Miller before Elvis Presley, rock ’n’ roll hit him like a bomb. Not only was it explosive music, it “busted down the barriers that race and religion, ideologies put up.”
“Rock and roll was a dangerous weapon, chrome plated, it exploded like the speed of light, it reflected the times, especially the presence of the atomic bomb which had preceded it by several years. Back then people feared the end of time. The big showdown between capitalism and communism was on the horizon. … We lived under a death cloud; the air was radioactive. There was no tomorrow, any day it could all be over, life was cheap. That was the feeling at the time and I’m not exaggerating.”
For all that fear, though, Dylan said, “Rock and roll made you oblivious to the fear.”