A tale of two Dylans
DYLAN Thomas and Bob Dylan have more than a name in common – and a new book co-authored by Swansea-based Dylan Thomas expert Jeff Towns and leading Bob Dylan authority KG Miles delves deep into the synchronicities, connections and affinities that link the literary and rock ‘n’ roll poets.
Bob Dylan And Dylan Thomas: The Two Dylans gives each connection between the pair its own chapter, with each Dylan Thomas section written by Towns and each Bob Dylan part written by Miles.
The sheer number of connections is impressive. They range from the ancient Welsh folk tales of the Mabinogion to the poems of the Beat Generation, from Stravinsky to John Cale, from Johnnie Ray to Charlie Chaplin and from Rimbaud to Tennessee Williams.
The book came about after Miles and Towns discovered a shared interest in the connections between the two Dylans.
Towns had bought Miles’ book Bob Dylan In London and enjoyed it – especially as he’s a lifelong Bob Dylan fan who grew up in London.
“I noticed it was published by Mcnidder & Grace, whose address was in Carmarthen,” he says.
“I’d never heard of them and I was intrigued. Then a photographer friend, Gareth Davies from Tenby way, who I saw had done the pictures in the Bob In London book, invited me to Tenby to meet KG Miles.
“We met in a pub, talked books and writing, got on well and over the third pint Keith said that the book he really wanted to write was about Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas.
“I nearly fell off my chair. I had been nibbling around, giving talks and lectures on the two Dylans for going on a decade or so, but hadn’t really got further than the name and Allen Ginsberg.
“We had a fine evening and went on our separate ways, but I couldn’t let it lie and the next day I emailed Keith and suggested we co-wrote the book. He agreed with enthusiasm, presented the project to Mcnidder & Grace and in no time we exchanged contracts.”
While Towns has made a name for himself as a Dylan Thomas expert, it was the music of Bob
Dylan that led him to the poet. As a teenager in the 1960s he played Bob Dylan’s eponymous first album repeatedly and became intrigued by the fact that Dylan had named himself after the Welsh poet.
“Luckily my mother was Welsh and a poetry lover – I asked her about Dylan Thomas and she told me what she knew and recommended a biography that had just been published,” he says.
“I got it from the library – Dylan Thomas by Constantine Fitzgibbon. I read it straight through – this Welsh poet was my kind of hero.
“I began to read his stories and struggle through his poems. I was hooked and from then on the two Dylans were my constant companions. I married a Welsh girl and settled in Wales, in Swansea, in 1970. I opened a second-hand bookstore – Dylan’s Bookstore – and the rest is history.”
Miles also discovered Bob Dylan in the 1960s, as a child growing up on the Isle of Wight.
“There has never been a time when Bob Dylan hasn’t been the soundtrack to my life,” he says.
He and his Bob Dylan In London co-author Jackie Lees set up the Dylan Room at the Troubadour Club in London in 2019 – a place that has become a global mecca for fans.
“When the Bob Dylan Centre was opened in Tulsa in 2019, I was delighted to be asked to address the conference on the subject of Bob Dylan and the writer Robert Graves,” he says. “I am first and foremost a Bob Dylan fan. No-one is ever really a Bob Dylan expert, as every day is a schoolday!”
While Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas’ lifetimes only briefly overlapped – Bob Dylan was entering his teens when Dylan Thomas died – both have inspired an enduring fascination.
Bob Dylan has now lived twice as long as Dylan Thomas, further cementing the name “Dylan” as a name for poets and artists.
The book relates how, until Dylan Thomas’ father plucked the name from the Mabinogi, “Dylan” was almost unheard-of as a name – and how Bob Dylan gave conflicting accounts of why he chose the name for his own. Both Dylans are a mass of contradictions, but all the more fascinating for it. In researching the overlaps between both Dylans’ lives, Towns and Miles plundered their own extensive book collections.
“Some of the synchronicities and incidents of just one degree of separation that I discovered were quite wonderful,” says Towns.
His favourite relates to the Idris Davies poem The Bells Of Rhymney.
“I like The Bells Of Rhymney chapter because it brings in other heroes of mine – the Welsh excoalminer poet Idris Davies and American folk music hero Pete Seeger, as well as Bob Dylan and Roger Mcguinn and the Byrds,” he says.
“It’s a great song covered by many great musicians, but it was through a Dylan Thomas radio programme that it began a long journey, taking the words from a small volume of poetry (Gwalia Deserta by Idris Davies) across the Atlantic to America where Pete Seeger found them in a Dylan Thomas book and set them to music and recording, which Bob Dylan also sung and recorded – not Dylan Thomas’ words but a song facilitated in part by Dylan Thomas.”
Towns and Miles were able to revisit familiar connections between the two Dylans, including Charlie Chaplin, who both men admired, and Allen Ginsberg, who was a good friend of Bob Dylan and had a famously disappointing meeting with Dylan Thomas in a New York bar. They also uncovered many lesser-known connections.
“We have tried to fill the book with surprising moments and fascinating, lesser-known stories. Our hope is that pretty much every page has a ‘Crikey, I never knew that!’ moment,” says Miles.
He added: “Unearthing the extraordinary tales is what I enjoy most and what spurs me onwards as a writer. Writing with an equally enthusiastic and knowledgeable co-author as I have with Jeff has been an absolute joy.”
■ Bob Dylan And Dylan Thomas: The Two Dylans is out now, published by Mcnidder and Grace.