Tonight Bob Dylan made his first television interview in over 20 years appearing on 60 mins. Ed Bradley did the interview and here is the transcript:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/02/60minutes/main658799.shtml
I was mildly disappointed by this interview. Not of Dylan but of Bradley and some of his questions. Dylan has made a career of avoiding personal questions hurled at him by the media. So Bradley lofting questions like "what was your childhood like?" and "why did you change your name?" obviously brought no new or interesting dialog. I didn't get the impression that Bradley had read Dylan's new autobiography Chronicles (a fascinating book that I am slowly sipping like like a fine scotch and a review will be here soon). There are tons of interesting questions that I would have loved to hear in reference to what Dylan talked about in the book.
The interview was still informative and entertaining. Dylan always makes me laugh out loud. When Bradley asked Dylan about being a "prophet and spokesperson of a generation", Dylan's response was that he could see himself becoming Elvis. Since I am way to young to understand the "voice of a generation" thing, I just don't understand why people worship him so much. To me, especially having read his book, Dylan is all about the music. He always wanted to become a rock star and that is just what he is despite his talent in writing songs. If you are interested in what Dylan thinks about politics, religion, life, philosophy etc., then just pay attention to what he says in his songs both on CD on also on his never ending tour. What else do you want him to say?
The highlight of the interview for me is when he recited the first of one of my favorites "It's all right, Ma". Reading and hearing the lyrics always sends chills down my spine and hearing him tonight was even more chilling. Afterwords he says "Try to sit down and write something like that. There's a magic to that" The way he said it he sounded both very humble but also a little arrogant. This is the type of dichotomy that Dylan uses frequently and it makes me enjoy his art over and over again.
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