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Internet Message Format | 1991-05-06 | 9KB

From: [e-mail] (Olof Bj|rner)
Subject: I can't figure out sometimes if people think I'm dead or alive.
Date: 6 Jun 90 18:30:51 GMT

THE ROBERT HILBURN INTERVIEW NOVEMBER 17, 1985
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(What was it you wanted? #20)


     Maybe it's because he did not give interviews at all for years, or maybe it
is just that he is the most important songwriter of the modern pop era, but
I cannot imagine passing up the chance to talk to Bob Dylan - even if strings
are attached.

     The interview invitation from Columbia Records suggested that Dylan only
wanted to discuss his latest album: "Empire Burlesque", the studio collection
from last summer and "Biograph", the ambitious retrospective set that just hit
the stores.

     Dylan himself quickly cut the strings. He showed little interest in those
subjects as he sat on a chair in the backyard of his Malibu home.

     "The new releases?", Dylan asked almost sheepishly, "I hope you don't make
this look like some carny trying to hawk his own records. I don't know if you
even want to hit on the records. When people think of me, they are not
necessarily going to buy the latest record, anyway. They may buy a record from
years ago. Besides I don't think interviews sell records".

     So why did Dylan agree to a series of interviews, including his first
formal network TV interview (for "20/20")?

     "I really haven't had that much connection or conversation (over the years)
with the people at Columbia" he said, referring to his record label for most of
two decades. "Usually I turn in my records, and they release them. But they
really like this record ("Empire Burlesque"), so they asked me to do some
videos and a few interviews to draw attention to it".

     "But that doesn't mean I want to sit around and talk about the record.
I haven't even listened to it since it came out. I'd rather spend my time
working on new songs or listen to other people's records. Have you heard
the new Hank Williams album, the collection of old demo tapes? it's great".

     About the project, Dylan said: "Columbia wanted to put out (a retro-
spective) album on me a few years ago. They had pulled out everything
(from earlier albums) that could be classified as love songs and had it on
one collection. I didn't care one way or another, but I had a new record
coming out, so I asked them not to it then".

     "I guess it's OK for someone who has never heard of me and is looking for
a crash course or something. But I've got a lot of stuff that is lying around
all over the place in cassette recorders that I'd put out if I was putting the
set together".

     One thing about "Biograph" that does please Dylan is a 36-page booklet
written by Cameron Crowe, who wrote numerous Rolling Stone magazine profiles
and the book and then the screenplay "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". The
"Biograph" text is a brief, affectionate look at Dylan's life with generous
quotes from the songwriter.

     Dylan, 44, is not being open just to the press these days. For years he has
tended to be isolated even when doing a benefit concert - avoiding photographers
and, often, other artists backstage by arriving just before showtime and leaving
quickly after the last number.

     At September's Farm Aid benefit at the University of Illinois however,
he was almost leisurely hanging out with Tom Petty, whose band backed him
on the show, and chatting with other performers including Randy Newman. Lou Reed
and Emmylou Harris. Normally camera-shy, Dylan did not even turn away when a
TV crew and a few photographers pointed their lenses at him as he sat on steps
outside his dressing room trailer.

     One reason for the naturalness, a backstage observer joked at Farm Aid,
was that Dylan wanted to prove - after his disastrously spacey performance with
the Stones' Keith Richard and Ron Wood at Live Aid - that he still had his
faculties.

     "Yeah", Dylan grumped about July's Live Aid concert in Philadelphia,
"They screwed around with us. We didn't even have any (sound) monitors out
there. When they threw in the grand finale at the last moment, they took all
the settings off and set the stage up for the 30 people who were standing
behind the curtain. We couldn't even haer our own voices (out front), and when
you can't hear, you can't play; you don't have any timing. It's like proceeding
on radar".

     Dylan's Malibu home, on a bluff overlooking the ocean, is quite secluded
and a guard shack at the only entrance to the property keeps the curious away.
The atmosphere is rural. A dirt driveway runs through the property, and lots of
small animals, including chickens and a few large dogs roam around.

     On this cool afternoon, Dylan was wearing the same outfit that he has
always seemed to be wearing in recent years. jeans looking as if they were
ready for the hamper, a wrinkled T-shirt and motorcycle boots. Except for
Europe last year, he has not toured much in the 80's. Still he is on the
road so much - Minnesota, New York, London or some more isolated exotic
places - that he does not really call any place home.

     "I'm just not the kind of person who seems to be able to settle down",
he said as two dogs edged against his chair. "If I'm in L.A. for say, two
months, I'll be in the studio for maybe a month out of that time, putting down
ideas for songs".

     "On The other days I'm usually recuperating from being in the studio.
I usually stay in a long time, all night, part of the day. Then I'll go off
to New York or London and do the same thing. I'm going to London soon to work
on some stuff with Dave Stewart".

     Stewart, one half of the Eurythmics, joined Dylan on guitar on the
Emotionally Yours video.

     Dylan expects to concentrate on performance videos because he has not been
pleased with concert clips based upon his songs - either the arty 'Jokerman'
video or more conventional narrative of 'Tight Connection'.

     He would probably just as soon not do videos at all, but realizes their
importance in the market place.

     "It used to be that people would buy a record if they liked what they heard
on the radio, but video has changed a lot of that", he said. "If someone comes
along now with a new song, people talk about 'Well, what does it look like?'
It is like 'I saw this new song'".

     One continuing question for Dylan is his much-publicized 'born-again'
Christian phase. He has said he does not like the term 'born-again', and his
music has moved away from the aggressive dogma of the 'Sloe Train Coming' album.
But Dylan still refuses to define his exact religion.

     "I fell like pretty soon I am going to write about that", he said.
"I feel like I got something to say but more than you can say in a few
paragraphs in a newspaper".

     He did smile at the mention of the hostile reactions generated during
his 'born-again' Christian tours of 1979 and 1980. "If you make people jump
on any level, I think it is worth while, because people are so asleep".

     Beyond music, Dylan's special interest these days is art. He maintains
an artist's studio behind his Malibu house and showed off his character
sketches, with the nervous excitement of a proud parent. He hopes to put
them in a book and write something to go with each drawing. Dylan is also
thinking about a book of short stories. "That may sound presumptuous",
he said, "but there are a lot of things, I'd like to say that I can't say
in songs".

    On his continued energy he said: "It's kinda funny. When I see my name
anywhere, it's (often) the '60's this or the '60's that. I can't figure out sometimes if people think I'm dead or alive".

    This man who has been hounded, dissected, idolized and ridiculed over the
years, stepped outside the studio. The sun had set and the dogs raced over to
him. He paused - as if searching for a summary statement.

    "I've had some personal ups and downs, but usually things have been pretty
good for me", he finally said. "I don't feel old", but I remember in my 20's
(when) I'd think about people in their 30's as old. The thing I really notice
now is time".

    "Things used to go a lot slower. The days now go by so very fast. But I've
never felt numb (about life). There is something about the chords, the sound of
them that makes you feel alive. As long as you can play music, I believe
you'll feel alive".

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Published in L.A. Times November 17, 1985.
My source: "Talkin' Bob Dylan 1984 & 1985 (Some Educated Rap)"
        by Stewart P. Bicker.

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