home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.ee.pdx.edu
/
2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar
/
ftp.ee.pdx.edu
/
pub
/
dylan
/
interview9.Z
/
interview9
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
1991-05-06
|
8KB
From: olof@enea.se (Olof Bj|rner)
Subject: I like to wear drapes, umbrellas, hats.
Date: 6 Jun 90 21:06:14 GMT
THE LAURIE HENSHAW INTERVIEW, MAY 12, 1965
==========================================
(What was it you wanted? #21)
Henshaw: Can you tell me when and where you were born?
Dylan: No, you can go and find out. There's many biographies and you can
look to that. You don't ask me where I was born, where I lived.
Don't ask me those questions. You find out from other papers.
Henshaw: I'd rather hear it from you.
Dylan: I'm not going to tell you.
Henshaw: Can you tell me exactly when you entered the profession?
When you first started writing songs?
Dylan: When I was 12.
Henshaw: And you were writing poetry at the time? And you are writing a
book now?
Dylan: I've got a book done.
Henshaw: Is it already published?
Dylan: It's going to be published in the fall.
Henshaw: What's it called?
Dylan: I'm not going to tell you.
Henshaw: Can you give me an idea what it is about?
Dylan: No.
Henshaw: Can you tell me your favorite song among the ones you've written?
Dylan: I don't have any. I've no personal songs that I wouldn't consider
apart from any other.
Henshaw: You must obviously make a lot of money nowadays?
Dylan: I spend it all. I have six Cadillacs. I have four houses. I have
a plantation in Georgia. Oh, I'm also working on a rocket. A little
rocket. Not a big rocket. Not the kind of rocket they have in
Cape Canaveral. I don't know about those kind of rockets.
Henshaw: Do you have personal things - cameras, watches and that sort of thing?
Dylan: No, I don't. I buy cars. I have lot of cars, the Cadillacs.
I also have a few Oldsmobiles, about three.
Henshaw: Do you have fears about anything political.
Dylan: No.
Henshaw: Of course your songs have a very strong content ...
Dylan: Have you heard my songs?
Henshaw: I have. 'Masters Of War'. 'Blowin' In The Wind'.
Dylan: What about 'Spanish Lover'? [sic] Have you heard that?
Why don't you listen to that? Listen, I couldn't care less what
your paper writes about me. Your paper can write anything, don't
you realize? The people that listen to me don't read your paper,
you know, to listen to me. I'm not going to be known from your paper.
Henshaw: You're already known. Why be so hostile?
Dylan: Because you're hostile to me. You're using me. I'm an object to you.
I went through this before in the United States, you know. There's
nothing personal. I've nothing against you at all. I just don't want
to be bothered with your paper, that's all. I just don't want to be
a part of it. Why should I have to go along with something just so
that somebody else can eat? Why don't you just say that my name is
Kissenovitch. You know, and I, er, come from Acapulco, Mexico. That
my father was an escaped thief from South Africa. OK. You can say
anything you want to say.
Henshaw: Let's talk about you. Your clothes for instance. Are your taste in
clothes changing at all?
Dylan: I like clothes. I don't have any particular interests at all.
I like to wear drapes, umbrellas, hats.
Henshaw: You're not going to tell me you carry an umbrella.
Dylan: I most certainly do carry an umbrella. Where I come from everybody
carries an umbrella. Have you ever been to South Dakota? Well, I
come from South Dakota, and in South Dakota people carry umbrellas.
Henshaw: What would you say has been the greatest influence in your life?
Dylan: You! Your paper happens to influence me a lot. I'm going to go out and
write a song after I've seen you - you know - what I'm used for. I
feel what I'm doing and I feel what you paper does. And you have the
nerve and gall to ask me what influences me and why do I think I'm so
accepted. I don't want to be interviewed by your paper. I don't need
it. You don't need it either. You can build up your own star. Why
don't you just get a lot of money and bring some kid out here from the
north of England and say "We're gonna make you a star! You just comply
with everything, everything we do. Everytime you want an interview you
can just sign a paper that means we can have an interview and write
what we want to write. And you'll be a star and make money!" Why
don't you just do that? I'm not going to do it for you.
Henshaw: Why should we bother to interview you if we didn't think you were
worth interviewing?
Dylan: Because I'm news. That's why I don't blame you, you have a job to do.
I know that. There's nothing personal here. But don't try to pick up
too much you know.
Henshaw: When did you start making records?
Dylan: I started making records in 1947, that was my first recording.
A race record. I made it down south. Actually the first record
I made was in 1935. John Hammond came and recorded me. Discovered me
in 1935, sitting on a farm. The man who discovered Benny Goodman saw
me down the street. He had me in to do a session. It happened just
like that. Otherwise I wouldn't be here.
Henshaw: Do you have a favorite guitar?
Dylan: Favorite guitar? I have 33 guitars! How can you have one favorite?
I'm going to quit playing the guitar anyway. I'm playing the banjo.
Henshaw: Have you heard Manfred Mann doing 'With God On Our Side'?
Dylan: No, I haven't heard it. I've only heard about it.
Henshaw: It was sung on "Ready Steady Goes Live" and it made quite an impact.
Dylan: I would like to have seen it.
Henshaw: How do you feel about other groups doing your songs?
Dylan: Well, how would you feel about other groups doing your songs?
Henshaw: I'd be complemented.
Dylan: I'd feel the same as you.
Henshaw: What sort of people do you like? What type do you cultivate?
Dylan: I would cultivate the kind of person that sticks to his job.
Sticks to his job and gets his job done. And is not too nervous.
But nervous enough not to come back!
Henshaw: What kind of people to you take an instant dislike to?
Dylan: I take an instant dislike to people that shake a lot. An instant
dislike - wham! Most of the time I throw them against a wall. I have
a body guard, Toppo. (Dylan here puts his hands to his mouth and
calls to the next room) TOPPO! Is Toppo in there? I have a bodyguard
to get rid of people like that. He comes out and wipes them out.
He wiped out three people last week.
Henshaw: Do you paint?
Dylan: Yeah, sure.
Henshaw: What sort of painting.
Dylan: I painted my house.
---< at this point Dylan abruptly ended the interview >---
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printed in Disc Weekly May 22, 1965 under the title "Mr Send Up".
My source: "The Circus Is In Town" by Chris Cooper and Keith Marsh.
================================================================================
| ___ __ | Olof Bjorner, olof@enea.se |
| / ) / __ / | Tfn: +46 76461318 |
| / / / /:-) /_ | Murkelvagen 12, S-184 34 AKERBERGA, SWEDEN |
| (___/ (__ (__/ / | Enea Data AB, Box 232, S-183 23 TABY, |
| / | SWEDEN, Tfn: +46 87922500 |
================================================================================