Bob

I watched the PBS special on Bob Dylan last night and had mixed feelings afterwards. It seems as if Bob was focused solely on Bob during all of those years of fame. He had a fixation on Woody Guthrie for a time, early in his career, but that didn’t last long. And ego? His comments regarding Joan Baez were, “She was a great guitar player…but, I thought that she needed someone to sing with her.” (Himself) and the comments from his contemporaries seemed to reveal the same problem with ego. He had no problem stealing material and styles from fellow musicians. Born in Duluth (1941) and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, he has dismissed that part of his life completely, even changing his name from Zimmerman to Dylan. But, I did enjoy seeing video of that era, the late 50’s and early 60’s. In those days, I was really into the folk music, poetry and coffee house scene. And Bob was part of that. At the time I thought he was a musical genius…sad.