Transcription
Seems kind of silly I'm here; that's all. But how would you define, how would you define folk music? How did I define, how would you define folk music as a constitutional replay of mass production? Do you call your songs protest songs?
No, no. Are protest songs folk songs? I guess if there's a constitutional replay of mass production. Do you prefer songs with a subtle or obvious message? With a what? A subtle or obvious message?
Uh, I don't really prefer those kind of songs at all. A message, you mean like what? Song with a message? Well, like "Eve of Destruction" and things like that. I prefer that to what? I don't know. But your songs are supposed to have a subtle message.
Subtle message? Well, they're supposed to… Where'd you hear that?
[Music]
That, in a movie magazine? Oh my god. Oh my god. Well, we don't, we don't discuss those things here. Are your songs uh, ever about real people, like, you know, occasional poetry?
Sure, they are. They're all about real people. Particular one? Particular people? Sure. I'm sure you've seen all the people in my songs at one time or another.
Who's Mr. Jones? Mr. Jones? I'm not going to tell you his first name; I'd get sued. What does he do for a living? He's a pin boy; he also wears suspenders.
Can you explain your uh, attraction as a performer and a writer? Attraction to what? Your attraction? Your popularity? Your mass popularity? No, no. I really have no idea; that's the truth. I always tell the truth; that is the truth.
What are your own personal hopes for the future, and uh, what do you hope to change in the world? Oh, my hopes for the future? I, to be honest, you know, I don't have any hopes for the future, and I just hope to have enough boots to be able to change them; that's all, really. It doesn't boil down to anything more than that. If there, if it did, I would certainly tell you.
What do you think of a question and answer session of uh, of this type, with you as the principal subject? Well, I think, I think we all have, we all have different uh… I think I dropped an ash on myself somewhere. Well, you'll see in a minute here what happens. Um, I'm not going to say anything about it though. Uh, I… What was the question?
What are you thinking about right now? Thinking about this ash. Right before that, huh? So, ash is creeping up on me somewhere. I've lost, lost touch with myself, so I can't tell where exactly it is. Was that a little Burtonesque evading of the question? What you, what you feel about meeting to this kind question and answer session? You are… I just know in my own mind that we all have a different idea of all the words we're using, uh, you know, so I don't really have too much… I really can't take it too seriously, because, read like, if I say the word "house," like we're both going to see a different house if I just say the word, right? So we're using all these other words, like "mass production" and "movie magazine," we all have a different idea of these words too, so I don't even know what we're saying here.
Why do, why do you write? No, it's not pointless, if you know, if you want to do it, you know you're there, you know it's not pointless. I mean, no, doesn't hurt me any. You just said… Is there anything in addition to your song that you want to say to people?
Good luck. Good… You don't say that in your song? Oh, yes, I do. Every song tails off with "good luck." I hope you make it. Um, what? Why uh… I couldn't hit the… Most of what you… Who are you?
[Laughter]
Get the camera on this, this person over here. What do you bother to write the poetry for if we all get different images and we don't know what you're talking about? Because… Nothing else to do.
[Laughter]
Man, a rhyme for orange, huh? A rhyme for orange? I didn't hear that. A rhyme for orange? A rhyme for orange? Just a, a rhyme for orange? Is, is it true that you were censored from singing on The Ed Sullivan Show because they wouldn't let you say what you wanted to?
What did they censor you from singing, what you wanted to, on The Ed Sullivan Show? Yes, it was a while, long time ago. What did you want to sing? I don't know; it was some song which I, I wanted to sing, and, and they said I could sing… It's more to it than just censorship. They actually said I could sing the song, but uh, when we went through the rehearsal of it, it came, guy came back afterwards and says that I said I have to change it, and he, and he said, "Can't you sing some folk song like uh, like the Clancy Brothers do?" And, and I didn't know any of their songs, and so I couldn't be on the program; that's what it came down to.
Have you found that the texts of the interviews with you which have been published are accurate to the actual conversations? No, no; that's, that's another reason for the I don't to give press interviews or anything, because you know, I, even if, if you do something, there are a lot of people here, so they know what's going on, but like if you just do it with one guy or a few guys, they just take it all out of context, you know; they just take it uh, split it up in the middle, or just take what they want to use, and uh, they, they even, you, they ask you a question and you answer it, and then it comes out in print that they just substitute another question for your answer; that makes you just sound like the way it's not really truthful, you know, to do that kind of thing, so I just don't do it; that's just a press problem. There which think the entire text of your news conference today should be printed in the… Oh, no, no; nothing like that; nothing like that. But this is just for the interviews, you know, when they do want interviews in places like Omaha and Cincinnati, man, you know, I don't, I don't do it, then they write bad things.
Well, isn't this partly because you're often inaudible, like for most of this dialogue or monologue you have been inaudible, and now when you're touched personally by the misquotation your voice rises and we can hear you? Yeah, well, I just realized that maybe people in the back there can't hear me; that's a… I was going to ask you whether you, you know, in your songs you sing out… Yes, I do. And whether in your songs are what I do… You see, the, the songs though are… Is what I do is, is right the songs and sing them uh, and perform them; that's what I do. Uh, the performing part of it could end, but like I'm going to be writing these songs and singing them on records for… And I see no end right now. Uh, that, that's what I do; anything else just interferes with it. I mean, anything else trying to get on top of it, making something out of it which it isn't, it just brings me down, and, and uh, it's not, it's not, it's just uh, makes it seem all very cheap.
Well, it made me feel like you were almost doing a kind of penance of silence here. No, no; for the first… I'm not one of those kind of people at all. You don't need silence? No, no; silence; it's always silent where I am.
Mr. Dylan, when you're on a concert tour, how many people travel in your party? Do you travel alone, or do you have a…? We travel with about 12 people now. Uh, the number of people seem to go with the amount of money you're making.
I didn't hear that. The number of people seem to increase as you make more money? This? Oh, yes, of course. Is that known as Dylan? Why do you need so many people when you travel on…? Well, we have the band; we have, we have uh, five in the group, and we need uh, other things; we have to… It's a lot of electronic equipment now, a lot of different things which have to be taken care of, so we need a lot of people. We have three road managers and uh, things like that. We don't make any big public presentations though, like we never come into town and in limousines or anything like that; we just uh, go from place to place, you know, and do the shows; that's all.
You fly on your own plane? You have a private plane? Yes. What, you have to get in a certain type of mood to write…?
[Music]
Your…? Yeah, I guess so; certain type of mood, if you want to call it that. Do you find, do you find that you're perhaps more creative at a certain time of the day? Yes, yes; I feel that way. Like a night rider, I would say. Night has anything to do with it?
Have you ever toured with the Beatles? No. Well, we, I think may have messed around in London, but no, I don't think anything's serious. Are you ever to play a dance? Huh? Are you ever to play for people with dance? No; it's not that kind of music. It… Well, what can I say? You must know more about the music then, than I do. How long have you been playing it? Uh, do you find it when you're writing, do you uh…?
Yes, yes; you find that when you're writing that you sort of free associate often? You just let…? No, it's all very clear and simple to me. These songs aren't complicated to me at all; I know what they all are all about; there's nothing hard to figure out for me. I, I would write anything… I can't really see… I, I don't… I didn't mean it that way; I meant that uh, when you're creating a song, are you doing it more or less sort of a subliminal level where you're letting your mind just flow? No, my mind… You're very conscious of uh, each step, each word? No, no; that's the difference in the songs I'm writing now, in the past year or so, the last year and a half, maybe two, I don't know, but the songs before, up till uh, one of those records… I don't… I wrote the fourth record in Greece, I was think so; there was a change there, but uh, the records before that, I used to know what I, I wanted to say before I used to write the song, you see. All the stuff which I had written before, which wasn't song, which just on piece of, you know, toilet paper, when it comes out like that, that's kind of stuff I never would sing, because there people would uh, you know, I know people just would not be ready for it, but I just went through that other thing of writing songs, so, and uh, I couldn't write like it anymore; it was just too easy, and it wasn't really right. Uh, I would start out, I would know what I wanted to say before I wrote the song, and I would say it, you know; it never really would come out exactly what way, the way I thought it would, but it came out, you know, it touched it, you know, but now I just write a song, you know, like I know that it's just going to be all right, you know, and, and I don't really know exactly what it's all about, but I do know the uh, the minute and the, and the layers of uh, what it's all about.
What do you think about your song uh, "It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"? It happens to be my favorite one.
God bless you, son. No, he's not. I haven't heard it for a long time; I couldn't even sing it for you, probably. How long it take you to write…? It's usually not too long time, really. I might write all night and get one song out of a lot of different things I write. How many have I written? Uh, I guess… Well, there's one publisher that's got about a 100; I've written about 50 others, I guess. I got about 150 songs I've written. They all been…? Well, no, just no… Some of the scraps haven't been published, but I find I can't really sing that anyway, because um, I forget it, you know, so the songs I don't publish I usually do forget.
Are you going to ever take these scraps, as you call them…? I forgot… Scraps? I have to start over all the time. I, I can't really keep notes or anything like that. You can't go back to any earlier things, make them use them in your…? No, no; that wouldn't be right either. Yeah, if it happens, you know… That was a very… Are you the same cat that was sitting over…?
[Music]
There on your songs? Do you get any help from uh, the rest of your, you know, your entourage? What do you get any help…? The group that you play with, do you write your songs…? Robbie, the guitar player, sometimes we playing the guitar together, something might come up, but I know it's going to be right. I'll… We just sitting around playing, so I can write up some words. I don't get any ideas though, to any kind of uh, any kind of ideas of what I want, you know, what's really going to happen here? Why? I don't know; I'm not a reporter; I'm not a newsman or anything; I'm not even a philosopher. I… I'd think other people would know, but I don't think I know. You know, when you get too many people talking about the same thing, it tends to clutter up things, so I just… Everybody asks me that, so I realize they must be talking about it, so I, I don't… I would rather stay out of it and make it easy for them, and when they get the answer I hope they tell me.
Has there been any more booing when you play electric…? Oh, there's boo… You can't tell where the booing is going to come up; can't tell at all. It comes up, comes up in the weirdest, strangest places, and when it comes up it's quite a thing in itself. Um, where is Desolation Row? I figured there's a little boo and all… What? Where is Desolation Row? I didn't hear you. Where is Desolation Row? Where…? Yeah. Oh, that's someplace in Mexico. It's uh, cross the border; it's, it's noted for its Coke factory. Coca-Cola machines are… Sells, sell a lot of Coca-Cola down there. Highway 61? Is it exists? That's out in the middle of the country, runs down to the south, cuts up north.
Mr. Dylan, you seem very reluctant to talk about the fact that you're a, a popular entertainer, and you're a most popular entertainer. What do you want me to say? Well, I don't understand why you… What do you want me to say? Want say? Who want me to say about it? Well, you seem almost embarrassed to admit that you're to talk about…? Well, I'm not embarrassed. I mean, you know, what do you want exactly me to say? You want me to jump up and say, "Hallelujah!" and crash the cameras, or do something weird? Tell me, tell me; I'll, I'll go along with you. If I can't go along with you, I'll find somebody to go along with you. No, but I, I find it… You really have no idea as to why you, or no thoughts on why you're popular? That's the what enters me on. I just have, haven't really struggled for that. I, I don't… It happened, you know; it happened like anything else happens; just a happening. You don't figure out happenings; you dig happenings, so I'm not going to talk about…
Do you feel that part of the popularity is because of an identification uh, of your audience with you, or with what you're saying, or what you've been writing about? I have no idea; I don't really come too much in contact… Does it make life more difficult? No, it certainly doesn't. Were you surprised the first time the boos came? Yeah, they were that at Newport. Well, I went, I did this very crazy thing, so you know, I mean, I didn't really know what was going to happen, happen, but uh, they certainly booed; I'll tell you that. You could hear it all over the place. I don't know who they were though, and I'm certainly… They made, whoever it was, did it, you know, loud, twice as loud as they normally would. They kind of quieted down some at Forest Hills, although they, they did it there too. They've done it just about all over except in Texas. They in uh, they didn't boo us in Texas, or in uh, in uh, Atlanta, or in Boston, and, or in Ohio. They've done it just about… Or in Minneapolis; they didn't do it there, but they've done it a lot of other places. I mean, they must be pretty rich to be able to go someplace and…
[Laughter]
Boo. I, I couldn't afford it if I was in their shoes. Other than the booing, if the audience has changed… I mean, you get screaming…? Do you get people rushing to the stage? To get people rushing to the stage? But you just, you know, turn them off very fast; kick him in the head or something like that.
Going back to uh, what you said a minute ago about not really being concerned and not really knowing why you are in the midst of this popularity, that's in direct opposition to uh, what most uh, people who reach this level of popularity say. And… I am… A lot of people, a lot of people start out and they trying to, try to be stars, I would imagine, like, however they have to be stars. I mean, I know a lot of those people, you know, and they start out and they go into show business for many, many reasons: to be uh, seen, you know. Uh, I started out, you know, like I… This was had nothing to do with it when I started. I started from New York City, you know, and uh, there just wasn't any of that around; it just happened, you know, so uh, don't misunderstand me; I, I agree with your right not to have to care. My, my, my point is that uh, it would be somehow uh, somewhat disappointing to the many people who think that you feel towards them the way they feel towards you, and that's the reason for your popularity; that's what they think. Well, I don't want to disappoint anybody; I mean, tell me what I should say here.
Good, I'm with you. Huh? Fine, you know, I, I'll certainly go along with anything, but it's uh, I really don't have much of an idea. You have a poster there? Do that? Yes; this poster, somebody gave to me. I looked good. Jefferson Airplane, John Handy Quintet, and Sam Thomas and Mystery Trend and the Great Society are all playing at Fillmore Auditorium, Friday, December 10th, and I would like to go if I could, but unfortunately I, I won't be here, I don't think, but uh, if I was here, I, I certainly would be there.
Do you tour in the South? Yeah. What's more important to you, uh, the, the way that your music and words sound, or the content, the message of the work? The, the whole thing while it's happening, the, the whole total sound of the words uh, what's really going down is, is uh, it either is, it either happens or it doesn't, doesn't happen, you know; that's what I feel is just, just the thing which is happening there at that time; that's, that's, that's what, what, what's, what's what we do, you know; that is the most important thing; there really isn't anything else. I don't know if I've answered your question.
Well, you mean it might happen one time and might not happen the next time with the same song? Night, you know, but uh… Well, we always take good cuts for the record; the records are always made on good cuts, and in person it just most of the time it does come across. Most time… Do feel like, you know, playing…? That's important to me; the aftermath or whatever happens before and after is not really important to, to me; just the time on, on the stage and the, and the time that we singing the songs and performing them… We're not really performing them, even; just letting them be there.
Bob, we promised to spring you at a certain time, which is now. It's not 2:00. Okay, thank you very much. All right. I'd like, incidentally, to suggest that Maryann par… Explain the… Okay, I'll do my right here. Are they all sellouts, Maryann, or what is the thing? No, not quite. Bob Dylan's press conference was videotaped in the studios of KQED, San Francisco, on Friday, December 3rd, 1965. The program was produced for KQED by the critic and jazz columnist Ralph J…
[Music]
Gleason. You don't need nobody asking where the body… I, I was so dead to get up and say, "Where's that?" That's what everyone… You want to change these for better tickets? Oh…
[Music]
You now… That's…