European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 7, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Bob Dylan on Bob Dylan by Kathryn Baker associated press of Many times have the rumours spread through some nightspot Bob Dylan s supposed 1o show up " this Lime it s no Rumor. Dylan is due Here soon Lor a very rare interview. The site of this event is ii Cielo. A Lovely italian restaurant in Beverly Hills Calif. The violin music is soothing but it does t Block out memories of Don v Loo Flat the 1967 documentary thai included Dylan s razor tongued evisceration of a hapless Magazine reporter or the Mare recent snippet in Tho rolling Stone 20h anniversary to special thai showed Dylan bitterly complaining about fans who dare to approach him because his songs have touched hem. Thul has Noshin 1o do with me he griped Dylan does t make an Entrance he materializes slipping in through a Back Entrance. He is polite subdued nervous about doing an interview. Afler settling in a chair he checks All around him like a skittish Colt suddenly released into an unfamiliar Corral. He Puls the ubiquitous sunglasses on the table quietly dismisses Mineral water accepts while wine asks. Will it bother you if i smoke invited to go ahead he takes out a pack of stems he says he quits occasionally. He sits Forward and answers questions earnestly looking directly at the interviewer with his big. Blue eyes. Dylan look fit at 47, and he in t slowing Down he s on his third tour in As Many years just released Down in the Groove his seventh up in eight years and is already thinking of another for next year when he also Hopes to Lour the soviet Union. He s also planning to launch a movie and to production company he has just completed Ihram High Energy sell out performances at los Angeles greek theatre. Since going on the Road in june Dylan is proving that far Tram being Over the Hill he s at the lop of his form. The Lour has drawn critical raves. Backed by a tight three piece Rock band led by guitarist . Smith of saturday night live renown Dylan has rejuvenated his classic malarial resurrecting such timeless gems As boor s of Spanish leather. Times they Are a Changin and masters of War. When pm singin my songs it never occurs to me that i wrote them Dylan says. I did t have a song like masters of War. I d find a song like masters of War to sing. Same thing with tines they Are a Changin. If i did t have a song like thai i d go out and look around and i d search around until i found one like that you know there s a line in masters of Ivar Aboul being afraid to bring children Inlo the world. Dylan now divorced has live i Don t sing that line he jokes. "1 love children. I was always taught that if you were blessed to have , you just had More of them. They re Protection Tram the his eldest daughter jus married suggesting a possible new phase in his life. Tha rebel voice of the 1960s is. After All nearing 50. I would t mind being a Grandfather or a great Grandfather tar that Mailer he says but t Don t know it that has anything to do Wilh ago. I know people in Ihei 30s who Ore grandparents i Don t know How old i am i mean people Tell me How old i am but i have no Way of knowing if Lay re less me the truth or when his children Wero Young he moved them irom new York to a by Calif., 1o protect them from the effects at lame and so they could grow up in a Little Moie country environment at least hear the Birds singing there s just something instinctive that tells me that a Man must support his family no matter what. As it is i m doing what i do because i be been Given to do it he says. But most of the people who work 9 to 5 have got to support families and there s a tremendous disregard Lor that. Vou Don l sea much of thai being heralded Wilh heroic words and fancy awards but that s what makes the world either Rise or fall that commitment to the Lead song an Down in the Groove the Wilbur Harrison blues song Lei s set cd together echoes thai sentiment. It might be Tough for a White you might consider the child. Cannot be Happy without his mom and his Pappy let s stick the album surprised some critics because it is mostly covers of other composers songs. There Are Only two Dylan originals plus two collaborations with grateful dead songwriter Robert Hunter including the single Silvio Dylan said he picked the other material because he liked re. Down in the Groove establishes Dylan As a recording artist Wilh the strength of style to transcend the source of the material there s no Rule that claims that anyone must write their own songs he says. And i do. I write a lot of songs but so what you know you could take another song somebody else has written and you can make it yours. I m not saying i made a definitive version of anything with this last record but i liked the songs. Every so often you be gotta sing songs Thal re out there. You just have to just to keep yourself the other reason for the Cove songs is inevitable he did t have enough material of his own for an album. Writing is like such an isolated thing you re in such an isolated Frame of mind he says. You have to get into or be in that place. In the old Days 1 could get to l real Quick. I can t gel to ii like that no More. To mean just being Able la shut yourself off for Long periods of Lime where you re so isolated no one can gel to you mentally or physically you know you need to be Able to do that in order to come up with that kind of slut. You re always capable of it in your youth and especially if you re an unknown and nobody cores like if you re an Anonymous person. But once thai All ends then you have to create not Only whal you want to do. Bul you have to Crowle the environment to do in in which is double hard. I Don t Worle about things he says of write from inside of something and 1 sing and play the same Way. It s never Aboul that something,1 hoping to touch in. It s rather from the inside of it reaching Dylan said he does have five or six songs Lor a new album. And he s part of an incognito group the evil Burys that includes George Harrison Roy Orbison and Tom Petty and has an album coming out later this year. In the past few years he s concentrated on touring with the grateful dead Tom Pally and the Heartbreak cars now Voith his pared Down band that has Dylan alone out front most of the Lime performing selections from the vast Catalon of an almost 30-year career nobody would blame him Lor just putting his feet up for a while. "1 really Don t have anyplace to put my feet up he laughs. Well we want to play cause we want to play. Why iour7 it s just that you gel accustomed Loil Over the years. The people themselves will Tell you when to Stop this Lour has brought Dylan the critical Praise thai seems tougher for him to come by than it is for other artists. He seems to be held up to a higher Standard because of his own bigger than life image and that irritates him. It s irritating. It s real irritating tie says it s not thai somebody can t come and not like whal you re doing that s of. Bul i be done Tours before where wednesday september 7. 1988 people go real personal Wilh their reviews in a real Early time when we were on the Road and for some reason All Tho towns hat we were about to play they d like to pick these things up. So ii was like intentionally telling people to stay away. I Don l know. I go through a Tot of thai and then even when you re not doing what they say you re doing people expect to Sec that it s like when we were playing Afler being booed in Newport or something in 1965 he brought an electric band to the Folk Lesl Ival i mean for the next six months people wan to see that same show thai got booed and they want to boo Dylan s unexpected lasts and perspectives often perplex his Public though he insists he is nol. As frequently described i Don l know what that word Means he protests. I would like to think thai i could t be categorized. Who wants to be categorized thai happens because of All the Soufl i do not because of who i am or anything. And t Don t even know if that s a True fact because that s nothing much to concern me. You can t make it too Long on being an ii his critics can t categorize him they certainly can accuse him of playing in Safe. He seems to depend on literary and spiritual references that keep him constantly searching Tor new influences. He stunned the Public in 1979 when he came Oul with the emotional gospel up slow train coming the Lead song gotta serve somebody won him his Only grammy an Honor he considers an the album was one of Dylan s so Rongel Ever and went Platinum 1 million copies sold. Gospel music is about the love of god. And commercial music is about the love of sex Dylan says. After following up Wilh saved and shot of love Dylan who was born jewish seemed to Drill away from the Christian message though themes of redemption tinged infidels and Empire burlesque. His current religious leanings Are the object of speculation religion has nothing to do Wilh Faith is All hell say publicly on the subject. Bul another of his gospel songs death is not the end. Turned up on Down in the Groove. So did the tin pan a Fey tune when Ditt you leave heaven and Al a recent concert he delighted the crowd Fay Nursling into i m in the mood for love. Last year he appeared on a pcs tribute to George Gershwin. He was surprised when the producers invited him to participate. I said Are you sure you sure there might not be another Bob Dylan " Dylan has always been intrigued by Gershwin s music he says cause it sounds like sophisticated City stuff but there s a country Blackwood Alley cat element to it that for some reason he was Able to capture there Are smells and tastes in those songs for some reason. And i was used to hearing Nina Simone sing a lot of George Gershwin songs a few years Back Ana they were very close o the Folk songs that i was Folk songs have an honoured place in Dylan s current repertoire a purposeful homage to his tools. To plays the standards Barbara Allen and Golden vanities on stage and included his own arrangement of Stie Pandoah on Down in the Groove earlier this year he was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and played like a rolling Slone the Anthem of the Rock generation at the ceremony. But Folk music is in his heart. He contributed a Cut to a recent up honouring Leadbelly and Woody Gul Rio. Bam Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota he later legally changed his name Dylan migrated to new York in part to visit Guthrie in the Hospital. He soon became a sensation playing his songs of biting social commentary in Greenwich Village. But he Illuri Alert Folk purists when he lookup the electric guitar by the mid 60s. Ironically Dylan is now in a better position than the purists to Champion Folk music in the 80s. People Don t know Folk songs anymore he says. I mean hardly anybody sings them anymore and people think that people who play the acoustic guitar and write their own songs Are Folk singers but that s no necessarily True. They re writing their own songs but they re not really based on anything. So i thought Well if i m going around again i m going to sing Folk songs because first of All i love pm and the lyrics in them Are i mean they re incredible stories and that s where i got a lot of my Soufl Tram in the Early years and still do. Folk songs Are still belter even though they re nol commercial they re still Beller than 90 percent of the stuff you hear on the radio the stars and stripes Page 17
