I'm stumped for a header for this, but I'll dedicate it to the various Mr Jones' quoted below
I’ve been a Dylan fan since I first heard Obviously 5 Believers in 1966. then a more serious Dylan fan from 1970 on.
Over the years I have been somewhat bemused by those who purport to know all things Dylan, but in reality know bugger all about the guy or his recordings.
However
this lack of knowledge doesn't seem to stop them from flapping their traps.
It seems the less they know the louder and longer they flap, and with
absolute authority.
Two
cases in point, both really from 1965 with one spilling over to 1966.
The ‘Dylan goes electric / boos from the fans’ – Newport 1965 / English tour 1966
‘Dylan
puts Donovan in his place’ – Savoy Hotel May 1965, Pennebaker’s Don’t
Look Back
Dylan going electric
Okay, not everyone was aware of Dylan’s first single from December 1962, the rocker Mixed Up Confusion, but surely by
March 1965, you know something has changed. Bringing It All Back Home, on side one Dylan is backed by a rock band
Electric guitar, electric bass, piano, drums, keyboards.
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Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie’s Farm, Outlaw Blues, Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (!!)
20th July 1965, Like A Rolling Stone is released and it reaches number two in the U.S. and a top 10 hit around the world, Dylan is backed by a rock band
Mike Bloomfield, lead guitar, Al Kooper organ, Bobby Gregg, drums, Joe Macho Jr, bass, Paul Griffin, piano
25th
July 1965, Newport Folk Festival –
Dylan
is backed by a rock band. Were there ‘boos’?
Certainly not from any Dylan fans.
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August
1965, Highway 61 Revisited, 8 of the 9 songs
Dylan
is backed by a rock band, and how!
Tombstone Blues,
From A Buick 6, Highway 61 Revisited.
September 1965, Positively 4th Street. Dylan is backed by a rock band. Bloomfield - guitar!
December
1965, Can You Please Crawl Out Your Win
May
1966, five months after his last release 'Can You Please Crawl Out Your
Window', he tours England and is backed by a rock band
and the press and audiences are surprised?
For those fans who booed Bob on the English tour and the press that bagged him out, my only thought is that they all must have been as thick as shit.
Seriously,
absolutely thick as shit.
Four
singles with Bob and a rock band and one and a half albums with Bob and a rock
band over one and a quarter years
would suggest, to the suggestible listener, that if you go to a Dylan concert
there’s a chance he’ll be backed by a
rock band.
Dylan
and Donovan in Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back.
The
widely held view is that the highlight of the doco is Dylan putting Donovan in
his place and teaching him a lesson.
Here
are a few examples from the web. Some
of these people may have even seen this movie.
“the
famous scene in which Dylan outshone and humiliated the singer Donovan at a
party for cool people in London”
Jonathan
Franzen's 2010 novel Freedom
“In one of the best scenes from the 1967 film Don’t Look Back, ……., Scottish folk star Donovan visits the poet laureate of rock in a hotel room, performs an innocuous little ditty and is then
promptly upstaged by Dylan’s great
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”
twentyfourbit.com
“It’s a catchy little diddy, but a light and fluffy one, sugar-coated, insubstantial, rather faux and obvious in its sentiments. (“…I’ll sing a song for you / that’s what I’m here to do / to sing for
you…”) Dylan chuckles
midway through and remarks, “Great song, man”, and you just don’t believe
him for a second. When Donovan
finishes, Dylan snatches his guitar….”
Reviewed
by Richard Malloy (Al Brown)
“Greil Marcus then suggests that perhaps the “Baby Blue” moment was payback for Donovan’s attempt to improve upon his song.”
“The King is in his hotel room a few days before he is to command Royal Albert Hall and the Yellow flake shows up to sing for the Dylan entourage. And he actually croons what sounds like a
gem. A really good song. With the glow of pride still
on his face, Dylan – the alpha male – is ready to crush Donovan. Flatten the
fairy. So he commandeers the guitar from……”
Mark
Stevens CEO of a big company (MSCO) (and
he has written a book too)
“How Bob Dylan stopped that pretender, Donovan. The following exchange is one of the most famous (and one of the only) throwdowns in folk music history. Dylan retuned the guitar and
sang arguably his best (and
newest) song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and in an instant -
everyone knew who was the better.”
By
Tom Power (musician
Tom is in high demand and leads his own band)
So, before you howl with delight at the above 'tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing', it’s nice to have a few of the facts.
First
and foremost, Dylan would be the last person on the planet (especially in 1965) who would
allow himself to be
manipulated by the press.
Donovan
sings his song “To Sing For You”
Dylan
says “Hey, nice song man”
Donovan
then asks Dylan to play “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’
Dylan
acquiesces.
Pretty
straight forward I would think.
It’s
also good to keep a few things in perspective.
Donovan was eighteen years old and Dylan was twenty four
Donovan
had been a recording artist for a total of seven weeks, Dylan for three and a
half years
Donovan
had only released one record, a single. Dylan
had released five albums and five singles
Donovan
had only played small clubs, with the exception of Wembley, once, where he
played two songs. Dylan was selling
out concert halls everywhere.
Dylan
had performed throughout the States, played Canada and had been to England every
year since 1962
Would
Dylan really pick on the little guy?
Was
Dylan’s song and performance of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue better than
Donovan’s song and performance of To Sing For You?
I
should fucking hope so
Dylan, Donovan and Mary Travers two months later at the Newport Folk Festival
It's not easy being cool at 18 years of age
Left, Bob at 18, posing for a photo for the Hibbing High School Year book
Right, Donovan at 18, talking and singing with Dylan in his hotel room
Have I mentioned perspective?