Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters

by Jeff Burger (Editor)

Overview

Dylan can be as evasive and abstruse as he is witty. But in the right moments, he offers candid, revealing commentary about his groundbreaking music and creative process. Dylan on Dylan is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of interviews, speeches, and press conferences, as well as excerpts from nearly a hundred additional Q&As spanning Dylan’s entire career. The material comes from renowned publications like Rolling Stone and from obscure periodicals like Minnesota Daily, a student newspaper at Dylan’s alma mater. Interviewers include some of the top music journalists of our time, such as Robert Love and Mikal Gilmore, as well as musicians like Pete Seeger and Happy Traum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641602259
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Series:	Musicians in Their Own Words
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	1,093,423
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jeff Burger is the editor of Springsteen on Springsteen, Lennon on Lennon, and Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen. He has contributed to Barron’s, Family Circle, GQ, the Los Angeles Times, Reader’s Digest, and many more.

Table of Contents

Preface Jeff Burger ix

Izzy Young's Notebook Izzy Young

October 20, 1961-March 14, 1962 | The Fiddler Now Upspoke (UK) 1

Radio Interview Cynthia Gooding

Early 1962 | Folksinger's Choice, WBAI-FM (New York) 12

Conversation Izzy Young Pete Seeger Sis Cunningham Gil Turner

May 1962 (recording) | Unaired, WBAI-FM (New York) 24

A Day with Bob Dylan John Cocks

November 20, 1964 | Kenyon Collegian (Ohio) 30

Bob Dylan as Bob Dylan Paul Jay Robbins

March and September 1965 (interview) | September 10, 17, and 24, 1965 | Los Angeles Free Press 41

Interview Nora Ephron Susan Edmiston

August 1965 (interview) | Publication Unknown 59

Playboy Interview: Bob Dylan Nat Hentoff

Fall 1965 (interview) | March 1966 | Playboy 69

Press Conference

December 3, 1965 | KQED-TV (San Francisco) 93

Press Conference

December 16, 1965 | Los Angeles 116

Radio Conversation Bob Fass

January 26, 1966 | Radio Unnameable, WBAI-FM (New York) 132

Radio Interview Klas Burling

May 1, 1966 | Radio 3 (Sweden) 148

Conversations with Bob Dylan John Cohen Happy Traum

October/November 1968 | Sing Out! 156

Press Conference

August 27, 1969 | Isle of Wight, England 188

Radio Interview Mary Travers

April 20, 1975 | Mary Travers and Friend, KNX-FM (Los Angeles) 193

Bob Dylan: "… A Sailing Ship to the Moon" Neil Mickey

August 1976 (interview) | March 4, 2015 | Adventures in the Scribblers Trade 203

An Interview with Dylan Randy Anderson

February 17, 1978 | Minnesota Daily 222

Radio Interview Paul Vincent

November 19, 1980 | KMEL-FM (San Francisco) 250

Radio Interview Paul Gambaccini

June 20, 1981 | Rock On, BBC Radio 1 (UK) 259

"Jesus, Who's Got Time to Keep Up with the Times?" Mick Brown

July 1, 1984 | Sunday Times (UK) 264

Radio Interview Bert Kleinman Artie Mogull

November 13, 1984 | Westwood One (US) 271

Radio Interview Bob Coburn

June 17, 1985 | Rockline, KLOS-FM (Los Angeles) 288

Bob Dylan-After Ail These Years in the Spotlight, the Elusive Star Is at the Crossroads Again Mikal Gilmore

October 13, 1985 | Los Angeles Herald-Examiner 307

Ask Him Something, and a Sincere Dylan Will Tell You the Truth Don McLeese

January 26, 1986 | Chicago Sun-Times 316

The Invisible Man David Hepworth

October 1986 | Q magazine (UK) 321

Radio Interview Elliot Mintz

May 1991 | Westwood One (US) 339

Interview Paul Zollo

November 1991 | SongTalk 354

Dylan: Jokes, Laughter, and a Series of Dreams Peter Wilmoth

April 3, 1992 | The Age (Australia) 381

A Midnight Chat with Dylan John Dolen

September 28, 1995 | SunSentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 386

No Direction Home Outtakes

2000 (interview) | Broadcast Date Unknown | WBAI-FM (New York) 395

Press Conference

July 23, 2001 | Rome 404

TV Interview Ed Bradley

December 5, 2004 | 60 Minutes, CBS (US) 439

The Genius and Modern Times of Bob Dylan Jonathan Lethem

September 7, 2006 | Rolling Stone 448

Bob Dylan's Late-Era, Old-Style American Individualism Douglas Brinkley

May 14, 2009 | Rolling Stone 463

Bob Dylan: The Uncut Interview Robert Love

February/March 2015 | AARP The Magazine 487

Nobel Prize Banquet Speech | BOB DYLAN (presented by Azita Raji)

December 10, 2016 | Stockholm, Sweden 513

About the Contributors 517

About the Editor 524

Credits 525

Index 528

Editorial Reviews

"a valuable contribution to the record of Dylan's legacy.” —Kirkus Reviews


“A major addition to the ever-increasing library about America's great bard.  There is never a moment when Dylan is dull or mundane. This book crackles and pops with wisdom for the ages.”—Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior, The Great Deluge, and Cronkite


"Assembled chronologically from his first encounters with the press to his most recent, this remarkable compendium allows readers to join Dylan on one of the most compelling creative journeys of our time, one that forever shaped the arc of popular songwriting. His brilliance shines through in these interviews and encounters; so does his wit and love of humor, reverence for songs and songwriting, and, perhaps most surprising, genuine humility."—Paul Zollo, author of Songwriters on Songwriting


“a must for all Dylan fans.” —Booklist


"The ultimate compilation of Dylan interviews from 1961 through 2016, complete with an extensive index for ease of reference, Dylan on Dylan is a 'must' for anyone interested in the life and works of this talented musician. Highly recommended, especially for public and college library music biography collections."—Midwest Book Reviews

From the Publisher

2018-02-20
A portrait of the artist through his interviewsThe Dylan contained in this anthology is the ideal interview subject: insightful, playful, at times self-reflective, and rarely boring. This will come as no surprise to those who have followed Dylan closely or read the interviews previously collected in Jonathan Cott's Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews (2017). What may come as a surprise is how fresh this volume reads. Burger—who has contributed to the publisher's Musicians in Their Own Words series with portraits of John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Leonard Cohen—mostly fills in around Cott's book (the two overlap in only a handful of cases). The author draws smartly from the scores of Dylan interviews to present the full arc of his subject's career from before his debut album to his 2016 Nobel Prize speech. With his notes and insightful introductions, Burger provides the necessary connective tissue and creates the narrative's ultimate effect as an autobiographical oral history told in close to real time. It works, then, as an introductory text covering the iconic moments of an iconic life but also as something more intimate. Reading Dylan—even his absurdist performance-art press conferences of the mid-1960s—readers may feel more receptive to his ideas than when watching footage of the same scene. At the heart of Dylan's artistry is his abiding love for music. In 2015, he told Robert Love about lying in bed as a boy in Hibbing, Minnesota, and listening to the Staple Singers on the radio: "It was the most mysterious thing I'd ever heard….And that singer is pulling things out of my soul that I never knew were there." It is the same thing Dylan's own music has done for so many of his listeners, which is what makes Burger's arrangement rewarding.A valuable contribution to the record of Dylan's legacy.

Kirkus Reviews