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Books Ah, those Dylans of the mind

Knockin' on Dylan's Door — On the Road in 1974. A Rolling Stone Book.

Reviewed by Gordon Campbell.

Rolling Stone is still on our side, still the people's paper, right? Well, Ben Fong-Torres tries hard here to make it seem so, with stuff like "Rolling Stone has been among the most critical of Dylan's recent albums, and the most cynical about his motives for the tour, launched in combination with a new label and a new album.' Too bad such righteous cynicism doesn't extent to Rolling Stone's own motives for rushing out a book about such a tour — especially since Dylan himself had expressly rejected lucrative book and film coverage. But that's Rolling Stone for you; it never takes you all the way, just far enough in so that you can say you've been there, eh Jann?

Everyone who is anyone, it seems, went to see Dylan, and some of the stars even consented to have their photos and comments recorded here just for you! Warren Beatty thought Bob was 'fine'. Carole King felt she was going to have her baby right then and there; Helen Reddy was there, but her management felt that comment would be inappropriate. David Crosby 'got fuckin' off' and Neil Young said 'it's so fuckin' funky I'm gonna go out of my mind!' Joan Baez, however was disappointed' and Dan Hicks found it 'predictable', while neither Rick Nelson or Eric Burdon had anything to say at all, even though Eric sat in the front row and had his pic taken!

The Dylan theorists are also out in force: Ralph J. Gleason feels that 'his accident happened just as Dylan almost single-handedly had transformed pop music into an alternative educational system'. And Michael McClure calls him a 'demigod' and a 'prophet' and invokes Shelley, Blake, Kafka, Rimbaud, Robert Duncan, Marshall McLuhan, Walt Disney and Mother Goose in an attempt to nail down Dylan's appeal. There is an unintentionally funny sequence about McClure, in 1965, trying to tell Dylan that he must have been influenced by Blake, even though Dylan says then that he had not read Blake at all. McClure sniffs that "this is very hard to believe" and cites stanzas to 'prove' the connection. Ah, those Dylans of the mind.

The strangest part of the book deals with Dylan's date with the Governor of Georgia, one Jimmy Carter. Carter, an 'ex peanut farmer and nuclear submarine captain' is running for the Presidential nomination in 1976 as a youth candidate (he's 49) and his teenage son felt that the Dylan dinner would be a smart move, Dylan according to Gov. Carter is 'a painfully timid man' who sat quietly eating his vegetables while the Governor, his son and assorted young Georgia socialites gaped at him. The Governor's big moment came when Gregg Allman and his wife turned up at 1.30am and the Governor ran downstairs in his jeans ('I always wear them around the house') to say how sorry he was that they'd missed the fun. Our Rolling Stone reporter wonders darkly what new questions this all raises about the politics of the tour and the Dylan mystique.

Bob made his politics perfectly clear, however: he told a Washington Post reporter that he did the Bangla Desh concert, but didn't do benefits for McGovern because 'There were millions starving in Bangla Desh: George McGovern wasn't starving, he just wanted to be President. Actually,' Dylan added, 'I don't like the Democratic-Republican system. I like monarchies, kings and queens.'

As for the profits from the tour that worry Rolling Stone so much, it seems more likely that Dylan will be giving the whole $3 million to Israel. This prompted a few placards, like 'Bob Dylan, Master of War' to appear outside some of the concerts.

The best writing in the book has nothing to do with Rolling Stone: thankfully, they saw fit to include some selection from the Press coverage of the tour, and the essays by Ellen Willis and Lucien Truscott in particular are quite excellent. I'll let Truscott have the final words....'Bob Dylan has simply settled down with his wife and kids. He eats vegetables, studies astrology and drinks wine. In his most recent songs, he seems to thank his wife for saving his life...our expectations are always that the great live up to our worst fantasies....but one can hardly blame him for having quit his life out there on the Edge.....Perhaps one day we will catch up. And maybe then we too will stop acting forever young, and have it within us to wish it on someonelse.