Thursday 16 October 2008

Dylan Meets the Press - March 3, 1965

The press: Bobby, We know you changed your name. Come on now, what's your real name?

Dylan: Philip Ochs. I'm gonna change it back when I see it pays.

The press: Was Woody Guthrie your greatest influence?

Dylan: I don't know that I'd say that, but for a spell, the idea of him affected me quite much.

The press: How about Brecht? Read much of him?

Dylan: No. But I've read him.

The press: Rimbaud?

Dylan: I've read his tiny little book 'evil flowers' too.

The press: How about Hank Williams? Do you consider him an influence?

Dylan: Hey look, I consider Hank Williams, Captain Marvel, Marlon Brando, The Tennessee Stud, Clark Kent, Walter Cronkite and J. Carrol Neish all influences. Now what is it - please - what is it exactly you people want to know?

The press: Tell us about your movie.

Dylan: It's gonna be in black and white.

The press: Will it be in the Andy Warhol style?

Dylan: Who's Andy Warhol? Listen, my movie will be - I can say definitely - it will be in the style of the early Puerto Rican films.

The press: Who's writing it?

Dylan: Allen Ginsberg. I'm going to rewrite it.

The press: Who will you play in the film?

Dylan: The hero.

The press: Who is it that you're going to be?

Dylan: My mother.

The press: What about your friends The Beatles? Did you see them when you were there?

Dylan: John Lennon and I came down to the Village early one morning. They wouldn't let us in The Figaro or The Hip Bagel or The Feenjon. This time I'm going to England. This April. I'll see 'em if they're there.

The press: Bob, what about the situation of American poets? Kenneth Roxroth has estimated that since 1900 about thirty American poets have committed suicide.

Dylan: Thirty poets! What about American housewifes, mailmen, street cleaners, miners? Jesus Christ, what's so special about thirty people that are called poets? I've known some very good people that have committed suicide. One didn't do nothing but work in a gas station all his life. Nobody referred to him as poet, but if you're gonna call people like Robert Frost a poet, then I got to say this gas station boy was a poet too.

The press: Bob, to sum up - don't you have any important philosophy for the world?

Dylan: Are you kidding? The world don't need me. Christ, I'm only five feet ten. The world could get along fine without me. Don'cha know, everybody dies. It don't matter how important you think you are. Look at Shakespeare, Napoleon, Edgar Allan Poe, for that matter. They are all dead, right?

The press: Well, Bob, in your opinion, then, is there one man who can save the world?

Dylan: Al Aronowitz.

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