Things Have Changed

Per his request, Twyla Tharp gives Dylan the Billy Joel treatment. Now he really is "just a song and dance man."

Dylan’s self-definition as a “song and dance man” is really the best evasion of all. After all, as Zappa claimed, entertainment is always “optional” and it gets dangerous when taken too seriously.

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When Dylan refers to himself as just "a song & dance man" what we must consider is how to interpret this comment. It would appear that Dylan is simply using the phrase to try and detract from his protest/activist past. If we believe this to be true then the simplicity of the phrase must not be over exagerrated. Dylan may want us to simply 'leave him alone' and only interpret his music. Using the term 'song & dance ' man as a simplistic derrogatory term is a mistake. Dylan, although he professes to be simply a song & dance man, he is wrong. In the past he had proved himself to be a more than adequete historian and interpreter of blues and folk, an incredibly lyrical and imaginative songwriter, an active participant and spokesperson for the civil rights movement and a more than competent guitar and harmonica player. To understand his shift from protest singer to electric 'rock and roll' musician (he has always been credited as being the founder of folk-rock) it is necessary to consider the following extract from the January 1966 edition of Playboy magazine where Dylan is interviewed by Nat Hentoff

PLAYBOY: Do you feel that acquiring a combo and switching from folk to folkrock has improved you as a performer?

DYLAN: I'm not interested in myself as a performer. Performers are people who perform for other people. Unlike actors, I know what I'm saying. It's very simple
in my mind. It doesn't matter what kind of audience reaction this whole thing gets. What happens on the stage is straight. It doesn't expect any rewards or fines from any kind of outside agitators. It's ultra-simple, and would exist whether anybody was looking or not.

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Accepting the 1963 Tom Paine Award

The show opens in NYC September 25 at the Brooks Atkinson. If you haven't seen it, and have the means, or live in Minneapolis, go see GATZ instead (Fitzgerald was another Minnesota boy). Hibbing isn't that far away.

Dylan Rolling Stone interview.