On May 24, 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman alias Bob Dylan was born in Duluth/MN. This year he celebrates his 65th birthday. Happy birthday, Bob!
What’s better, to die or to fade away? Well, Bob is still alive and there is no sign of fading energy or creativity. With his autobiography just written, a radio show, constant touring and a new album in the making he seems to be everywhere and as young as ever. Or better: Younger than that now. He might not sing like “Caruso” anymore, but who cares? And on a good night he still can kick some ass. Watch out reviewers!
We still want to see him live on stage, even if the performance is not what we’d expected (is it ever?). But we’re thankful to still get a chance to see the man who has written so many songs that accompanied us in our lives, good times and bad. And we pay respect to a man whose work probably touches us unlike any other.
Thanks for doing what you did for all of us, Bob. Please keep on writing songs. And by the way - how do you manage to blow out 65 candles?
Following the release of “Desire” Dylan continued his Rolling Thunder Revue in 1976, but it was hard if not impossible to recreate the spontaneity of the 1975 tour. When the Revue finally performed in Fort Collins on May 23rd, it just seemed so symbolic that in probably one of their best shows of the tour they had to confront a hard rain. The concert had been recorded on film (for an NBC broadcast) and for an album, both entitled - of course - “Hard Rain”. The show was recorded at the Hughes Stadium of the Colorado University and broadcast on TV on September 14. Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, T-Bone Burnett, Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner, Bob Neuwirth, Mick Ronson and Howie Wyeth joined Dylan among others from the 1975 leg of the tour.
A month after the “Hard Rain” concert and 30 years ago on April 22, 1976 they performed at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Clearwater, Florida. This indoor show had also been recorded for TV, but was never released.
DVD copies of both TV recordings are circulating among traders. And now on the 30th anniversary of “Hard Rain” one can only wonder why there still is no official DVD release of those great shows.
Mr. Bill Cohen, Ph.D was a doctor at Greystone Park State Hospital, New Jersey from 1957 to 1963. One of his patients was Woody Guthrie, folk legend, and one of Dylan’s biggest influences and idols at that time. Guthrie had Huntington’s chorea, a severe and rare illness.
Mike Hobo: When Woody Guthrie was your patient at Greystone, it wasn’t the first time you actually saw him?
Bill Cohen: Guthrie lived in Seagate, a gated Jewish Community in Coney Island, Brooklyn/New York. He used to play on the boardwalk. I used to watch him as a kid, eating my hot dog from Nathan’s. To see him years later at the hospital, read his medical file, and to know that he had a terminal illness was a heartbreaker.
MH: In his book “Woody Guthrie: A Life” Joe Klein writes that Woody called the hospital “Gravestone”?
BC: When Dylan describes the ward that Woody was on, he was being kind. The stench of the ward was unbearable, really horrible. Feces, urine, and vomit all blended together in a locked ward of 50-75 sick people. But we had accurate medical records on every person in the hospital. Perhaps it was an imminent “gravestone” for Woody, but I can assure you that his medical care was excellent. He was not a psychiatric patient. He was a person with a horrible medical illness.
MH: And young Bob Dylan still did visit him occasionally.
BC: Young Dylan did come to see him. I do not remember Pete Seeger, Cisco, or any of his friends being there, but Dylan was. His wife Margie was a lovely woman who travelled all the way out to see him. Dylan is a fantastic human being who has done so many things in life, and never asked for credit.
MH: When did you first hear about Dylan?
BC: After I came back from Korea, I moved into the village and shared an apt. with a friend. His name is Buddy Friedman, who was later to become very famous in Comedy Club ownerships. We lived on Christopher Street, down near what is now 12th ave. Buddy knew everyone, and we spent a lot of time in the clubs and coffee houses. I met Dave Von Ronk, who was very popular and could sing the blues like no white man ever could. The Von Ronks were very good to Dylan and let him live with them on Montague Street in Brooklyn. It was a short walk over the Brooklyn Bridge into the Village. I saw him in clubs and he was still nobody, but people were beginning to recognize his talent. I think that Joan Baez was most instrumental in getting his career started.
MH: Did Dyan’s music already fascinate you in any way?
BC: I thought that he was really great, and had tremendous intelligence. A lot of the folksingers of his time were good, but didn’t have much to say. Dylan was a voracious reader and understood much of life from the bible, shakespeare, the Greek Literature, and all the newspapers he could find. I have been a fan of his from the very start in the village, and have every album he has ever published. I have seen him every time he was in NY, or NJ - I guess for over 40 years.
MH: Have you ever met Dylan in persona or talked to him during his hospital visits?
BC: I have never personally been, or introduced myself to Bob Dylan. I know about his comings and goings at Greystone, and have seen him. He was there to see Woody. It was a very disturbing sight for him. I could not intrude and tell him that I knew who he was etc. - I was a Doctor, he was a visitor. It would have been very intrusive to go over and tell him that I was a fan and admirer of his. He is very polite, but that was not the time or place. In addition, I would not have been able go discuss any aspect of the patient with him, since he was not immediate family. It was just awkward. It just wasn’t right.
MH: Now those days are long gone. After 45 years you are still a fan? What do you think of Bob Dylan today?
BC: He is a brilliant man. No matter what criticism anybody levels at him, he never responds, is never rude, or a Hollywood celeb. You will never ever hear any scandal regarding his life or behavior.
MH: Thank you very much for contributing a very valuable feature to this website and the Dylan fans out there.
BC: I loved to share this information and these thoughts with you.
Mr. Cohen has also contributed to this site in the song comments section and in the discussion forum.
In addition to this interview I would like to show you this unaired clip from History Channel about Woody Guthrie at Greystone Asylum:
Celebrating four decades of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”, the greatest rock song of all times according to Rolling Stone magazine, “Radio Open Source” presented author Greil Marcus in a discussion on the song, the times that brought it along and the way it changed popular music and culture since.
Marcus has just recently published his new book “Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads”. “Open Source” is a nationally syndicated public radio show based in Boston. Its program is based on listeners’ suggestions. You can find their website at www.radioopensource.org .
Marcus did a great job making the listeners relive the mid-1960s and the cultural atmosphere surrounding the creation of the song. He shared personal memories as well as biographical facts about Dylan’s life until 1965: from his musical beginnings in High School to the early influences by his “folk president” Woody Guthrie, the “Don’t Look Back” documentary, his Beatles-inspired going electric and finally the chaotic recording sessions on June 15 and 16, 1965 in Columbia’s Studio A in New York City that lead to an “accident” that would change the history of popular music forever (Greil Marcus).
The show was recorded at the Hughes Stadium of the Colorado University and broadcast on TV on September 14. Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, T-Bone Burnett, Scarlet Rivera, Rob Stoner, Bob Neuwirth, Mick Ronson and Howie Wyeth joined Dylan among others from the 1975 leg of the tour.