Daily Ramblings:
Hindsight 20/20 ...07/05/2005 09:15:27 pm
Herewith is a transcript made by yours truly, RWB, of Bob Dylan's 1985 TV interview on the ABC show "20/20." (It is the inauguration of a new and amazing feature here on RightWingBob.com, one I call "Interviews.")
This interview is significant for a few reasons. It was Dylan's first ever proper (if you rate it as "proper") television interview, and the only one he has done to date other than December 2004's interview with Ed Bradley for CBS's "60 Minutes." Indeed, that show was promoted as Dylan's "first TV interview in 20 years." This is the previous interview to which they were referring.
Like the "60 Minutes" segment, it's disappointing in its brevity (15 minutes, much of which is old footage being played) and the relative lack of knowledge of the interviewer. Nevertheless, it probably is more substantive than Ed Bradley's piece, in that Dylan appears less wary of and/or hostile to the interviewer, and some fairly significant topics are touched upon.
You can read it and judge for yourself. Especially interesting to me are some things mentioned in the voice-over, where the ABC newsman seems to be referring to things which Dylan said during their discussion, but which are not actually seen during the part of the interview which is aired. E.g.:
"He believes in the resurrection, he says, but he also delved intensely into his own religious heritage: Orthodox Judaism."
And:
"Dylan says he believes there will be a new beginning, a Messianic Kingdom eventually."
Bear in mind that this was in 1985, and some argued (and some inexplicably still argue) that Dylan had shed his belief in Christ after 1981's Shot Of Love album like some kind of worn-out fad. It's clear enough to people who have ears to hear that this wasn't the case, but anyhow, here apparently was an example of Dylan going on-the-record both about Christ, and about his simultaneous acceptance of his own Jewishness - but ABC just choosing not to make that part of the on-air interview.
What else to say? There's the bit about the We Are The World record and Live-Aid concert, which I already wrote about here. There is the direct question about whether Dylan considers his own work to be "poetry," and his rather straightforward and quite humble response. This, by the way, is a part of the interview that appears to be significantly edited. What a shame - and one wonders what else was left on the cutting-room floor, and even now may be in a can somewhere at ABC.*
Y'know, it's funny - on these two occasions that Dylan did a TV interview, much was made of the idea that he's some kind of hermit or recluse (far from true, considering all of the print interviews he's done) and what a big occasion this was as a result. Yet, in both instances, they ended up taking a few brief clips from apparently longer interviews and filling up the rest of a mere quarter-hour segment with old footage and editorializing.
Kinda sums it up, doesn't it? That is, it sums up the mainstream media's attitude to Dylan through the years. "We want you Bob! Tell us what you think, talk to us." Then when he does, it's, "Well, OK, that's not we expected. We'll use a little bit of that but mainly we'll just continue telling people what we think you're about."
* 07/06/2005 09:36:40 am: Someone who is much better informed than I tells me that there are outtakes from this interview in circulation. So, down the road we may revisit this ...
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