UPDATE 11/7/2008: See the latest on this subject at this link: The audio: What Bob Dylan really said (about life, the universe, Barack Obama and everything) on election night in Minnesota.

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As if the previous post wasn’t long enough: I am reminded by an e-mail from esteemed reader Dana that I didn’t even refer to the linkage we are most familiar with between Dylan and the struggle of black Americans. Truly — and contrary to conventional wisdom, I know — the only cause Dylan has ever written songs for has been the fight for racial justice in America (that is, other than spreading the gospel between 1979 and 1981). I’ll give my writing hand a rest and quote some of what Dana e-mailed:

Dylan was a featured performer at the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” in the year, 1963, where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. The March was organized, in part, to pressure the Kennedy administration who had been reluctant to push civil rights legislation. The Civil Rights Act and the National Voting Rights Act weren’t passed until 1964 and 1965, respectively. (For many of us that is WITHIN our lifetime!) Malcolm X, incidentally, then-spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, denounced the march calling it a “farce.” If you ever want to have your heart broken visit the Martin Luther King Memorial in Atlanta. I had the privilege of being there this past spring with my dear friend, Bob, and was deeply moved in ways I never expected. I was (am) not an Obama supporter because we fundamentally disagree about many ethical and political issues, however, I can’t help but be deeply moved, yet again, when I consider (and, especially, when seeing the jubilation in the faces of young and old black people on TV) what his election means to so many African-Americans across the country. Back to Dylan… Q: What songs did he perform at the March? A: When The Ship Comes In, Only A Pawn In Their Game and, Keep Your Eyes On The Prize. Only A Pawn was only two months old at the time of the March. It was written in response to the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers, a civil rights organizer and WWII vet who was shot in the back in the driveway of his home by a KKK member. Two all white juries were deadlocked that year, the governor of the state of MS visited his murderer in jail, and it wasn’t until 1994 on the basis of new evidence that Medgar’s assassin was tried and convicted of the crime! Is it any wonder the black community has been so full of mistrust and anger towards those who represent generations of oppression, injustice and abuse? [ ... ]

[The "I Have A Dream" speech] is only 17.5 minutes long. It has taken “the negro” 45 years to feel like “the fierce urgency of now” has truly translated into the “promises of democracy” fulfilled. Remember: the year is 1963 – the Civil Rights Act came a year later – the National Voting Rights Act two years later. Say and think what we may about Barack Obama it is hard to deny that this is a very “real moment” for our “colored” brothers and sisters. Let’s pray for Obama at least as often as we criticize. Their hope is ours, that “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

YouTube – Martin Luther King — “I Have A Dream”

Further on this subject, remember that the most pointed “cause” song Dylan ever wrote was probably Hurricane, which sought to make the case that the black boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was wrongly convicted of murder, due at least in part, and allegedly, to racism. (I wrote more about this on a previous occasion.)

Finally, take into account Dylan’s other great preoccupation, which is clearly related to the same subject, while also going beyond it: the U.S. Civil War. In his memoir “Chronicles, Volume I” (and where the hell is Volume II?) he wrote:

Back there, America was put on the cross, died and was resurrected. There was nothing synthetic about it. The godawful truth of that would be the all-encompassing template behind everything I would write.

Put all of this together and it’s clear why we can speculate that the deep resonance of a black man being elected president of the United States might be exceedingly clear to a man named Bob Dylan.

However, it remains speculation as to what Dylan meant by his remarks — as I wrote in the previous post, the comments as reported to date could only really be explained by Dylan himself. And we have yet to hear the audio.
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UPDATE: See the latest and hopefully final post on this subject at this link: The audio: What Bob Dylan really said (about life, the universe, Barack Obama and everything) on election night in Minnesota.

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