Thanks to Micah for sending the link to an interview with photographer Ken Regan, conducted by John Balfe on Entertainment.ie. Ken Regan has been taking photos of and for Dylan since the days of Desire. He has an exhibition of his work in Dublin, Ireland at the moment, focused on pictures from Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour. That’s where the interview took place. Regan has plenty of interesting stuff to say, including on how he originally got involved with Bob and gained his respect. The anecdote we can’t possibly ignore here at RWB, however, is the one about how Bob Dylan met General Norman Schwarzkopf a few years ago. General Schwarzkopf is most famous, of-course, for being the head of U.S. Central Command and leading Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, which resulted in the successful expulsion of Saddam Hussein’s military forces from Kuwait. More on his life can be found many places including at Wikipedia, of-course.

Ken Regan describes how he was called out a few years ago to join Dylan on tour in Colorado and take some pictures.

Right after the concert that night we were told to pack up real quick because we had to get to Arizona. I was packing up and one of the roadies comes up to us and tells Bob that he’s needed right away. I catch up with Bob a little while later and ask him what’s going on. “You’re not going to believe this”, he says. “Guess who’s here?” There had been a rumour all day that Eric Clapton was going to play with him, so I asked him if it was Clapton. Bob just smiled and said “No. Norman Schwarzkopf.”

[Q] The General?

He was sitting out in the audience and he asked someone if he could come backstage and meet him. Bob turns to Suzie, his assistant, and says “get my best hat!” So Schwarzkopf comes out and here are two icons from totally opposite ends of the world and he’s going on and on about how he loves the music. “Bob”, he says, “I just want to say something to you. The Times They Are A-Changin’ was the most prolific song that was written in the 20th Century”. I almost fell over dead. I took all these pictures of Bob and Norman together. We’ve never released them.

Well, to be a fly on the wall there, indeed. It’s a shame we apparently will never see a picture of Bob and Stormin’ Norman together, but it’s a blast to hear of how they met all the same. “Get my best hat!” Dylan has revealed how he dreamed of going to West Point and leading an army in battle, so when he met Schwarzkopf, maybe it was kind of like meeting Sarkozy: He felt like he was looking in a mirror!

Now, Schwarzkopf is seven years older than Bob, so we’re entitled to be surprised that he’s a big fan of Dylan’s music, but that’s apparently what he is. Meaning, he wasn’t a kid in the 1960s. But then Bob’s music goes beyond all that, as we know.

The other thing to say is that someone is being misquoted above — either Ken Regan, or Schwarzkopf. I can’t imagine Norman said that Dylan’s 1963 tune The Times They Are A-Changin’ is the most prolific song written in the twentieth century. That doesn’t mean anything, and it certainly wouldn’t make anyone fall over dead. But another three-syllable word that sounds similar is prophetic. I could well imagine that’s what Schwarzkopf told Dylan, and there would be a whole lot to that observation.

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Addendum 5/11/2009: Thanks very much to the interviewer, John Balfe of Entertainment.ie who e-mails the following:

I saw your piece about the interview I conducted with Ken Regan.

I double checked my recording and Ken definitely says “prolific”, not “prophetic” when recounting Schwarzkopf’s conversation with Dylan regarding ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Prolific, in this context, probably means “productive” or “abundantly fruitful” towards Dylan fans and public consciousness in general. It was more than just a song, but something capable of effecting change within society.

So, we can pretty sure that’s what Ken Regan quoted Schwarzkopf as saying, but I still wonder if it was a slip, since it seems a strange way of using the word to me. Only Stormin’ Norman could clear it up for sure, or Bob himself. I’ll wait by the telephone.

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