Bob Dylan has cultivated a radio persona that is all about mysteriousness, insinuation, slyness, clowning and a little naughtiness. With a heavy dose of pure gentleness thrown in too (he’s studiously avoided putting anyone down).

On the XM Radio show that aired today, however, Dylan let the mask slip for a moment and came close to pounding his desk to make a point. I thought it was worth reporting on before my usual longer sketch of the show.

Firstly, Dylan played a record by George Jones and Melba Montgomery, called, “Let’s Invite Them Over,” about a couple who are in love with their best friends. Right — so that “Let’s Invite Them Over” line means just what you might suspect it means and more. It’s quite a song — both risqué and heartbreaking in its way. Dylan says it’s “country music at its best,” and after it plays, he says:

A song from the swingin’ ’60s. I don’t mean the swingin’ ’60s like Carnaby Street; I mean the swingin’ ’60s like, we have a party, and the men put all their car keys in a hat, the wives pick out a car key, they put on a Trini Lopez record, and everybody just swings.

Now, I’ve never been to a party like that myself, but I hear those kind of things happen.

Dylan’s voice then goes up several notches:

Now, I love country music, but I see what happened to it! You hear a song like this and it’s obvious, it’s about real people, and real emotions, and real problems. That’s all — that’s the country music we learned to love. Nowadays they want to sweep all the problems under the rug, and pretend they don’t exist.

Well, guess what, folks? They do exist! And if you try and sweep them under the rug, they’re just gonna pop up somewhere else. So we might as well just face it and listen to the old style country music. The real country music. You know: about drinkin’, and sleepin’ around. That’s my kind of country music! And I hope yours.

But I digress.

Wow! Digress all you want, Bob.

…

Addendum 9:30 pm: It’s been suggested I’m exaggerating by using the term “blows his stack.” Well, maybe. Everything’s relative. Dylan’s degree of animation when making the above points was on a whole other level than usual on his radio show. Maybe not a temper tantrum by anyone else’s standards, but definitely a startling moment on Theme Time Radio Hour.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• In the Music Hall
• Bob Dylan’s Starbucks collection
• More of Wenner versus Dylan