From JL, this e-mail:

Subject: re your website

I think Bob is pretty clearly an entertainer first and foremost. This is why he shuns being a poster boy for political movements because it is superfluous to his art which he insists on presenting in its pure form without media and interviews and various other BS getting in the way. To try to twist his lyrics into a message that fits in line with your right wing beliefs is a desperate attempt from a semi-psychopathic Bob Dylan fan. I commend your fanship but you’re a bit off. Bob would think you’re a bit silly but he would love you anyway for buying his records.

Thanks to JL for this relatively restrained (although still insulting) missive. I actually agree with much of what he says — especially the part about Bob loving me. I’d like to single out this line, however: To try to twist his lyrics into a message that fits in line with your right wing beliefs is a desperate attempt from a semi-psychopathic Bob Dylan fan.

I naturally don’t think I do what he’s accusing me of, but perhaps, since this is his perception, he at least now knows what it’s like when a conservatively-inclined Bob Dylan fan has to read Michael Gray, or Greil Marcus, or any of a host of other highly lauded commentators on Dylan’s work. The difference, of-course, is that while my political biases are right there on the table, these other writers purport to only be dealing with what they see in Dylan’s art, when in actuality they have sharp political agendas of their own.

As I’ve explained elsewhere, and, I think, repeatedly: I don’t claim that Bob Dylan or his work is politically conservative, as such. Anyone who does look objectively at Dylan’s ouevre and his statements knows that he loathes labels, is hostile to the kinds of ideologies that some people allow themselves to be controlled by, and is almost physically allergic to party politics. This is a given, to the initiated. There were two major things I was interested in doing when I started this website: (1) Contradicting the persistent false-hood (notwithstanding all the preceding) that Dylan and his work is in fact inherently of the Left and (2) illustrating some ways in which his work could be both well appreciated and indeed applauded by those with a politically conservative mind-set (in particular in America in the time in which we live). In addition to that, obviously I also write stuff that has nothing to do with Dylan, just because I feel like it. If I quote some Dylan lines along the way, it’s not to say that Dylan takes this or that position on the issue, but only that those lines reflect off of the question at stake in a revealing way, to me.

I strongly agree with JL that “Bob is pretty clearly an entertainer first and foremost.” That being the case, I find it interesting that if you ask a person on the street — one who is not a Bob Dylan fan — who or what Bob Dylan is, you are likely to often hear that he is “an anti-war singer,” or something similar. This persistent popular impression is a disservice to Dylan on a couple of levels. First, it means he is wrongly characterized as a political commentator above all else. Second, it’s utterly inaccurate; as he has stated in so many words, and as a careful contemplation of his recorded output would reveal, he does not write “anti-war” songs at all. His way of dealing with the notion of war is by going at it on a much deeper level, and springs from the remarkable insight into human nature that grounds his songs.

So, who is responsible for this mistaken impression of Bob Dylan that lingers out there in the minds of the masses and gets regurgitated faithfully in the media on a regular basis? It’s not conservatives — I’ll tell you that much.

To the extent anyone might be surprised and prompted to think again — for themselves — by something I’ve written on this website, then I’d consider it a job well done.

Now, back into the restraints.

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