INTERVIEWS from the 60’S
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INTERVIEWS FROM THE 60’s 1 INTERVIEWS FROM THE 60’S p4. THE BILLY JAMES INTERVIEW, FALL 1961 p7. FROM THE IZZY YOUNG JOURNALS, OCTOBER 20 1961 p8. THE 'SCENE' INTERVIEW, JANUARY 1963 p11. THE SIDNEY FIELDS INTERVIEW, AUGUST 1963 p13. THE LES CRANE SHOW, FEBRUARY 17 1965 p28. DYLAN MEETS THE PRESS - VILLAGE VOICE, MARCH 3 1965 p30. SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY PAPER, MAY 1965 p34. THE LAURIE HENSHAW INTERVIEW, MAY 12 1965 p38. BY NORA EPHRON & SUSAN EDMISTON, SUMMER 1965 p46. THE PAUL J. ROBBINS INTERVIEW, MARCH 1965 p56. BOB DYLAN TALKING BY JOSEPH HASS, NOVEMBER 27 1965 p62. PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: BOB DYLAN, FEBRUARY 1966. p82. THE MAURA DAVIS INTERVIEW, FEBRUARY 1966 p87. THE AGE (MELBOURNE), APRILl 19 1966 p89. THE KLAS BURLING INTERVIEW, APRIL 29 1966. p96. COPENHAGEN PRESS CONFERENCE, MAY 1, 1966 p97. LONDON PRESS CONFERENCE, MAY 3 1966 p100. THE AUSTIN INTERVIEW, SEPTEMBER 22 1966 AUSTIN, TEXAS p105. THE ISLE OF WIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE , AUGUST 27, 1969 Source: http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interv.htm 2 3 THE BILLY JAMES INTERVIEW FALL 1961 This interview was conducted by Billy James of CBS sometime in the Fall, 1961. It is the first known taped interview and this is a transcript of the, unfortunately incomplete tape, published in Stephen Pickering's Praxis: One. A complete transcript (?) was published in New Musical Express 4/24/76. Dylan: Yeah, well I was in the carnival when I was about thirteen - - all kinds of shows. James: Where'd you go? Dylan: All around the mid-west, uh, Gallup, New Mexico, Aptos, Texas, and then ... lived in, Gallup, New Mexico and ... James: How old were you? Dylan: Uh, about seven, eight, something like that. <--- break ---> Dylan: If I'm on stage, my idol -- even my biggest idol when I'm on stage -- the one that's running through my head all the time, is Charlie Chaplin. And, uh, it, well it takes awhile to explain it, but I'd say he's one of *the* men. James: When did you first see Chaplin? Dylan: Ah, I seen some of his films -- I just sort of knew who he was and that kind of stuff. Vaudeville, that kind of thing. Will Rogers. And I never really met anything -- I never really came across anything until I lived in New York. I don't think it's got the best of me. At least I know it hasn't got the better part of me. James: Touched you? Dylan: It might have touched me a little bit. In fact it *has* touched me a little bit, but I never lived in a city that was more than 15,000 people. And there's an awful lot of difficulty here. <--- break ---> Dylan: And I was very stupid at the time, and I was with a friend of mine, and I played. And they booed, and I figured ... James: Where? 4 Dylan: Cafe Wha? And I didn't know anything, and they never paid me, and that kind of stuff. And I didn't even want money to play. And he looked at me and he said, "I'll give you a dollar". So he gave me a dollar and said, "Play it cool, man". And it came to a dollar-fifty and I played there and they flipped. They really did. And I figured if they liked me so much, they'd give me a place to stay that night - a better place. So I asked from the stage, and about four hands went up. So my buddy and I, we sort of went and checked 'em all. It was with a girl. And my buddy says to me, "You don't look so hot" and I ... he says "You look pretty gay". [ James laughs ]. And I said - I didn't really know anything, you know. Anyway ... he was with a girl. And the girl got off at 34th Street and we got off at 42nd Street. [ Dylan laughs ]. Well, we went in a bar first before we went to find a place to stay. And we met his friend Dora. Dora was his friend who stayed with him. And we all went to a party. And that was my first night in New York. <--- break ---> Dylan: I sense they're liking me - maybe not the music so much, but maybe - I feel if they saw me on the street, or playing someplace, I feel like they wouldn't be so friendly. <--- break ---> Dylan: I like the land, the people that are strange in the west. I like some of the people, don't like some of the people. Hard, hard people. And down south it's worth than that. I can't say much for the south. I hate - I can't stand - anywhere they're thinking ... <--- break ---> Dylan: I'm not a folk-singer. I just sing a certain place that's all. And ... James: Was Woody a folk-singer? Dylan: Woody was a folk-singer, Woody was a folk-singer. James: Why do you say you're not? Dylan: Ah, Woody was a folk-singer up to the point. Woody was a glorified singer. Woody was a man that went back to some record ... James: No, man, no ... 5 Dylan: Well, you see, Woody was a man who dwelled on a simple record because he was getting attention ... <--- interrupted ---> Dylan: I play the piano. I used to play the piano. I used to play great piano, very great. I used to play Little Richard stuff only an octave higher. And everything came out - He made a big mistake - his records were great records - but couldn't have been greater. His great mistake was he played low. If he had played high, they would've been uncomplicated. Do you listen to Little Richard? James: No. Dylan: Well, Little Richard's something else. He's a preacher, man. But I sort of played the piano in his style. And I played everything high and amplified it.<--- interrupted ---> 6 FROM THE IZZY YOUNG JOURNALS OCTOBER 20, 1961 From an interview conducted by Izzy Young at his Folklore Center in New York, October 20 & 23, 1961. Parts of this interview appear Carnegie Recital Hall Programme November 4. The parts above appear in Scadoto's biography. "I didn't know the term 'folk music' until I came to New York. 'Folk music' is just a name. I sing a lot of old jazz songs, sentimental cowboy songs, top forty hit parade stuff. People have to name it something so they call folk music. Now there are very few people singing that way. There's been no one around to cut records like the old Leadbelly, Houston and Guthrie. There are young people singing like that, but they're being held back by commercial singers. People who run radio programs don't play the ones singing like that. Folk music is being taken over by people who don't sing that way. It's all right, but to call it folk music ..." "I don't want to make a lot of money, I want to get along. The more people I reach, and have the chance to sing the kind of music I sing, ... But people have to be ready, They have to see me once already, People often say the first time they hear me, this isn't folk music. My songs aren't easy to listen to. "The concert isn't going to be a planned concert. I can offer songs that tell something of this America. No foreign songs. The songs of the land that aren't offered over TV or radio and very few records. Offering a chance to hear them." "I won't join a group. Groups are easy to be in. I've always learned the hard way. I will, now, too. When you fail in a group you can blame each other. When you fail alone, you yourself fail." "I play a lot of cards. Believe in 'dead man's hand' - the aces and eights. It's time to cash in when you get aces and eights, dead man's hand. Sounds illogical? The other things I believe in are logical. Like the length of my hair. The less hair on the head, the more hair inside. Wear a crewcut and you have all that hair cluttering around your brain. I let my hair grow long to be wise and free to think ... Or religion. Got no religion. Tried a bunch of different religions. The churches are divided. Can't make up their minds, and neither can I. Never saw a god; can't say until I see one." "I've been with Jack Elliot ... Jack hasn't taught me any songs. Jack doesn't know that many songs. He's had a lot of chances." 7 THE 'SCENE' INTERVIEW JANUARY 1963 This article was originally published in the English magazine 'Scene' on January 26, 1963. The reporter is uncredited but is thought to be Ronnie or Richard Gilbert. The article is reprinted in Clinton Heylin's "More Rain Unravelled Tales", 1984. “Tomorrow's Top Twenty” It really would be a test of the assimilatory powers of Tin Pan Alley if folk music suddenly hit the charts in a big way. How for instance would the men in the sharp suits deal with Bob Dylan, the shambling boy genius of American Folk music? Dylan does his very best to talk, act, dress and behave as much like a Tennessee mountain man as he can. When I first met him he was talking vaguely about heading off for Rome, Paris or maybe New York.