Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.
Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.
A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.
"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.
The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.
The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:
"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.
"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.
"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.
"I'm on tour," the singer replied.
A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.
The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.
The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.
The officers thanked him for his cooperation.
"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
A few years ago Bob Dylan appeared in a Victoria's Secret commercial. That's not a joke, that really happened. Anyway, in the immediate aftermath I saw some comedian on TV refer to him as having been "tangled up in boobs."
ReplyDeleteI am sure the $PLC is going to be all over this outrage. We clearly have a case of racial profiling here.
ReplyDeleteBawhawhawhawhaw!
ReplyDeleteYeah, a dopehead rock star was looking to buy houses in a "a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront."
More likely he was looking to buy Crack.
classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind"
ReplyDelete--
Huh?
ALWAYS have valid I.D. with you.
ReplyDeleteThis story is an obvious fabrication. Everybody knows that police don't stop white people and ask them for their ID.
ReplyDeleteJust ask "Truth".
I would have asked him to sing a verse of one of his songs. No one could copy that voice.
ReplyDeleteThe NYT wrote about a recent Pew survey on the generation gap in culture. More than half of 16 - 29 year-olds couldn't identify what Woodstock was.
ReplyDeleteSlowly but surely, we're getting there -- and the good ol' fashion way, where people gradually fail to transmit retarded things that were overhyped, rather than flushing important things down the memory hole.
Woodstock, etc., have enjoyed the opposite of the memory hole effect. They're like one of those once-in-a-century shit logs that refuses to be flushed.
Yeah, a dopehead rock star was looking to buy houses in a "a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront."
ReplyDeleteMore likely he was looking to buy Crack.
Are you suggesting that minority neighborhoods are good places to buy crack? You raaaacist! You'll be calling for racial profiling next!
Dylan is known to wander off while on tour. My guess is that there's an historic music tie-in in that neighborhood. Mr. Zimmerman is an encyclopedia of American pop, thorough knowledge going back to the 1800s.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it was something about the local houses.
He has people to get him his drugs, that is if he's still doing drugs at his age.
Im sure Dylan has put aside childish things like drugs by now. Most people grow up eventually.
ReplyDeleteFor years I thought Bob Dylan was dead -- thought he was one of those musicians that died in a plane crash.
ReplyDeleteWas I ever surprised when he came out with a new album in 90-something!
Bob lives right here in Brentwood. He has been known to do the same thing in neighborhoods on the West Side that are a little rough around the edges -
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean is that he doesn't stick exclusively to the best neighborhoods on the West Side like the 90402, Palisades Riviera, Brentwood Park - he will travel in to the more marginal places.
He has a large family compound here and his sons mostly live on the compound. One of his sons actually has his house in the compound on the market right now - no open houses but they are taking buyers in to see it
I just had a HUGE epiphany!
ReplyDeleteIf this can happen to Bob Dylan, well then, it can happen to any white male! I never, until just right now, truly grasped the danger we're all in. We're ALL in this together, tribesman.
Whoah...
Let us march.
*crowd swoons*
well, as i pointed out when michael jackson died, the US news media has their favorite musicians. bob dylan ranks high on their list, but in reality, he's not the major, "everybody knows him" musician that they talk about him like he is. they talk about him all the time like he's THE guy, the cornerstone, THE most important figure in american music history, and it's just not true. it's like using indie rock music dorks as the authority on something. they'll tell you that bjork and modest mouse and arcade fire are THE most important musical acts, but they're not.
ReplyDeletenow dylan was important in his day, but he didn't sell nearly enough albums to be THAT famous, two decades after his musical relevance has ended. 25 year old people could easily, EASILY not know who he is.
i've pointed it out before, but people like madonna and john bon jovi are more famous, more well known, and more liked than media favorites like bob dylan.
ac/dc's back in black is the second best selling album of all-time, and might have sold more copies by itself than everything bob dylan produced, combined.
speaking of MJ, he has sold about 2 million albums since he died, thankfully putting his US total over mariah carey. in perspective, it's so funny that mariah carey had sold more albums than jackson. you'd think no musicians anywhere were as popular in america as michael jackson by the way the media circus continues to cover him. i mean, that's just mariah carey who sold more albums and has more fans. there's over a dozen more musical acts that are bigger in the states than jackson.
The article seems to imply that the 20-something officers had never even heard of Bob Dylan. Not that they weren't familiar with his work,not that they simply didn't believe he was actually Bob Dylan. No. The name Bob Dylan meant nothing to them whatsoever. I'm only thirty-one and not a fan of his music but this really disturbs me somehow. I can only imagine how depressing this news item must be to countless boomers.
ReplyDelete"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.
ReplyDeleteDamn straight!
If he hadn't been nice, I'm sure he would have been subjected to a well-deserved beatdown, what with him suspiciously looking at houses without ID.
BTW, Shawn's actually probably right about the racial profiling. It works both ways.
"The name Bob Dylan meant nothing to them whatsoever...I can only imagine how depressing this news item must be to countless boomers."
ReplyDelete------------------------
Yup. The times they are a changin', and not for the better.
First they arrested a black professor, now they're hassling a Jewish folk singer.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, it appears the cops are on a crusade against anti-stereotypes.
What's the next unlikely combination for America's finest? A white tailback? Korean surfer?
Speaking of anti-stereotypes, I know a Korean surfer. He's a totally laid-back surfer dude with dyed blonde hair who grew up in Newport Beach. When he was 12 his parents asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he said a "surfboard" and they said "Okay" and he's been surfing for the last 30 years. Not surprisingly, he can't afford to live in Newport Beach, but that doesn't seem to bother him much. Nothing seems to bother him.
ReplyDelete"Speaking of anti-stereotypes, I know a Korean surfer. He's a totally laid-back surfer dude with dyed blonde hair who grew up in Newport Beach."
ReplyDeleteHahaha. This is funny because I also actually know of a Korean surfer guy with dyed blonde hair from southern California that's around the same age, and I always thought that I knew the only one. I'm tempted to think that it might be the same person, though I'm not sure if he grew up in Newport Beach - he grew up in southern Cal, not sure which town.
What are his initials? or if you don't want to say this, are there any other unique or distinguishing features that people that know him would be aware of?
He's in the window-tinting business.
ReplyDelete"Korean surfer?"
ReplyDeleteBecause of Hawaii the Asian surfer isn't an anti-stereotype.
I've heard Dylan complaining that he used to be able to go into some new town on tour and find the people who were into Beat poetry and music and hang out with them. Now when he goes in to a new town, there's no underground, so to speak. Maybe he was looking for a cool place to hang out with some new friends . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Beer Summit II: Intergenerational Relations would be an appropriate way to resolve this stupidly rash profiling by the Long Branch PD.
ReplyDeleteTruth wrote --
ReplyDeleteYeah, a dopehead rock star was looking to buy houses in a "a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront." More likely he was looking to buy Crack.
Uh, when I travel on business, I usually leave my hotel for a jog, often passing through predominant minority neighborhoods. And I often forget ID. Crack? No thanks, I'm just looking around at people and their homes.
Gates busting in his jammed door, Dylan strolling, cops asking obvious questions--which of these things is Wrong? None.
Speaking of anti-stereotypes, here's a Kenyan that's having athletic success, not on the cross country course, but in the swimming pool
ReplyDeleteDylan was a great musician in a genre of music that was peaking for the last time and is now almost dead. Folk music did have influence in rock n roll but by the time heavy metal came along it was all but forgotten. Some of folk lives on in country music but that is so bad now that it makes peoples ear's bleed.
ReplyDeleteNice entry and classy job by olde Bobby Zimmerman, but there's no way Long Branch is a 2 hour drive from New York City!
ReplyDeleteA man can't even walk around without being hassled by the cops.
ReplyDeleteLink!
As a young lad my older brothers brought his first records into the home and I was hooked.
ReplyDeleteI've been told he can't sing, the reply is sign language. Btw, how do unique coinages, pervasive turns of phrase become embedded in the language, in the popular vernacular, spotted in print and broadcast, spring to mind and slip from lips naturally, a most curious phenomenom that defies plumbing. The term genius, accidental and inadvertent, seems apt but offers no explanation.
Where laughter is free, the best medicine, a shame to miss any life offers and most and the best are at oneself B. Dylan is the slyest humor around. Sometimes takes 20,30,40 years to get a timeless joke.
Hmmm. Bob Dylan has sons. Wonder if one is named Dylan Dylan.
ReplyDeleteBob Dylan once said that the only time when he's comfortable out in public is when people don't remind him who he is. Knowing Dylan, he probably reveled in this moment.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteac/dc's back in black is the second best selling album of all-time, and might have sold more copies by itself than everything bob dylan produced, combined.
Suspecting that Jody was right, I went to Wikipedia. Holy crap, does he have a long page. It's got 300 sources listed! It's bigger than Michael Jackson's and might be bigger than the "France" page. Wikipedia editors really like him
There is an old movie short where a group of young people don't believe that this guy is really Bing Crosby. So to prove it he sings "When the Blue of the Night ...". They are of course dumbstruck.
ReplyDeleteIf Dylan had tried to prove that he was a professional singer by singing... The cops would have probably locked him up when he emitted that nasal, toneless whine. I would have probably shot him.
Lots of people don't know about Dylan, but lots of people of all generations do know about him.
ReplyDeletejody is not familiar enough with the history of American music. Dylan is a giant whose influence in the field of popular music is comparable to the influence of Twain in American Literature or Shakespeare in poetry and drama, and most of that influence is NOT from what he wrote in the 60's (that was his best decade, but what he did in the following 4 decades collectively outweighs it).
His most recent album, "Together Through Life", is relatively lightweight, but I recommend very strongly his 2008 release "Tell Tale Signs".
"He's in the window-tinting business."
ReplyDeleteNow I'm not so sure. I know he's really into cars, but I'm not sure if he's in the window-tinting business. Or if he is, if that's his main occupation.
Well I guess there just might be 2 Korean surfers in southern Cal.
Bob Dylan doesn't carry any identification???
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Bob Dylan was black.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one somewhat disturbed that this can happen? What crime was he suspected of committing? From the news reports it seems to be: suspicion of being old and scruffy looking. And of course being outside W/O his identity papers.
ReplyDeleteSlowly losing our freedoms and no one seems to mind.
"More likely he was looking to buy Crack."
ReplyDeleteTHAT's racial profiling! How Dare You?
(snerk)
"The article seems to imply that the 20-something officers had never even heard of Bob Dylan." "I can only imagine how depressing this news item must be to countless boomers."
As a data point among the countless boomers, I can think of nothing that has cheered me more all week!
"In a white neighborhood you have to buy powder and make your own damn rocks." Good to know the ghettos are beehives of productivity. We're going to have to start collecting a value-added tax.
>Stick with me son; you'll learn a lot.<
ReplyDeleteTruth, if your knowledge matched your self-esteem you would be a formidable character indeed, instead of a figure of derision who routinely embarrasses himself with errors of fact and grammar. And now you reveal that you also lack street smarts.
Even the moderately-successful OJ at least had enough sense to keep Kato Kaelin around as a "houseguest" to buy drugs for him, rather than risk getting recognized in a deal-gone-wrong.
For exactly the same reason, a stratospherically rich performer such as Bob Dylan--I'm guessing he's worth a good fraction of a billion dollars--would have people on call 24/7 to handle any and all of his, um, pharmaceutical needs.
"Am I the only one somewhat disturbed that this can happen? What crime was he suspected of committing? From the news reports it seems to be: suspicion of being old and scruffy looking. And of course being outside W/O his identity papers."
ReplyDeleteNope. You're not the only one. Disturbs the hell out of me that cops can demand ID simply for walking down the street.
-Vanilla Thunder
I am 34, from the San Francisco Bay Area, and can honestly say that I had never heard of Bob Dylan until about five years ago, and I still couldn't identify any of his songs or even what his voice sounds like. Somehow, he was just never part of my world. (In fact, I first heard about him while I was living in Europe.)
ReplyDelete"And now you reveal that you also lack street smarts."
ReplyDeleteIs that right Sport?
Wikipedia editors really like him
ReplyDeleteIf a Jew ever fails to name Dylan when queried for the God of Rock, I think the universe might collapse in upon itself (though naming a black guy might be in an escape clause).
I had no clue as to who Bruce Springsteen thought was the God of Rock, but I recently answered the Trivial Pursuit question correctly anyway, thanks to the laws of HBD.
~Svigor
I never understood the appeal of Bob Zimmerman. His renown probably has a lot to do with members of his tribe promoting him as some kind of genius. Kafka is another example of this.
ReplyDeleteI also know a Korean surfer....his name is Longboard Duck Dong.... c'mon that was pretty good
ReplyDeleteDan in DC
Wait, Steve, didn't you (or was it Charles Murray) basically predict this?
ReplyDeleteI believe around when "Human Accomplishment" came out you or Murray predicted that most if not all of the "culture" produced in the West after around 1950 or so would be soon forgotten, unlike the truly great works of the past.
>Is that right Sport?<
ReplyDeleteNobody knows or cares who Tatum O'Neill is. Nobody at all.
Google registers 19,000 hits for washed-up crackhead Tatum O'Neill, but 21,800,000 for Bob Dylan. Hell, even Dylan's real name gets close to half a million hits.
It's a lot easier to buy drugs if for all practical purposes you are invisible. Tatum O'Neill definitely meets that criterion.
That whooshing sound overhead is the point you once again missed, O epic failure known as Troof. If you hurry you might catch a glimpse of it before it vanishes over the horizon.
"I had no clue as to who Bruce Springsteen thought was the God of Rock, but I recently answered the Trivial Pursuit question correctly anyway, thanks to the laws of HBD."
ReplyDeleteSpringsteen is half Dutch and half Italian. And yes, Jews do revere Dylan but this kind of surprises me since they usually don't take too kindly to MOT who convert to Christianity, especially Messianic Jews.
"I never understood the appeal of Bob Zimmerman. His renown probably has a lot to do with members of his tribe promoting him as some kind of genius. Kafka is another example of this."
ReplyDeleteI'll make it a little easier for you. The appeal of Bob Zimmerman is his lyrics and liberalism with some Jesus thrown into the mix. The elevation of Kafka is the result of a rootless society that cares little about its past or its future.
>I never understood the appeal of Bob Zimmerman. His renown probably has a lot to do with members of his tribe promoting him as some kind of genius. Kafka is another example of this.<
ReplyDeleteI'm a Southerner, and grew up in a small town (Pop. 600) surrounded by plenty of Fundamentalists who took pains to avoid so-called secular or worldly books, music, and movies.
Will those folks go to Heaven? Maybe. Do they ever have anything interesting to say, or seem to have much fun? No.
Anti-Semites have the same problem, it seems to me. What can one of those folks read without feeling like race traitors? Not that Mailer fella--he's a Jew. What movies dare they watch? Can't go to "Clockwork Orange"--Kubrick's another one, don't you know. And so on and so forth.
For that matter, what neurosurgeon does he go to when that fast-growing glioma starts to press on his amygdala, the part of the brain that controls rage and aggression? Some doctor that comes highly recommended on the Stormfront website, maybe?
I believe around when "Human Accomplishment" came out you or Murray predicted that most if not all of the "culture" produced in the West after around 1950 or so would be soon forgotten, unlike the truly great works of the past.
ReplyDeleteActually, pretty much all of the truly great works of the past have been forgotten as well.
Why would anyone pay money to see a 68 year old rock and roll star?
ReplyDeleteTalk about a Fossilized culture.
So Tatum O'Neil is washed up, but Bob Dylan isn't....And Dylan would get an intermediary to go to the ghetto to buy drugs...but he would go "house shopping" in the ghetto without a real estate agent.
ReplyDeleteOld boy, it was difficult but I believe you've actually outdone yourself this time!
"If a Jew ever fails to name Dylan when queried for the God of Rock, I think the universe might collapse in upon itself"
ReplyDeleteThat's funny because Larry Auster often posts about him. He's even written out the lyrics to his songs and "analyzed" them a few times on his blog. Needless to say I've managed to skip all of these posts. I go to Auster to get my grisly, violent crime reports, not to read an older man write about his adolescent obsessions.
"And yes, Jews do revere Dylan but this kind of surprises me since they usually don't take too kindly to MOT who convert to Christianity, especially Messianic Jews."
ReplyDeleteGood point. This reminds me of when Jackie Mason sued "Jews for Jesus" for falsely implying in one of their pamphlets that Mason was a Jew for Jesus. In court Mason replied in front of the federal court in Manhattan where he accepted the apology, "There's no such thing as a Jew for Jesus. It's like saying a black man is for the KKK. You can't be a table and a chair. You're either a Jew or a Gentile."
>but he would go "house shopping" in the ghetto without a real estate agent<
ReplyDeleteWhat are you blathering about? Certainly nothing I posted about.
I guess you mean this bit from the article, Truth:
ReplyDelete>he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show<
A buddy of mine's a highly skilled up-rigger (unskilled ones usually get killed, or get somebody else killed) who has spent many lucrative but monotonous months on the road with Rascal Flats and the Black Eyed Peas. When musicians and crew are not doing their jobs they're on buses or planes or in hotel rooms, a sure-fire recipe for cabin fever.
Schedule constraints mean that neither crew nor talent can seldom wander far from the arena or their hotel. But still, sometimes they absolutely have to go for a walk somewhere--anywhere, even in crummy black neighborhoods--just to keep from going completely batshit.
That's why Bob Dylan was where he was, not because he was looking for dugs--or a gun in the face--like some chump crackhead.
And so once again (he says wearily) you show how pathetically little you know about much of anything, Truth.
PS. Since we’re on the subject, my buddy—call him J.--tells me a revealing story. I have perforce cleaned up the language a bit.
When he was just getting started as an up-rigger (sometimes referred to as a rigger) he hired on with a black-owned music promotion outfit in Florida and worked lots of hip-hop shows. To a man the roadies were black and the up-riggers, who make several more times more money than roadies do, were all white--when I asked him about this disparity, J. said matter-of-factly, “Because up-riggers have to know trigonometry."
One morning, as all the employees-- a rowdy, high-testosterone bunch--were assembling for that day’s work, a black supervisor with a clipboard called out over the commotion, “Okay, all you riggers step to the left.”
Everybody in the room stepped to the left. I mean bsolutely everybody.
The supervisor glared at them, then bawled, “God damn it, I said RIGGERS!”
Chagrined, all the blacks moved to the right...
This is admitedly far-fetched, but I doubt Dylan became very popular with the cops after he recorded "Hurrycane". Maybe they wanted to teach the old scruffy hippie a lesson? (although the real lesson for Dylan would be to be mugged by ghetto reality)
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise that anti-Jewish resentment rears its boring head on an isteve thread about Bob Dylan.
ReplyDeleteKudos to kudzu bob for calling it out with honesty and humor.
I'm a Jew who never appreciated Dylan until I was well into my thirties. The various friends who nudged me toward this appreciation were all very aryan.
I'm surprised by the tone of some of these comments. Dylan is a good man and, in many ways, a traditionalist. Check out this site: www.rightwingbob.com
ReplyDeleteSurprised that anti-Jewish animus has surfaced in an iSteve comment thread? Guffaw!
ReplyDeleteKudzu Bob,
I address this to you because you are the only sane commenter here.
Dylan was strolling because he is a performer and they have to get the jitters out of their system before performing.
Also, from what I've heard (second hand, no personal relationship with him but with people who have worked for him), Dylan is an unusally energetic geezer. He's always moving and fidgeting. Look at his body type: skinny and spare. I doubt the man has ever slept six hours straight without drugs.
He is also a very polite Midwestern boy, as evidenced by his behavior to the police. He's a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.
(Sorry Steve, I'm not giving up on this conversation. In fact, I'm going to rework my comments for Komment Kontrol and pay this forward into new threads until I get through)
ReplyDeleteFrom the second page of "I, for one, welcome our new blue-eyed overlords" (edited for concision):
Svigor: Once again we've reached the point where I point out to Truth that his ideology (forced integration of the races) creates his problem (whites complaining about blacks), wonder aloud why "Truth" never, ever, ever addresses this point.
Truth: How is "forced integration of the races" my ideology? I may seem knowledgeable to you Svig, but contrary to popular belief, I was not around in 1497.
Point two; "whites complaining about blacks" is not my problem; whiny whites who don't have lives, and don't understand how the world works is my problem (same, BTW as my problem is with whiny blacks).
[...]
You, from what I have gathered, live in a half-black city in one of he blackest states in America. You are as much in favor of "forced integration" as anyone else, if not, one could only assume you would take up residence in New Hampshire or Wyoming.
Don't tell me "my widu toeseys will get cold up dair." Life, my friend, is all about priorities.
Svigor: (this is my second attempt to respond to the previous comment by Truth)
I'll deal with point two first:
whiny whites who don't have lives, and don't understand how the world works is my problem
I don't believe you. The Internet is chock full of whiny whites who don't have lives and don't understand how the world works. Why limit yourself to Steve's blog, where you have to wait for comment approval, deal with anonymous posters, etc? Surely there are other venues that better fit your criteria? If I present you with a greener pasture, will you run off and graze there?
same, BTW as my problem is with whiny blacks
Really? I'd be interested in seeing your sallies against whiny no-life blackdom. Examples, please.
Now on to the meat of the discussion:
Forced integration is your ideology because you oppose people who oppose it, refuse to state your position on the matter, and constantly imply you support it. Again you've refused to answer the question, but I still consider your reply a breakthrough, because now you've at least acknowledged the question exists before refusing to answer.
And again you imply which side of the issue you're on with your reference to 1497.
I have repeatedly stated my support and advocacy for the universal human rights of self-determination and freedom of association. I support freedom of association without qualification, across the board, vis-a-vis institutions, businesses, communities, schools, churches, neighborhoods, and any other social arrangement.
So there's no need to make absurd inferences about my political opinions on the matter based on my physical location when I've made my opinions plain. You are the one who won't man up, despite having been asked your position on the matter many times. If anyone is subject to judgement via inference, it's you, not I.
I repeat:
Your ideology (forced integration of the races) creates your problem (whites complaining about blacks); why do you never address this point?
P.S., someone unfamiliar with the conversation might have gotten the impression, based on Truth's fast and loose use of the English language in his comment as posted, that I have commented on the contributions of blacks in general, or Lewis Latimer in particular, to the field of electronics, which I have not; thus, I edited out the offending portion.
~Svigor
"I'm a Southerner, and grew up in a small town (Pop. 600) surrounded by plenty of Fundamentalists who took pains to avoid so-called secular or worldly books, music, and movies."
ReplyDeleteWith all possible respect my friend, this is not a huge surprise...good story though.
The Long Branch police had no legal basis whatsoever for stopping Mr. Dylan, as the (paranoid or racist?) minority member who placed the call to the police to report Mr. Dylan's presence did not state any behavior nor other attribute (including his race or age) that could present a policeman with any reasonable suspicion that a crime had or might take place-- not even mopery with intent to gawk! Mr. Dylan immediately gave his name, and was under no legal obligation to humor the culturally illiterate policewoman by presenting any type of corroborating identification. She had no basis for compelling him to accompany her back to his temporary lodgings to provide any such identification. What she did was plainly and simply a violation of his civil liberties. That, of course, makes it simply par for the proverbial course in contemporary America....
ReplyDeleteHaving spent much more time in and near Long Branch, New Jersey, than I would wish upon anyone whom I did not already otherwise despise, one might speculate nonetheless that Mr. Dylan may have been attempting to make a pilgrimage to Monmouth Medical Center, a block east of the railroad station and several blocks west of the Jersey shoreline, which happens to be the birthplace of Mr. Dylan's old friend, and older fan, Bruce Springsteen, who grew up in nearby Freehold, New Jersey. Long Branch is a few stops up the line from the train station in Asbury Park-- as in "Greetings from...."
"Folk music did have influence in rock n roll but by the time heavy metal came along it was all but forgotten."
ReplyDeleteHuh? Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young come to mind. Also Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (who is still in the top 20 concert draws 30 years after they hit the big time.) I know Petty wouldn't be classed as country but the influences are there (along with the Byrds, Dylan and the Beatles.)
Tom played with Dylan and George Harrison in the Traveling Willougbys circa late 80s.
>Dylan was strolling because he is a performer and they have to get the jitters out of their system before performing.<
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right! I should have thought of that myself, given that a few years ago I did a bit of local talk radio--nothing very political--and learned the hard way about the jitters.
What a surprise that anti-Jewish resentment rears its boring head on an isteve thread about Bob Dylan.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we've got an honest-to-God progrom in the making, right here in this very thread. Call the ADL, the SPLC, and the Mossad ASAP.
Actually, from the reports I've read, the cops had heard of Bob Dylan, they just didn't think this scruffy-looking dude was him. And that makes the incident make sense. Cops get a call that there's a wierd old man wandering around the neighborhood, they ask him who he is, he claims to be Bob Dylan, but can't produce any ID. What would you do if you were the cop? It's not a question of stormtrooper "papers please, citizen" tactics - you have a guy who might be delusional wandering around in the rain - you need to check him out, for his own protection as well as everyone else's.
ReplyDelete"The officers thanked him for his cooperation.
ReplyDelete"'He couldn't have been any nicer to them,' Woolley added."
He's just a nice Jewish boy.
Speaking of Bob Dylan, I am a little surprised that with the recent hype about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, Steve hasn't provided an HBD explanation for why their was so little violence at this marathon event of over 500,000. Through the years you would often see interviews with ex-hippies who would prattle on for what seemed like hours about how the Aquarius Generation were adventurous seekers of truth who weren't afraid to look for answers in exotic places like Eastern religions and avant-garde culture for solutions for societal dysfuntion when in fact the explanation for the relative peace may just be the same reason for the relative peace enjoyed by Salt Lake City.
ReplyDeleteABC News hints that Dylan, who has been known to be a bit of a rock historian, might've been searching for the house Bruce wrote "Born to Run" in.
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=8335824&page=1
"But the area where Dylan was picked up was just a couple blocks from the beachside bungalow where Bruce Springsteen wrote the material for his landmark 1975 album 'Born to Run'.
In the past nine months, Dylan has visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon, in both cases appearing without fanfare and barely identifying himself after he was recognized."
As Tom Maguire (www.justoneminute.typepad.com) surmised, you might call the police not just as a result of criminal activity, but also because the guy was wandering around yards - he could've been hit by a car, had a minor stroke - who knows?
Actually, Kafka should be an icon to Paleos. He was one of the first writers to really describe and identify the alienation of living in a rootless cosmopolitan society where abstract laws had become more important than tradition. I don't think any writer since has so successfully identified the hollow emptiness at the root of modern civilization. Dylan took the opposite tack, like many 60s "artists", he tried to create traditions for himself that he didn't belong to - at various times identifying with black causes, then Christian, then Jewish. Dylan seems like a hollow man deep down.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the neighbor who called 9-11 and the cops were all engaged in profiling Old, Weird Americans.
ReplyDeleteFrom looking at these comments, it looks like the antisemitism and posturing anti-hipsterism of this site is out of control.
ReplyDeleteYes, children, BoB Dylan is really that good, and really that important. He changed popular music more than anyone else in the last hundred years. It's fine if you don't like his songs or his voice, but to deny his influence is to expose your ignorance.
jimbo,
ReplyDelete"From looking at these comments, it looks like the antisemitism and posturing anti-hipsterism of this site is out of control.
Yes, children, BoB Dylan is really that good, and really that important. He changed popular music more than anyone else in the last hundred years. It's fine if you don't like his songs or his voice, but to deny his influence is to expose your ignorance."
No need to pretend you're someone else, Larry Auster. We all get it. Yeah yeah, we know, know. Dylan is the greatest, he's genuine evidence of intelligent design, etc.
but to deny his influence is to expose your ignorance.
ReplyDeleteDon't need that to expose my ignorance. I'm ignorant of music. I feel no shame for this ignorance as it relates to popular music. I regard popular music's purpose as entertainment, not a subject of study or worship. Just my personal preference; I have about a zillion things I'd rather learn about first and couldn't really give less of a damn about popular music (again, except as entertainment, where I tend to let other people act as my proxies, which is where Dylan is scoring a goose egg). I do plan to learn about classical at some point though, no excusing ignorance on that front imo.
"Actually, Kafka should be an icon to Paleos. He was one of the first writers to really describe and identify the alienation of living in a rootless cosmopolitan society where abstract laws had become more important than tradition."
ReplyDeleteThe only problem with your interpretation of Kafka is that he didn't stand for any tradition. He even had a conflicting view of his own Jewishness and it is doubtful that he would have defended traditional European society. Pointing out the weaknesses of cosmopolitan society does not make one an automatic ally of the paleos because there are many thinkers on the opposite side of the political spectrum that also view cosmopolitan society as a poison.
There are two other reasons why paleos would never consider Kafka an icon:
1) Academia fawns over him.
2) He's Jewish.
My God, the self-righteous Svigor is tiresome. Do you have to let all his comments through, Steve?
ReplyDeleteIs this indicative of a generation gap or immigration gap?
ReplyDeleteSince, we don't know the backgrounds of the officers other than their age we can only assume it is generational.
But, if these officers were immigrants or the children of immigrants,it would indicate the gap with people all over the country who do not bother learning about the new country in which they reside.
He wrote some of the greatest lyrics - on paper.
ReplyDeleteBut most sound of them like this: "UHHHHNNGG! UNNNG-UNNG-UHHHHNNNGG! UHHG! GRRR-UNNG!"
Cheap shot, but not inaccurate.
My God, the self-righteous Svigor is tiresome. Do you have to let all his comments through, Steve?
ReplyDeleteIn pursuit of resolving our differences, I'll make you an offer. You start signing your posts, state your specific problem with my comments, and as long as you continue to build up social capital by signing your posts I'll make an effort not to make posts that aggravate you.
Is this indicative of a generation gap or immigration gap?
ReplyDeleteSince, we don't know the backgrounds of the officers other than their age we can only assume it is generational.
But, if these officers were immigrants or the children of immigrants,it would indicate the gap with people all over the country who do not bother learning about the new country in which they reside.
First, you assume they (or, rather, she) has never heard of Bob Dylan. (As opposed to merely not recognizing his face.) And then you suggest that knowing what Bob Dylan looks like is somehow an integral part about "learning about [the USA]"?
The officer in question was a white woman; chances are she's native born, although I could be wrong.