Forty-nine years ago, on Friday, December 3, 1965, this Bob Dylan press conference was recorded at KQED’s studios in San Francisco.
The press conference happened at a key point in Dylan’s career. He was now a rock star. “Like A Rolling Stone” was a hit and had been on the radio the past summer into fall. Highway 61 Revisited had been released three months earlier, in August.
Dylan was in the Bay Area to perform for two nights — Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 — at the Berkeley Community Theater.
The man who brings Dylan out is Ralph J. Gleason, who at the time was the jazz and pop critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and a fan of Dylan. Gleason wrote this cover story for Ramparts magazine. It ran in the March 1966 issue.
There’s some great details about the press conference here, plus photos.
Bob Dylan press conference, part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Bob Dylan will be performing 15 shows in Australia beginning August 13 in Perth, Australia. He’ll also be in Melbourne, and Sydney.
So today you can check out some past performances and interviews Dylan did in Australia.
Dylan said some interesting things during the following 1986 press conference.
Journalist: What does Bob Dylan think of Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan doesn’t ever think about Bob Dylan
Journalist: Are you shy man?
Bob Dylan: Yeah, most of the time.
Journalist: Because of being shy, is it a burden being Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan: Who’s Bob Dylan?
[laughter]
Bob Dylan: I’m only Bob Dylan when I have to be Bob Dylan. Most of the time I can just be myself.
And later in response to a question about the past, Dylan says this:
Dylan: We live here in the present time. You get up and have to deal with today. Yesterday’s gone, tomorrow’s not promised. So this is all we have, really.
Dylan press conference, 1986, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
This was shot at a Dylan press conference in 1986. There’s 18 minutes of the press conference.
“Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Cold Irons Bound,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Tangled Up In Blue,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Highway 61 Revisited” / “Ballad of a Thin Man,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
“Like A Rolling Stone,” Byron Bay Bluesfest April 26, 2011:
Bob Dylan radio interview, Adelaide, Australia 1966:
“Ballad Of A Thin Man,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“Positively Fourth Street,” Sydney, April 13, 1966:
“Visions Of Johanna,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“She Belongs To Me,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” Melbourne, April 20, 1966:
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.
Or watch an arty video with audio of me reading from the novel here.
Of just buy the damn thing:
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Maria Alyokhina ( left) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova at first press conference since leaving prison. Photo via The Guardian.
On Friday December 27, 2913, two days after Christmas, the two just-freed members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina held their first press conference since their release at the studios of the Russian opposition TV station, TV Rain. The spoke before 100s of journalists.
Here are some of their comments:
Tolokonnikova:
“The message of our action in the cathedral is still valid. Our attitude to Putin hasn’t changed at all. By Putin we mean the bureaucratic machine he has built. We’d like to do what we said in our last action – we’d like him to go away.”
“Vladimir Putin is a very closed, opaque chekist [Russian slang for a secret policeman]. He is very much afraid. He builds walls around him that block out reality. Many of the things he said about Pussy Riot were so far from the truth, but it was clear he really believed them. I think he believes that Western countries are a threat, that it’s a big bad world out there where houses walk on chicken legs and there is a global masonic conspiracy. I don’t want to live in this terrifying fairytale.”
They spoke about their new human rights organization, Zone of Law [ a play on “the zone,” shorthand for “prison camp” in Russian]. The new organization will offer legal aid to prisoners who complain of violence, threats, abuse and overwork, according to Rolling Stone.
Tolokonnikova:
“We already started to do this [human rights work] in the camp. There we had nothing; the only thing we had was our will. After my hunger strike and letter, the 16-hour slave-working day has become a thing of the past, and they’ve begun to release people on parole. Fear has appeared among the guards at the colony. It’s unbelievably important now to continue this work.”
Alyokhina:
“We really are provocateurs. But there’s no need to say that word like it’s a swear word. Art is always provocation.”
Tolokonnikova said her thinking has evolved while in prison, and it was now “absolutely obvious” that if she could redo the past, she would not participate in the band’s 2011 “punk prayer” against Putin.
Tolokonnikova:
“I was smaller, I was younger and I had other understandings about my goals. I don’t think that you have to chain yourself to some moments in the past. I would like to be judged by those things that I’m going to do now.”
And there will be no Pussy Riot concerts to capitalize on their notoriety.
Alyokhina: “I think we can popularize our ideas without concerts.”
