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Thread: Bob Dylan on gun control
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January 1st, 2009, 05:47 PM #1Super Member
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Bob Dylan on gun control
I've always liked Bob Dylan's music and style, but never really figured his politics, mainly because he doesn't really talk about it much. Here is something he said about gun control in a 1980s interview.
I think it is sometimes comforting to hear these things from certain people we classify as "hippies"(which I heard he owned and carried several guns to ward against) or leftists.
Here are some parts of an article I found, and the interviews:
Since we started talking about firearms, lets continue on that theme. Any number of stories, like this in the Herald Tribune, imply that Dylan armed himself in his home in Woodstock solely for the purpose of defending himself against marauding fans. Their stalking "led him to keep several guns in his house and stifled his creative process." So, it equates Dylan with your typical celebrity who may abhor guns but is forced to carry one because of death threats and obsessive fans.
That ain't what Dylan writes.
He says, without specifying a timeline, that "Peter LaFarge, a folksinger friend of mine, had given me a couple of Colt single-shot repeater pistols, and I also had a clip-fed Winchester blasting rifle around ...." He says he had it around - not that he ran out and got it when the druggies started knocking on his door. And consider how he describes these pieces. He doesn't just call them "guns," like your average Hollywood liberal would. ("I had to get a gun - and I hate guns! It's terrible!"). He characterizes them in a gorgeously colorful and almost tactile fashion. "Colt single-shot repeater pistols / clip-fed Winchester blasting rifle." These terms may or may not be technically correct, but what's clear is that Dylan had his own sense of what these firearms were - their lineage and their design. (Colt and Winchester are both classic American gun manufacturers, I might add - no Lugers for Bob!) He knew these pieces, and what they were mattered to him on some level. All of this matches perfectly with classic American notions of the place and purpose of firearms. In rural America in particular, a firearm is a tool and and a necessary possession, even for people who are not being stalked by Californian drop-outs. A farmer needs a rifle he can depend on, whether for ending the life of one of his farm animals or defending his stock from a predator. It's not about wanting to kill people - as Dylan also says here: "... it was awful to think about what could be done with those things." Even in urban America, millions of people today own guns, not because they look forward to spilling blood, but because they greatly value their independence and their ability to defend themselves if necessary. Dylan had said just a page earlier in this excerpt,
Being born and raised in America, the country of freedom and independence, I had always cherished the values and ideals of equality and liberty.
As an aside, in a 1981 interview, Dylan was pressed on the subject of gun control (does Billy Joel have to answer these questions?). While acknowledging that America "always has been gun crazy," he also says, "Guns have been a great part of America's past," and "I don't think gun control is making any difference at all. Just makes it harder for people who need to be protected." (Hey Wayne! It looks like we've found a successor for Chuck Heston.)
He is admirably consistent, as usual. Woodstock 1967, London 1981, and now, in Chronicles, in 2004. He's the same guy - surprise surprise.
That notion of consistency brings up another issue. The world's media is reacting like this is the story of the century, "Bob Dylan repudiates hippie fans," "unwilling icon," "fame triggered personal crisis." To anyone who has been interested in Dylan's career and read his interviews through the years, there is certainly nothing shocking in what he is saying in this excerpt. Those who consider themselves fans and find themselves shocked by this either have not been fans for very long or have selectively tuned out those things they preferred not to hear. Dylan has gone on the record many times describing his anguish at being held up as a spokesman, at having groups of people expecting something in particular from him. His confrontations with Weberman and his band of loons in the Village are well known. His deliberate attempt to put off these people and make them forget about him by releasing, for example, "Self Portrait," has been common knowledge for decades. Indeed, it was pretty damned obvious at the time. So the degree to which surprise and shock is being expressed is a vivid illustration of just how distorted is the image of Bob Dylan that the media has been perpetuating, and just how many individuals have bought into it.
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January 1st, 2009, 07:25 PM #2
Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
Opinion from Bob Dylan on gun control is like taking alcoholics abuse advice from Sally Starr.
Veritas Vos Liberat
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January 1st, 2009, 07:41 PM #3Super Member
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January 1st, 2009, 08:48 PM #4Member
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Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
Sally Starr?- You are showing your age.
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January 1st, 2009, 10:26 PM #5
Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
In an interview with The Times in July, 2008, Dylan ended with what may have been an endorsement of presidential candidate Barack Obama:
Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up: Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.
If God didn't intend us to have guns why would he have given us a trigger finger?
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January 2nd, 2009, 12:46 AM #6Super Member
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January 2nd, 2009, 02:24 AM #7Junior Member
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Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
Whiterook, you write at some length of Dylan's stated views on the subject of guns, and you specifically note that "there is certainly nothing shocking in what he is saying in this excerpt....Those who consider themselves fans and find themselves shocked by this either have not been fans for very long or have selectively tuned out those things they preferred not to hear."
Yet NOW you say about Dylan's pro-Obama comments: "Yeah I saw that too, it was upsetting, still hardly the image most people would have."
Really? Well, isn't that funny. What "image" of Dylan must people have? Yours? He's all cool when you agree with him, but it's "upsetting" and "hardly the image" of him when you disagree.
This tells me Dylan is right to stay away from the masses. They don't get him, or accept him on his terms, which is what he's always insisted upon as an artist. I think you've made his point. Thanks!
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January 2nd, 2009, 03:47 AM #8Super Member
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Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
I didn't write that article, someone else did.
What I meant to retort the Obama quote was that the shortness of it didn't make me draw the absolute conclusion that he is a Obamanot. It must have for who posted it, since thats all they posted. Maybe he is, I don't care, what was upsetting is that we need every person(especially influential ones) to say "Hey, maybe Obama isn't....etc etc.
Also, with intense argument I wish not to argue here, you can be both pro-gun and Obama. I don't believe it, but some do, including some on here.
The purpose of this post was to show the view of someone the general masses would view as anti-gun being fairly pro-gun. I thought it was refreshing, but hey, whatever.
Really? Well, isn't that funny. What "image" of Dylan must people have? Yours? He's all cool when you agree with him, but it's "upsetting" and "hardly the image" of him when you disagree.
I posted this on a gun forum to, as I stated, show the point of view of someone they generally view as a leftist hippie.
Please don't pass me off as some nutty fan who listens to the "good" and shuns the "bad" of the man. I don't agree 100% with anyone, can anyone say they do?
If you don't get the intent of the post, well shucks.Last edited by Whiterook; January 2nd, 2009 at 04:14 AM.
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January 2nd, 2009, 06:43 AM #9
Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
I like BD. Grew up with his music. I was a hippie that liked guns, motorhead cars and played sports. Hmmmm maybe I was a confused teenager but I still like him. Watched him go from Judaism to a Christian and then back to his roots again. I still love to read his writings.
I guess he`s like the guy in Kris Kristofferson`s song Pilgrim Chapter 33,
"He's a walkin' contradiction partly truth and partly fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NAai...eature=related
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January 2nd, 2009, 01:52 PM #10Banned
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Re: Bob Dylan on gun control
Now that Johnny Cash is gone, I consider Bob Dylan the greatest living musician.
Most of these "hippy musicians" don't fit the mold they're presented. While they may support some liberal causes, guns aren't usually one of them....at least the bands I listen to (as per the Grateful Dead discussion last week).
For one, back in the 70's, there was an overly-aggressive media type harassing Bob on the phone and in public. Some of the tapes of their conversations are on the net. Finally, Bob had enough and the reporter came running up to him on the wrong day and Bob beat the shit out of him in front of a group of fans.
Having seen some of Bob's earlier tours in 63 or so in the UK (via dvd), one thing you don't want to do is run up to him and try to touch him, lol.
Dylan kicks ass. Literally.
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