In Mikal Gilmore's astounding cover story interview with Bob Dylan in the current Rolling Stone, Dylan had this to say for critics who (like me, though I went even further) claimed that Dylan is obsessed with his own mortality: "You know what I have to say to that horseshit? I say these idiots don't know what they're talking about. Go find somebody else to pick on," Yikes, I take it back. But at least I didn't call him a plagiarists, in which case I would be a wussie or pussie and worst is yet to come. "All those evil motherfuckers can rot in hell", the great man roars before concluding later on, "Fuck 'em, I'll see them all in their graves". Holy crap!
All kudos to Rolling Stones best writer, and a great journalist, Mikal Gilmore, who got Dylan to really open up on some level and on other levels, Dylan's absolute refusal to endorse President Obama or resort to race baiting for other people who don't was strength in the face of social pressure: "He loves music", Dylan says referring to Obama, "He dresses good. What the fuck do you want me to say?" Mikal is the best thing about Stone, Matt Taibbi is pretty good, but he is to Hunter Thompson what Ryan Dombal is to Lester Bangs.
Just as interesting is Dylan's claim to be a child of the 1950s not the 1960s, and who felt displaced in the 1960s. Also, Dylan's explanation of "Strawberry Fields Forever" lyric, is scholarly. He notes that when Lennon wrote "nothing to get hung about", he was being literal, hung by the neck till dead and not nothing to get hung up over.
Of great interest, or at least controversy, is Dylan's claim in the interview that he was transfigured by the soul of another Bobby Zimmerman, a leader of the Hell's Angels who had died (several years before Dylan's transfiguration) in a bike crash. A presentiment (actually, much more then just that) of Dylans own bike crash where the Icon broke his neck, went into hiding and emerged with John Wesley Harding. Transfiguration is a religious term which describes Jesus transfiguration into a more beautiful self after a meeting with Moses and Elijah on a mountain followed by a voice that says: ""This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him"
So Dylan is not claiming to transmogrification, transcendence, possession, a switching of personality, but, to use the dictionary stuff: "A complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state."
There is a lot more in this brilliant, wide ranging interview. A complete triumph for Dylan and Gilmore, As for rock nyc, we will go find somebody else to pick on… Springsteen on Wednesday, maybe he will do.