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With his career on a meteoric rise, Dylan returned to Toronto the following November, just weeks after releasing the single Like A Rolling Stone, which marked his first foray into using an amplified backing band. It was a tectonic shift for the acoustic folk singer and for his diehard fans.
鈥淚 was conflicted and a bit pissed off that Dylan was changing,鈥� recalls Dr. Wainwright, now Dr. J.A. (Andy) Wainwright, professor of English at AV俱乐部. 鈥淪o I decided I wouldn鈥檛 go to the concert.鈥�
Nevertheless, he and his girlfriend drove downtown to check out the scene around Massey Hall.
Dylan was the hottest new artist of the day, and had enlisted a local Toronto back-up band called Levon and The Hawks, who would later become The Band.
After the show, Wainwright parked discreetly across from the hall, and waited for the post-concert drama. 鈥淪ure enough, when he came out it was like Beatlemania. A couple hundred kids were all over his car, screaming.鈥�
So when Dylan鈥檚 car pulled away, Wainwright slipped in behind and tailed him, right to the swanky Inn on the Park hotel.
鈥淚 hopped out of the car, and said something inane, like 鈥業 really like your music and would like to talk to you about it.鈥� Dylan looked at me, and looked at my girlfriend and said 鈥榃ell, order some tea and come on up.鈥� 鈥�
It was a different era, before burly security guards locked down a star鈥檚 perimeter. So the young Wainwright and his friend brought the tea to the room for a private audience with Bob Dylan.
鈥淚 sat with him for an hour and a half, one on one. We talked about literature and music,鈥� recalls Dr. Wainwright.聽 鈥淗e was tremendously kind, and genuinely interested in what I had to say.鈥�
More than 40 years later, Dr. Wainwright teaches the popular course, English 2250: Bob Dylan and the Literature of the 鈥�60s. Since beginning his career at AV俱乐部 in the early 1980s, he has frequently explored the cultural impact of Dylan鈥檚 work. It should be no surprise that Dylan鈥檚 work still generates interest from university students.
鈥淒ylan is the single most important individual in western popular cultural expression in the last half of the 20th century,鈥� says Dr. Wainwright, who has written extensively on Dylan. 鈥淗e is a cultural presence, not just a personal presence the way so many popular celebrities are 鈥� there is a depth to his musical origins and creativity.鈥�
The latest chapter in the unfolding Dylan saga is the recent release of the bold art film I鈥檓 Not There, putting Dylan鈥檚 strange storybook life back on the pages of mainstream media.
The film is a dense thinly-veiled biopic, with six actors portraying different characters who represent various aspects of the artist鈥檚 life 鈥� the young hobo kid riding the blinds, the early protest singer, the star burdened with drug and marital issues. Todd Haynes鈥� film has been garnering plenty of interest, largely for the bold move of casting Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett to portray the artist during the tumultuous 鈥�65 鈥撯��66 years. (Blanchett won a Golden Globe award in mid-January for her role.)
Bob is no doubt smiling at the irony of the title. He is there, sort of a hovering presence, and has been since he first played at Gerde鈥檚 Folk City club in Greenwich Village in 1961, a raggedy folksinger carrying the troubadour torch of his hero Woody Guthrie.
The conceit of Haynes鈥� film, deconstructing the complexity of the various elements of the musician鈥檚 character by using entirely different actors (sometimes of different race and gender), is entirely appropriate, says Dr. Wainwright.
鈥淭he public figure of Dylan demands to be looked at from different perspectives. There never has been just one Bob Dylan, not even just one 鈥�60s Dylan. There were a number of Dylans in that really essential period in which he created himself.
鈥淚n the 鈥�70s, there was the Dylan who came back and toured with The Band, and the Dylan who did the magnificent Blood on the Tracks album, and then later the Dylan who becomes Christian.鈥�
Dylan calls himself a 鈥渕usical expeditionary鈥� in Martin Scorsese鈥檚 illuminating 2005 documentary No Direction Home. He grew up in the conservative Minnesota iron range, where most young men laboured in surrounding mines. Dylan鈥檚 father, Abe Zimmerman, ran the local electrical store in Hibbing and had plans for young Bobby in the business.
Bob had other plans.
Dylan conjured the scruffy traveling minstrel persona, patterned on his hero Woody Guthrie. He often hood-winked interviewers with tales of growing up in New Mexico singing cowboy songs, or learning to sing blues in Chicago or black spirituals in the deep south.
鈥淚 felt I had no past,鈥� says Dylan in No Direction Home. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 relate to what I was doing at that time. It didn鈥檛 matter to me what I said at the time 鈥� it still doesn鈥檛.鈥�
However, what his canon of songs said have mattered a great deal. Dylan鈥檚 early songs helped bring awareness to the civil rights struggle in the U.S., to the unchecked nuclear buildup in the late stages of the Cold War and helped turn the popular tide against the U.S. war in South East Asia.
From his earliest days as a solo folk singer, Dylan was able to distill the social upheaval of the early 鈥�60s into his lyrics. He was profoundly shaped by the cultural, social and political nature of the times. His lyrics played out like lush poetry, tantalizing and inviting interpretations.
Those lyrics still have resonance for yet another generation of Dylan fans, says Dr. Wainwright. His students come to class with differing understandings of Dylan and his cultural importance, but all are very aware of his presence 鈥� from his timeless early albums to recent Grammy-winning albums to his cheeky TV ads shilling ipods, Victoria鈥檚 Secret lingerie and Cadillac SUVs.
Dylan was early to grasp the potential of the new music as a vehicle for expressing his ideas. He began swapping the folk standards in his repertoire with his own topical songs, when few singers in the circuit were actually writing and performing original material.
Five years after leaving Hibbing, Dylan was at the top of the game, darling of the acoustic folk scene; influential protest singer, the voice for social change. Then Bob pulled the rug out from under the folkies at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, fronting an electrified band to jolt his music into the future.
The conservative folkie audience was horrified at the apparent betrayal at Maggie鈥檚 Farm, watching the torchbearer of Woody鈥檚 Okie folkie music snub tradition, plug in his Stratocaster and fire up a rhythm section to supercharge his music.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine he didn鈥檛 anticipate the reaction,鈥� says Jacqueline Warwick, a musicologist and assistant professor of music at AV俱乐部. She teaches a course in the history of rock 鈥榥鈥� roll, and Dylan鈥檚 work is pivotal.
鈥淒ylan played (the Newport incident) just right to his own advantage. I don鈥檛 know if Pete Seeger ever got over it, but it earned Dylan a new fanbase and he did it at the right stage of his career. If he had waited another 10 years before going into rock, people would have asked 鈥榳ho鈥檚 this sad old man trying to get into the new music?鈥欌�� says Dr. Warwick.
Like Miles Davis and Paul Simon, Dylan has continually explored different settings for his music, without appearing to be following the money. Through the tidal shifts of popular music trends 鈥� acoustic folk to rock, New Wave and disco, grunge and electronica 鈥� Dylan has maintained a presence in the popular culture.
鈥淚 think Dylan has established himself as the eminence grise of the whole genre,鈥� says Dr. Warwick. 鈥淎nything new he releases, people will go ahead and buy. That works to his advantage 鈥� people listen to what he does because of what he鈥檚 done.鈥�
Last year, Dylan marked 45 years as a recording artist by releasing the critically-acclaimed Modern Times CD, and won yet another Grammy for best contemporary folk/American album.
鈥淒ylan has always kept people off balance, and has refused to be 鈥榚ssentialized鈥�,鈥� says Dr. Wainwright. 鈥淗e takes those great songs and refuses to do them the same way 鈥� he doesn鈥檛 give people what they want.
鈥淭he words don鈥檛 change, and the quality of those words will last. But the rhythms and tone and inflection of the voice changes, and that reshapes the words and how they鈥檙e presented.鈥�
His creative influence can鈥檛 reasonably be enumerated. Millions of young people picked up acoustic guitars, mastered the essential three chords and a turn-around and began scratching out heart-worn lyrics, inspired by Dylan鈥檚 wordplay. He鈥檚 even been nominated twice for a Nobel Prize in Literature.
鈥淭here is a kind of paradox about Dylan,鈥� offers Dr. Wainwright. 鈥淗is greatest artistry in terms of depth and consistency is in the 鈥�60s 鈥� quantitatively as well as qualitatively. But I think Dylan has grown and changed and matured in profound and admirable ways since
that time.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of watching him that鈥檚 been rewarding over the years.鈥�