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The Story of Bob Dylan: The music revolutionary · GARAGE TO STADIUMS Music History Podcast

• Dave Anthony 0:01 Hi there. I'm Dave Anthony and this is the Garage to Stadiums podcast. On each episode we tell you the story of how one of our music legends rose from obscurity to fame and play some of the songs that mark that journey. Welcome to Garage to Stadiums. Today's episode is the story of Bob Dylan. Bob was born as Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota in 1941,and changed his name to Bob Dylan. In this episode, you'll learn why Dylan is considered the groundbreaking musician that played a key role in the evolution of the music industry, with unique and compelling songwriting that touched a chord with audiences. Before Dylan songs were light, jovial or based on light subject matter for the most part, the depth of his writing demonstrated that music could be a mass communication channel for communicating social issues and insights into human behavior, leading his songs to become anthems for the social movements of the 1960s. He's received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 10 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize citation, and a Nobel Prize Award for literature. He's released over 40 studio albums, and he's influenced artists like The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and many more. Along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, Dylan is considered one of the godfathers of rock music in the latter half of the 20th century, he sold more than 145 million records, making him one of the best selling musicians ever. Here to discuss Bob Dylan's story is author Harold Lepidus, who has written extensively on Dylan providing insights on a career that has now spanned eight decades. Harold has been a panelist at various Dylan symposiums, and he's the author of the Bob Dylan book, “Friends and Other Strangers”. Welcome to Garage to Stadiums, Harold. Harold Lepidus 1:58 Well, thank you for having me. Dave Anthony 2:00 We're going to start with Bob's early life, his family life where he grew up. Harold Lepidus 2:05 Well, he comes from a Jewish family. They migrated to America before he was born. And he was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941. He has a brother, David, and he had his parents were Abe and Beatty Zimmerman. When they were young, after David was born, they moved up to Hibbing Minnesota, iron ore country, and his father worked in an appliance store. When the kids were grown his mother Beatty worked in a clothing store. So when he was young, Abe, Bob’s father, sent Bob out to I guess, collect money from the poorer parts of town, which probably instilled with him a sense of those less fortunate than self, which I think influenced a lot of his writing. And he also talked about a very cold, cold winters with just tons of snow. And that led to him his imagination going wild. And, of course, that helped him with his career as well. He started playing piano, which he plays now, but he's mostly known as a guitar and harmonica guy, very influenced by in particular, if you look at his, his high school yearbook, his hair is up like this like Little Richard. And that's one of his main influences. Dave Anthony 3:21 Right. And I guess, Elvis and all those performers from sort of the 50s would have influenced him early on. Harold Lepidus 3:29 Right. He's again, he said that Hank Williams was his first hero. Yeah, Little Richard. Elvis, definitely. When Elvis died, it affected him deeply and affected his immediate work efforts. Dave Anthony 3:41 So, his early musical performances, was this on a high school stage was it? Where did he perform first? Harold Lepidus 3:49 Well, one of the famous early ones was like a school talent contest or concert in Hibbing High school and he played piano really wild, Little Richard type music and they pulled the curtain down on him. A sign of things to come that yeah, he wasn't the easygoing listening guy that they were used to that time. Dave Anthony 4:11 So was he a bit of a loner? Did he have friends? Like what was his like? He seems like the type who would be a loner, but maybe I'm just surmising. Harold Lepidus 4:18 Yeah, I think he's more private than a loner. He has a very... his friends help keep his private life private, for the most part. Like some of his marriages, we didn't find out about until many, many years later. Yeah, he had he had his close friends him. One of them was Louis Kemp who ended up forming the Kemp Sea Food empire. Dave Anthony 4:38 One of the musicians that has had a major influence on Bob is Woody Guthrie. Woody was a folk singer who wrote social activism songs about the downtrodden workers in America, the poor, the immigrants, etc. He's most famous for his song, “This Land is Your Land”. Dave Anthony 5:06 Bob admired his songwriting and when he graduated high school and then spent some time in college at the University of Minnesota, he decided to start performing in local coffee houses doing Woody Guthrie folk songs. He was so enthralled by Guthrie that he hardly attended classes and decided to move to New York City, and incredibly go in search of Woody. Harold Lepidus 5:26 This is still in the early 60s, and he by this time was heavily influenced by Woody Guthrie and he wants to meet him and Woody Guthrie was very ill at the time he was in the hospital and in New Jersey, so he ended up hitchhiking to New York into Greenwich Village and that's one of the few places where the folk scene was happening Greenwich Village in New York. Yeah, yeah. And went to visit Woody Guthrie and when he got there there’s some strange guy knocking on the door. And so he ended up going to the hospital where Woody Guthrie was, and would play him all his Woody Guthrie songs back to him. He’d call himself a little Woody Guthrie jukebox. Dave Anthony 6:06 And why was he intrigued by Woody Guthrie? What was it about Woody that that Bob sort of admired? Harold Lepidus 6:11 Just so many things, I mean, this the social consciousness aspect, I would think would be a major one. The fact that it was just, you know, plain talking to some guy who could play guitar and communicate with people very simply and very directly, but also with a lot of humor. Dave Anthony 6:27 So, New York in the early 60s had what was known as kind of a coffee house circuit. And Bob starts to play on those what open mic nights perhaps is that how he kind of got his start? Harold Lepidus 6:38 It started with that, and then ended up being on bills with like John Lee Hooker, and other people. I mean, it got reviewed in the New York Times. And in Robert Shelton, which was amazing that a folk singer that no one ever knew got a rave review from this guy Robert Shelton, and the A&R guy at Columbia, John Hammond, who later discovered Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but earlier worked with and signed Aretha Franklin, worked with a lot of jazz greats like Benny Goodman, so just kind of signed him on the spot or wanted to sign him on the spot. And, again, a folk act on a major label was unusual that most of them are on labels like Folkways or Vanguard. So, Dylan being on a major label was really something. Dave Anthony 7:23 And it's interesting, I've read that, you know, John Hammond is a legend at Columbia, he discovered him. But this is despite other people at Columbia, saying Bob's singing voice was the most horrible thing they'd ever heard in their lives. I mean, that was unusual to have someone of, you know, that kind of voice being signed to a record contract. Harold Lepidus 7:42 Right. Well, you know, obviously, John Hammond could look past that, as I like to say, you know, he doesn’t have a pretty voice, but has a beautiful voice, it is real, there's no autotune. It's gone through different phases throughout the years, you sample and from 1963, to 1969, to 2003, to now, and they're all these different voices. What he conveys is an honesty to whatever he's thinking at the time. Dave Anthony 8:11 His personal life is germane to his evolution. Let's talk about some of the women in his life. When he got to New York, who were they and how did it influence him? Harold Lepidus 8:21 Well, the most famous woman, when he first got to New York was he started a relationship with Suzie Rotolo. And she's the woman on the cover of the “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album, his second album, and she's the one who exposed him to a lot of political stuff that was going on next thing you know, he's writing songs like “Masters of War”, and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”, and the folk scene in New York was mostly just people singing other folk songs that they were just not, there's not a lot of songwriting going on. Dave Anthony 8:51 Like traditional folk songs, right? And Joan Baez is probably his most famous romantic partner. What did she add to his musical sort of approach? Harold Lepidus 9:01 It's more of the exposure. Because she has incredibly beautiful voice. And Bob's voice is very rough. And she would bring him out and started covering his songs just bringing him to a wider audience that he would not have had without her, so I can't imagine what it's like to his career would have been life if she didn't bring him out on tour and, and be his biggest supporter. Dave Anthony 9:25 Bob's first album was simply called “Bob Dylan”. It had many cover tunes of various blues and folk songs with not many original songs. He covers “House of the Rising Sun” that was one of the key tracks on that album. Dave Anthony 9:51 His second album comes out in May 1963 called “Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. This is where girlfriend Suze Rotolo’s social consciousness influence on Dyan starts to manifest. It has the famous songs: “Blowing in the Wind”, ”Masters of War”, another one “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”. I mean, this is where he starts to show his absolute insight talent. And he gets kind of associated with that protest type movement. I mean, this is an innovator. What was the special thing that he brought to the music industry at that time? Harold Lepidus 10:54 It did a few things. One is that the protests or topical songs, it has this morality, which is based on like, almost like a biblical morality. It wasn't just, he used to refer to refer to some other protest singers as being finger pointing songs, but it puts it in a larger context. Dave Anthony 11:16 So around this time in 1963, and incredible thing happens, where, for some context, the Ed Sullivan Show is probably the biggest show the 50s and 60s relative to entertainment in the US, you have everyone from comedians, to musicians, to jugglers, to clowns, all sorts of things come on the show every Sunday night. This is the famous place where Elvis in 1956 appeared and they shot him above the hips because it was so scandalous to have somebody shaking their hips. The Beatles came on in 64 and 73 million people watch this show. So this is the show if you want exposure. And here's Bob Dylan, not quite a star yet, they offer him a spot on the show. And he gets on the show. And he is going to do a song called the “Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues”. And effectively they say you can't perform that because it satirizes the US government's preoccupation with rooting out communist sympathizers. Harold Lepidus 12:18 Dylan not appearing meant that he's you know, he's doesn't appear to be for the money if at all, he was in at a higher standard. And there are things more important than money. Dave Anthony 12:29 In February ’64 comes, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” Dave Anthony 12:55 This again shows the depth at which this individual can start to write in and provide insights. He's got another song “With God On Our Side”. Who did he start to influence in music in the early 60s with this depth of his songwriting? Everybody? Almost that's the right answer. Like literally everybody changed their tunes from lighthearted “Twist and Shouts” to we got to write something of substance. Harold Lepidus 13:27 His third album “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, it's a mixture of political songs like “With God on Our Side”, it's something to think about now again, for especially people younger, like all this almost music from young people was not taken seriously. It was just, you know, the older generation, if they grew up on Cole Porter and Frank Sinatra, this did not there was a, you know, a big generation gap. And lines were drawn. So when Dylan was doing this, it was a signal to the to a whole younger generation, that you don't have to play by the old rules anymore, that you can write about whatever you want, and it would go even further, which we'll talk about I'm sure. Like, for instance, the immediate influence on the Beatles by the end of 64. John Lennon's writing songs, like “I'm a Loser” with harmonica, and that's definitely a Dylan influenced song. Dave Anthony 14:22 His songs are associated with societal change of the 60s; “Blowing in the Wind”, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. I mean, this is almost the songbook of the 60s movement at some levels. Harold Lepidus 14:33 Yeah, I mean, he was invited in August 63 to the March on Washington, which is where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. But again, it's 1963 and he’s still hardly known. It's around the time he first appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. Clearly, certain people were listening and he was invited to perform there on the same stage, the same bill, so to speak, as Martin Luther King, Jr. Dave Anthony 15:00 Yeah, he's only 22 years older. So, he's been invited to this march. I mean, incredible. Harold Lepidus 15:06 Yeah. So within the people in the folk movement and the leftwing political movement, they knew who he was, and things would only get bigger from there. Dave Anthony 15:17 So, the next album “Another Side of Bob Dylan” comes out in August 1964 and solidifies him as a unique new voice in music that has to be watched. It's got songs like “Chimes of Freedom”. Dave Anthony 15:43 He's got another album “Bringing it All Back Home” in March of 1965. It's released and includes “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is also included. Okay, so now we're getting to some interesting times, and Bob starts to be so influential at this point that other artists start covering his songs and having their own hits with his material. For example, The Byrds record “Mr. Tambourine Man”, which goes on to be a number one hit. The folk trio, Peter Paul and Mary record “Blowing in the Wind” and make it a hit, also. Bob comes out with “Highway 61 Revisited”, which starts his marked departure in the type of music, more guitars, drums and other instruments moving to more of a rock sound. It has perhaps one of his most famous songs “Like a Rolling Stone”. He is getting more fame as you said he was invited to the Newport Music Festival. And something infamous happens there. Harold Lepidus 17:33 So in 1965, he had just released “Like a Rolling Stone”. He's leaning towards going to rock and roll. So, a lot of people are coming to the Newport Folk Festival to see Dylan, he is the reason that they're traveling to see all these bands and they expect him, to do a full set, he comes out and this footage is available. But he has a leather jacket, a Fender electric guitar, he does “Like a Rolling Stone”. And it was very loud. People some people were saying they were booing because the sound was bad. Because they were not used to electrified rock and roll ay a folk festival. Some people would say they were booing because he was just playing rock and roll. And then when it was over, it was only three songs. A lot of people supposedly were booing because they came all the way from all over New England, I guess to go to this concert to see Bob Dylan. Dave Anthony 18:26 And that leads to his tour of England and he recruits as a backup band the future members of “The Band”, Robbie Robertson and gang, Levon Helm, who were a backup band called “The Hawks” talk a little bit about that tour of England because that too, had some groundbreaking reaction. Harold Lepidus 18:46 Some people would be booing in England, it is actually Manchester. He does this beautiful acoustic set about seven songs. It's pristine, but mostly new songs. Then he does this, “The Band” comes out for a whole other set. And it's loud, you can hear you know, Dylan, play with the crowd and like he would mumble to everyone “settled down” and just say “if only you wouldn't clap so hard”. Or the most famous heckle of all time is right before “Like a Rolling Stone”. Someone yells out “Judas!” and then he did this amazing version of “Like a Rolling Stone”, so that there's also a video of all this too. Dave Anthony 19:26 Yeah, we'll include clips of that on our site so that people can see those reactions. So, he does come back to the US he's involved in a pretty serious motorcycle accident and really doesn't tour for a few years. But he puts out I guess the “Blonde on Blonde” album did that happen after the accident or before? Harold Lepidus 19:45 It was recorded beforehand. There is “I Want You” and “Just Like a Woman” and one song that went to number two, which was “Rainy Day Women #12 and #35” the open track which some people know as Everybody Must Get Stoned. Harold Lepidus 20:18 It seems just like a drug song. But it's also one way to look at Dylan's writing like a protest song or it's also like a political song because it's like, basically you want to do what you want to do. But people are always trying to stop you. Dave Anthony 20:29 As you said, he's always evolving. He's always pushing the limits. Tell us about the period that follows though no touring, but there's no double albums put out. Where did he go? Where was he? Harold Lepidus 20:40 So, he got secretly married on November 22, 1965, to Sarah because if he kept on going the way he's going, he probably would have died. He who's going to play? Yeah, I think Russia and Shea Stadium and all these things were supposedly being planned and he was on amphetamines. He's certainly not living a healthy lifestyle, plus the pressure, plus all the controversy. And so he just became a country gentleman, a family man. He and Sarah, Sarah already had a daughter and they had more kids. One of the one of them was in 1969 was Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers. Dave Anthony 21:17 He went on to have a career as well. And then the album, John Wesley Harding comes out and of course it has all Along the Watchtower, which becomes a massive hit for Jimi Hendrix. In fact, it's such a hit for Hendrix that Dylan now says that's Jimi’s song. The album “Nashville Skyline” has an interesting duet with Johnny Cash. It's “The Girl from the North Country” song. Dave Anthony 22:12 And then another hit for Bob was “Lay Lady Lay”. Dave Anthony 22:28 He almost has a different voice on that album, it's deeper or there's some different resonance on it. Harold Lepidus 22:33 Yeah, it's reminiscent of the voice he had before he was famous when he was still in Hibbing. It's very weird. I think he just is able to control it. But yeah, he said it was because he quit smoking, which is ridiculous. Clive Davis at Columbia wanted to release it as a single and Dylan was like, well, none of my friends listen to a a.m. radio or buy singles and Clive Davis said, I know this is for people who don't already buy your records. You know, this is like someone listen to expand your audience and that ended up being like a top 10 hit for him. Dave Anthony 23:03 We move into the 70s the early 70s The album “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” was that that was for a movie like was he was in the movie was he not? That’s got the hit “Knockin’ on Heaven's Door” and one of his famous songs. Harold Lepidus 23:30 I think someone said that's his most streamed song which may be because of “Guns and Roses” covering it. Dave Anthony 23:36 Yeah, it was covered by “Guns and Roses”, you’re right. Harold Lepidus 23:39 Yeah, that became a hit single. He played a fictional character, which they just wrote in. He just played Alias, some guy named Alias. And yeah, Dylan is in the movies. So much that he's a great actor, but you can't take your eyes off and you just want just your I just focus on him, and he can be incredibly funny. I think you've been in a couple of movies before that, concert movies, but that's the first acting role. So in the mid 70s, this is the big resurgence for Bob Dylan. So as I was saying in 1974, we were back on tour with “The Band” puts out “Plant Waves” his first number one album. The next year he put out “Blood on the Tracks” which some people think is his best album or the best album ever made that came out the following year. Dave Anthony 24:21 “Tangled Up in Blue” is on there. Harold Lepidus 24:39 That was around the time he was separated from his wife. The album has a reputation of being about all about that. It's about all sorts of things. Dave Anthony 24:46 He ended up writing a song about the jailing a boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter for the murder of someone that Carter was, I guess unjustly sent to jail for life and he was innocent. That song was called “Hurricane” let's play a little bit about that now. Harold Lepidus 25:20 This was his first major political statement in years and it definitely was instrumental in getting him a retrial. Dave Anthony 25:28 The album I do want the audience to maybe give a listen to is that “Desire” album because Emmylou Harris the country performer is on that album singing a few duets with Bob. It's one of the few times he's done duets with a female performer. Is that true? Harold Lepidus 25:55 Yeah, it's rare. Dave Anthony 25:56 What sort of in the 80s and 90s? Was he kind of known for like he there was a couple of seminal events there. Was there not? Harold Lepidus 26:03 Yeah, so in the late 70s. The people call it his born-again phase. But it was a guy he explored gospel music, Dave Anthony 26:11 He became a Christian, did he not? Harold Lepidus 26:12 The terminology is a bit murky, because if you're born Jewish, there's only there are certain rules about what you are and when you can what you are. Dave Anthony 26:22 But if anyone’s gonna break those rules it's Bob Dylan, I guess. Harold Lepidus 26:24 Definitely. He gave these like sermons and the initial tour was all new songs with the gospel feel a lot of Jesus a lot a lot of it is though from a Jewish perspective, too. So it's it's fascinating stuff and it alienated a lot of people by getting a whole new audience of people who were not fans beforehand. By the time that ended those tours like the 79 to 81 he had lost a lot of his audience. So in 1984, in England, there was a “Do They Know It’s Christmas” which was a benefit single organized by Bob Geldof of the “Boomtown Rats”. And the next step was around the time of “Empire Burlesque”, “We are the World” which is a charitable single. Dave Anthony 27:11 Yeah, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson organized a group of performers that there's I was actually featured in a documentary called “The Greatest Night in Pop” and they assembled to raise money for the famine victims of Ethiopia. In that documentary if you've seen it, Harold, I mean, Bob looks awkwardly out of place, almost like a deer in the headlights. Harold Lepidus 27:35 Yeah, it's not his thing. If he is on a stage, and he's in control of everything or he's in the studio, and he does what he wants, and everyone leaves him alone he is the best, but if he has to listen to other people, sometimes he seems to be in many instances just painfully shy. Dave Anthony 27:52 Is that sort of the story on him? Like he's eccentric at some levels? Like, is he on the spectrum? Is he like, what is what is it with him? Harold Lepidus 27:59 Yeah, I think we're all on the spectrum to a certain extent. But um, you know, I think I just think he, he thinks differently, and just the fame he has makes him shut out the world, a lot of the world he just doesn't want to deal with people. So I think he just doesn't really want to deal with a lot of people he has, from what I understand he has a very robust personal life with the friends that he has and so on his band members and family and so on, but you know, outsiders doesn't want to deal with them. Dave Anthony 28:30 In the 80s he hooks up with George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison to create the “Traveling Wilburys” a group they had a hit with “Handle With Care”. Dave Anthony 28:57 Today like he's still tours constantly like how does what's his motivation after achieving so much like how does he still stay on the road for so long? Harold Lepidus 29:07 Well, I think when he it so in 1988 is when they started when he started the so called ever ending tour. Dave Anthony 29:14 Yeah, most people say this is, you know, the final tour or whatever they call it, in which they always come back and play more but he calls it the never ending tour. Harold Lepidus 29:22 And if you ever see the setlist of what he’s written out, it's like multiple choice, or none of the above. He just plays whatever he feels like. And the other musicians have to figure out what he is what he's doing. You're not going to see the 1965 Bob Dylan or the 1975 Bob Dylan, you're going to see some guy who wouldn't say doesn't want to be Bob Dylan, but he doesn't want to be that Bob. He's someone who's continues to do what he wants and doesn't want to be trapped by his own past. Dave Anthony 29:52 He’s kind of a polymath at some levels. He's published books. He's an artist he hosted a, I guess, an XM Satellite show at some time? Harold Lepidus 30:04 “Theme Time Radio Hour” Dave Anthony 30:05 He's won an Oscar. Bob Dylan is now eighty three or four years old. And still touring. Harold Lepidus 30:11 Yeah, he’ll be 83 May 24th. Dave Anthony 30:15 As you sort of step back and take a look at the canvas that he's left what would you say is his legacy? Harold Lepidus 30:22 He changed songwriting in many different genres again, you know, topical political songs, love songs, surrealistic, kind of pre psychedelic songs, breakup songs, just almost like avant garde, you know, the Beatles when they were around every year they’d look a little different and they changed a little different. Someone like David Bowie was constantly changing from what he was doing. That's another thing that I think influences a lot of artists. But it's basically, you know, he set a template for doing what you want. I mean, you can say like, when he went electric, either a new part he started hard rock, and heavy metal and punk or something, almost one with one song, you know, it was very loud music. And he was fearless. Dave Anthony 31:12 Harold, we're at that point where we're going to ask you to pick three songs with some sort of theme or, or why you pick them? Is there a genre? Is there something that discusses his various stages, three songs or whatever theme you want to apply? Why did you pick the three. And that's hard to do with an artist with over 40 studio albums. My goodness. Harold Lepidus 31:33 I'm trying to picture someone who basically, as you said, knows the hits, knows stuff about Bob Dylan, but doesn't know anything deeper. And so I picked three songs again, since he's been making records since 1962. I decided after much very long conversation with myself to do three songs from the 60s I have three different styles of music. So, the first one is a song called “Farewell Angelina”, which was recorded but unreleased from the “Bring it All Back Home” sessions early 65. But it's, it's, it's an acoustic it's, it's that early poetic kind of imagery. And again, it's a great song. Most people probably don't know. Dave Anthony 32:30 Okay, number two… Harold Lepidus 32:32 So, I tried to pick up pick a topical song. So called protests on it was on “The Times They Are A-Changin’” album, the song mission is 1963 came out in 1964 And it's called “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”. And it's one of his strongest summaries of a storytelling thing that over time, builds this case about what a horrific event occurred. Harold Lepidus 33:15 For my third song, I was trying to pick one of his funnier songs. I decided to go with something from the Basement Tapes to give you a feel of what was going on then when, like I say, a bunch of fully baked musicians wrote a bunch of half-baked songs. So, there's the one I'm picking is “Million Dollar Bash”, there's sexual innuendo if you want to read that into it, but it's one of my funniest verses is the last one. He says, “I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist, I punched myself in my face with my fist, I took my potatoes down to be mashed then he made over $2 million for bash”. Dave Anthony 34:11 Well, that's great. We'll put those three songs on the official garage to stadium's Bob Dylan playlist. So, we'll have these three tunes plus those other ones that people can download on Spotify, or Apple Music or their favorite streaming platform. It's been a pleasure to have you today, Harold and you've really eliminated us on the genius that is Bob Dylan and how much he influenced changed the music industry. Harold Lepidus 34:38 Well, this is a lot of fun. As I told you before, and I listened to all the episodes that you've had before, and I really enjoyed the show. And I'm glad to be on it. And hopefully, he'll turn some people on and maybe even change some preconceived notions. So, thank you for inviting me. Dave Anthony 34:53 Thank you very much. Some closing notes on Bob Dylan incredibly Bob did not have a number one hit until his song “Murder Most Foul” in 2020. It was a 17 minute song about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And Dylan was 79 years old at the time. We'll include that on our Bob Dylan garage to stadiums official playlist available on Spotify, Apple and other streaming platforms. As his parting note in his 1959, Hibbing Minnesota high school yearbook, Bob or Robert Zimmerman, as he was known at the time, summarized his ambition as follows, quote, unquote, to join Little Richard. Why did he choose the name Dylan as his new surname? The answer remains a mystery. It's commonly thought that he named himself after poet Dylan Thomas, a Welsh born poet and writer. But Dylan shot that theory down as early as 1961, in an interview with The New York Times in which he said, straightened out in your book that I did not take my name from Dylan Thomas, quote, unquote. And he went on to say, Dylan Thomas's poetry is for people that aren't really satisfied in their bed for people who dig masculine romance. I would say that's a fairly emphatic denial. When he signed his first contract with Columbia Records, he was only 20 and therefore he needed his parent’s consent. No problem, thought, Bob, I'll just say I'm an orphan, and therefore, no parental signature was required. In the early 1960s, Dylan was considered to play the lead character, Holden Caulfield in a film adaptation of the book “The Catcher in the Rye”. The film was never made. When Elvis died in 1977, a melancholy Dylan did not talk for a week. He said, if it was not for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn't be doing what I do today. In 1988, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with an induction speech by Bruce Springsteen, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. The highest civilian honor in American. President Barack Obama at that ceremony said, quote, there is not a bigger giant in the history of American music. Dylan has six children and has nine grandchildren and is the proud owner of a bumper sticker that reads World's Greatest Grandpa. We talked a little bit about Dylan's eccentricity. Irish singer songwriter Glen Hansard, who won an Oscar in 2008 for the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once” said he wants had dinner with Bob Dylan Van Morrison and Elvis Costello in complete silence. Afterwards, Hansard commented quote, I don't know how these guys brains work. I don't know if it's Asperger's or autism, but the whole meal was silent. No one said anything. Bob Dylan sold the publishing rights to his entire catalogue of songs estimated to be over 600 songs for reported $200 million in 2020. The songs were purchased by Sony, which owned Columbia Records his first record label. For more on Bob Dylan's career visit Garagetostadiums.com, where you can see our blog entry on Dylan which includes video clips of various concerts and appearances throughout the decades. You can also see our show notes and transcripts for all of our episodes at the site, including the official “Garage to Stadiums” playlists for each performer featured. Follow our show on your favorite podcast platform to be alerted when our next episode drops. We hope you enjoyed our show today. Special thanks to our guests Harold Lepidus, author of The Bob Dylan biography, “Friends and Other Strangers” and our producers for this episode, Amihah Faubert and Connor Samson, others who contributed to the episode include Scott Campbell, you've been listening to Garage to Stadiums another Blast Furnace Labs production. I'm Dave Anthony. See you next time for another Garage to Stadiums story.