TRANSCRIPT & INFO BELOW:
This is the earliest taped interview of Bob Dylan. It was conducted by Billy James, a young Columbia Records publicist and one of the few “suits” that Dylan trusted. This tape was originally longer in duration, but unfortunately, only these few fragments now exist. Still, it’s a fascinating insight into the mind of a young Bobby Dylan who’s still riled up about his “exciting adventures in Gallup, New Mexico”….haha.
Although the quality of this recording is by no means high fidelity, it sounds much better than the source tape; I cleaned up the background noise and corrected the speed (the original audio was sped up, so Dylan sounded like a chipmunk).
TRANSCRIPT:
Dylan: … When I was in New Mexico. I lived in, Gallup, New Mexico.
James: How old were you?
Dylan: Uh, about seven, eight, something like that.
— break —
Dylan: If I’m on stage, even my idol — my biggest idol on stage — the one that’s running through my head all the time, is Charlie Chaplin. And, uh, it takes a while to explain it, but he’s one of *the* men.
James: When did you first see Chaplin?
Dylan: Ah, I seen some of his films — I just sort of knew who he was and that kind of stuff. Vaudeville, that kind of thing. Will Rogers. And I never really met anything — I never really came across anything that changed my mind about this… I never lived in a big city until I lived in New York. I don’t think it’s got the best of me. At least I know it hasn’t got the better part of me. I don’t think it touched me. It might have touched me a little bit. In fact, it has touched me a little bit, but I never lived in a city that was more than 15,000 people. And there’s an awful lot of difficulty here.
— break —
Dylan: And I was very stupid at the time, and I was with a friend of mine, and I played. And they flipped, and I figured…
James: Where?
Dylan: Cafe Wha? And I didn’t know anything, and they did a Hootenanny and then he kinda thought, “Right, we gotta give you some money to play”. And he looked at me and he said, “I’ll give you a dollar”. So he gave me a dollar to play at the Hootenanny… well, actually, it was a dollar-fifty. Anyway, I played there and they flipped. They really did. And I figured if they liked me so much, they’d give me a place to stay that night. So I asked from the stage, and about four hands went up. So my buddy and I, we sort of went and checked ’em all and picked out a fella… It was with a girl. And my buddy says to me, “You don’t look so hot” and I … he says “You look pretty gay”. (James laughs). And I said – I didn’t really know anything, you know. Anyway … he was with a girl. So, we went up with them. And the girl got off at 34th Street and we got off at 42nd Street. (Dylan laughs). Well, we went in a bar first before we went to find a place to stay. And we met his friend Dora. Dora was his friend who stayed with him. Both of us looked, and I ran out of the bar. I ran down 42nd Street. And that was my first night in New York!
— break —
Dylan: I sense they’re liking me – maybe not the music so much, but maybe – I feel if they saw me on the street, or playing someplace, I feel like they wouldn’t be so friendly.
— break —
Dylan: I like the land, the people that are strange in the west. I like some of the people, don’t like some of the people. Hard, hard people. And down south it’s worse than that. I can’t people from the south (?). I hate – I can’t stand – anywhere they’re thinking…
— break —
Dylan: I’m not a folk-singer. I just sing a certain place that’s all. And…
James: Was Woody a folk-singer?
Dylan: Woody was a folk-singer, Woody was a folk-singer.
James: Why do you say you’re not?
Dylan: Ah, Woody was a folk-singer up to the point. Woody was a glorified singer. Woody was a man that went back… Don’t put this on the record…
James: No, man, no…
Dylan: Well, you see, Woody was a man who dwelled on simple life because he was getting attention for it.
— break —
Dylan: I play the piano. I used to play the piano. I used to play great piano, very great. I used to play piano like Little Richard’s stuff, only one octave higher. And everything came out – He made a big mistake – his records were great records – but couldn’t have been greater records. His great mistake was he played low. If he had played high, it would’ve compensated. Do you listen to Little Richard?
James: No.
Dylan: Awe, Little Richard’s something else. He’s a preacher, now. But I sort of played the piano in his style. And I played everything high and it amplified it.
Love & Peace,
~SP
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