Bob Dylan’s most savage interview exchange: “Where’d you hear that?”
Behind those dark sunglasses and that thick mop of curly hair, Bob Dylan fostered an unparalleled reputation back in his 1960s heyday. Having risen through the ranks of Greenwich Village folk clubs with his unique, socially reflective folk anthems, the work of the songwriter was a mystery to many. Even on those rare occasions when Dylan broke his usual image of coolness and moody stoicism, he was never keen on revealing the secrets of his trade.
Folk music was built on ideals of tradition, historical accuracy, and faithful recreation, revolving around various songs which have been passed down through the generations, unchanged, as a means of preserving that period in history. While Dylan was a natural disciple of American folk music, worshipping the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, he also understood the need to reflect current times and trends within his own work. After all, how were the young people of the 1960s meant to relate to songs from decades, even centuries prior?
Instead, the troubadour outraged the legions of folk devotees he had amassed during his early years by incorporating elements of blues, R&B, and rock music into his sound and songwriting. This practice culminated in some of the songwriter’s most beloved works, including the likes of ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, and, of course, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Although vast audiences outside of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival adored Dylan’s incorporation of eclectic influences, the young songwriter still seemed to be a mystery to the mainstream press and older generation back in the 1960s.
Inevitably, this generation gap that Dylan spurred led to a number of awkward and difficult exchanges, particularly during interviews with the songwriter. The traditional media of the time were used to asking young musicians very basic questions and achieving very basic responses, but Dylan was far too complex for that. So, when he was asked about his new record, Blonde On Blonde, during a San Francisco press conference back in 1965, the songwriter was less than impressed with the line of query.
His deliberately taciturn approach to the interview became abundantly clear when one reporter asked, “Mr Dylan, how would you define folk music?” to which he bluntly retorted, “As a constitutional replay of mass production”. Things didn’t improve from there, either. When asked whether he considered his own work to be folk, Dylan simply declared, “No”. Perhaps the most confrontational part of the interview came when the reporter began to pry into the inherent message of his songwriting.
It should go without saying that the discography of Bob Dylan is chock-full of profound, groundbreaking messages that have allowed multiple generations of listeners to discover things about themselves and the world around them. However, the songwriter himself has never been keen on the idea of interpretation, something that the particular interviewer was unaware of. “Do you prefer songs with a subtle or obvious message?” he asked. “With a what?” came the response.
“Uh—I don’t really prefer those kinds of songs at all—’message’—you mean like—what songs with a message?” he added, after a little more encouragement. Eventually, the reporter gives in to Dylan’s iron-clad defence. “I don’t know, but your songs are supposed to have a subtle message,” he admitted. “Subtle message?” Dylan questioned, “Where’d you hear that?”
Not only do Dylan’s scathing responses in this interview give an insight into just how confrontational the Minnesota-born songwriter could be, see Don’t Look Back for more examples, but they also shine a light on the otherworldly power of Dylan during that period. The music industry had never encountered an artist like him before, and nobody quite knew how to deal with that fact, least of all interviewers.
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