“Everybody knows that I’m not a folk singer”: Why Bob Dylan turned his back on protest songs
When Bob Dylan was asked how he felt when fans at the Newport Folk Festival booed him for playing more rock-infused music, he simply replied, “I can’t put anybody down for coming and booing; after all, they paid to get in.” His blasé approach towards the hostile reception of the crowd seems to align with why he is so drawn to the stage: the honesty of it all.
“I’m not interested in myself as a performer. Performers are people who perform for other people. Unlike actors, I know what I’m saying. It’s very simple in my mind,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of audience reaction this whole thing gets. What happens on the stage is straight.”
Dylan was always true to his word in that regard. His music was honest, not only in the subject matters he wrote about but also in that fans knew when they put on the most recent Dylan record, they would get an honest LP containing songs he wanted to make. That’s why genre lines were often blurred, and he changed subject matter quite frequently.
This became evident when Dylan turned his back on making political music. This came as a surprise to a lot of people as he was always best at capturing a current moment and accurately depicting it in song. As such, he could hold a mirror up to his surroundings better than anyone, so it makes perfect sense that he would talk about the socioeconomic state of the world. However, he steered away from doing this, and his rationale was simple: those songs don’t have longevity. This is also why Dylan veered away from the label of “folk musician.”
“Songs like ‘Which Side Are You On?’ and ‘I Love You, Porgy’ – they’re not folk-music songs; they’re political songs. They’re already dead,” he said. “Obviously, death is not very universally accepted.”
Dylan wanted his songs to last longer than simple political numbers. As such, he began labelling a lot of his songs as “Traditional music” as opposed to “folk” or “political.” He didn’t think there was an expiry date on a traditional song; therefore, he believed the music he made should fall into that category.
“Anyway, traditional music is too unreal to die. It doesn’t need to be protected. Nobody’s going to hurt it. In that music is the only true, value death you can feel today off a record player,” he said. “But like anything else in great demand, people try to own it. It has to do with a purity thing. I think its meaninglessness is holy. Everybody knows that I’m not a folk singer.”
Dylan’s stance here is interesting. He connects with traditional music because the mythical ambiguity of it means it will continue to resonate no matter how much time passes. However, one of the things that made people connect with Dylan so much in the beginning was his ability to capture and articulate the real world in a relatable way. His attitude here represents one of the many artistic facets the bard tapped into throughout his career.
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