From May through September 1961, when I was 15, our Manhattan apartment on 28th St. was the best place for Bob Dylan to be. It became his own private space where no outside force would bother him, and he could work out all his moves. It was there bob dylan became BOB DYLAN and I witnessed every single minute. Each night his head would rest on the pillow on the living room couch. When he would get up my mother would make him breakfast to start his day.
The quote at the top is a line from Bob’s “Talking Word War 3 Blues” from his second album “The Freewheelin’. I mention it, because it was the line buzzing through my head when Bob made a surprise visit to my parents’ apartment in 1975 while in the middle of the recording of his “Desire” album. I had been invited by a friend to Bob’s recording session at Columbia In NYC. I spoke to Bob briefly during the session and to my surprise the next day he showed up unannounced at the 28th St. apartment. I wasn’t there, but soon got a call from my mother that Bob wanted to see me and I better hightail it over there. There are two chapters in the book about Bob’s recording of “Desire” and all the details of the visit. What struck me most was when I arrived at the downstairs door to the entrance of my parents’ building was the enormous red Cadillac convertible parked right in front of it. Bob was upstairs all right. At he end of the visit he was holding the hat that you see on the cover of “Desire” and that line about the Cadillac flashed through my brain.
When Bob wrote, “Chronicles Vol. 1,” he left out quite a bit. That crucial “LEFT OUT QUITE A BIT” (the how and what that helped form the central core foundation from which all else would spring) is in the book, “BOB DYLAN On A Couch & Fifty Cents A Day.” You now can witness and experience the miracle just like I did over 60 years ago. If you click on link below you’ll get a full description, see reviews and be able to read the Introduction and first two chapters. I was the luckiest 15-year-old on the planet and it’s time to share:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BDXC2VR
Also available on APPLE eBOOKS
The post “…in my Cadillac. Good car to drive after a war.” -BOB DYLAN 1963 appeared first on NSF News and Magazine.