interview99

In little over a year, he's won a Grammy, survived a dangerous illness, hobnobbed with religious royalty and toured endlessly. He's Bob Dylan, forever young prince of rock and roll.
by Murray Engleheart

Bob Dylan, who for much of his fabled career has been the hippest, has now spent more than a year being the hottest as well. He's the man on everyon'es A-list, from Eddie Vedder, an avowed fan, to Pope John Paul II, for whom Dylan performed three songs in Bologna, Italy. Dylan even impressed online retailer amazon.com, which recently voted *Bob Dylan Live 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall Concert* the best album of 1998. As remarkable as it seems, one of the most vital post-grunge artists in rock is 58 year old Bob Dylan. After a rather lean decade, the Sixties folk-rock icon has, against all odds, revitalized his career by polishing off the Nineties with two albums that rank among his very best.

Along with the highly acclaimed "Albert Hall" reissue, Dylan's 1995 Grammy-winning release, *Time Out of Mind*, produced by Daniel Lanois, has put the singer back in rock's vanguard.

Perhaps even more remarkable than Dylan's albums have been his brilliant live shows, showcasing his feisty lead guitar playing and a crack band. After bouncing back from a life- threatening heart infection in mid-'97, Dylan has played well over 200 shows, performing fierce, jam-oriented reinterpretations of his best songs, at times recalling the tightly wound three guitar army of Lynrd Skynrd's "Free Bird." It's all been a far cry from the disappointingly ramshackle shows that became his stock-in-trade in the Eighties and early Nineties.

When Bob Dylan talks -- which is rarely -- people listen. Especially these days. We recently had the opportunity for a brief chat with the enigmatic legend, who finally took a break from his "Never Ending Tour." Dylan seemed relaxed, and was kind enough to reflect on the turbulent events of his recent career, and to speculate on his future.

Guitar World: Bruce Springsteen once said that without you there'd be no Beatles' *Sgt. Pepper's*, no Beach Boys *Pet Sounds*, no Sex- Pistols' "God Save the Queen."

Bob Dylan: Well...you know, you can influence all kinds of people, but sometimes it gets in the way -- especially if somebody is accusing you of influencing somebody that you had no interest in influencing in the first place. I've never given it any mind at all, really. I don't really care to influence anybody at this time, and if I have influenced anybody, what can I say?

GW: Certain albums of yours -- *Blood on the Tracks*, *Infidels*, *Highway 61 Revisited* -- have inspired great critical plaudits in their day, and have stood the test of time. In your view, do those records live up to their reputation?

BD: Well, those records were made a long time ago, and you know, truthfully, records that were made in that day and age all were good. They all had some magic to them because the technology didn't go beyond what the artist was doing. It was a lot easier to get excellence back in those days on a record than it is now. I made records back then just like a lot of other people who were my age, and we all made good records. Those records seem to cast a long shadow. But how much of it is the technology and how much of it is the talent and influence, I really don't know. I know you can't make records that sound that way any more. The high priority is technology now. It's not the artist or the art. It's the technology that is coming through. That's what makes *Time Out of Mind* ... it doesn't take itself seriously, but then again, the sound is very significant to that record. If that record was made more haphazardly, it wouldn't have sounded that way. It wouldn't have had the impact that it did. The guys that helped me make it went out of their way to make a record that sounds like a record played on a record player. There wasn't any wasted effort on *Time Out of Mind*, and I don't think there will be on any more of my records.

GW: A writer once noted that Delta bluesman Skip James' records always sound best at night. The same could be said about *Time Out of Mind*.

BD: You think it sounds like Skip James?

GW: In a sense. *Time Out of Mind* sounds best late at night.

BD: That would be a tremendous compliment to me, to hear that it was even in any kind of ... that it would be in the same realm as Skip James.

GW: In terms of mood and ambience, it's almost like there's ghosts running through it. Are those ghosts of, or for, anybody in particular?

BD: Er, no. I'm not versed in the psychological part of it. I don't know. The ghosts you're probably talking about are just probably where the instruments are all placed in the mix. Some are more in the background as opposed to being in the foreground. Or maybe you're just hearing different echoes that emanate from the complete sound of the record.

GW: Jim Dickinson, who played keyboards on *Time Out of Mind*, said something years ago that I thought was fascinating. He said that a lot of people don't realize that the recording process is about freeze-framing the soul.

BD: Yeah. The recording process is very difficult for me. I lose my inspiration in the studio real easy, and it's very difficult for me to think that I'm going to eclipse anything I've ever done before. I get bored easily, and my mission, which starts out wide, becomes very dim after a few failed takes and this and that.

GW: There are elements of country blues and Sun Records production quality on the album.