The Guardian
Friday Review, pp 14-15,
June 6, 1997.

MUSIC:

Carping hacks write him off as Dinosaur Jr, but Jakob Dylan, son of Bob and singer with The Wallflowers, has his own musical vision, as he explains to Emma Forrest. Why do children of famous people look more like their parents than the rest of us do: Jade Jagger, Lisa Marie Presley, Ziggy Marley? Those of us whose lives are not recorded are the ones who actually NEED our kids to look like us, if we want to be remembered.

Poor Jakob Dylan - even if he ever did forget that his father is the most seminal figure in rock'n'roll history, the rest of us never could. There he is, on the cover of this month's Rolling Stone, looking like his dad, but much more handsome. In fact, Jakob could be used to demonstrate the theory of evolution. Physically and vocally, he is Bob Dylan gone right. One can only marvel at the prospects for Jakob's three-year-old son.

Jakob is the singer, guitarist and songwriter with The Wallflowers, a surprisingly good band with an incredibly poor name who have picked an unfeasibly bad week to make their British debut. First there was Invisible Republic, Greil Marcus's book about Bob Dylan's mythic "Basement Tapes". Then came Bob's lung problems, forcing him to pull out of the Fleadh. Bob's PR says the press have been all but panting: "Is he dead yet?"

Jakob's wife scoffs: "It is not as bad as everyone has made out, or I promise you, Jakob would not be doing these gigs. Still, do not under any circumstances talk to him about his father." The Wallflowers' PR has already rung me to say I am not allowed to mention Bob. In the lift up to Jakob's room she stresses again: "If you ask him about his dad, He will walk out."

They have scared me. By the time I set up my tape recorder, I am convinced I will develop Tourette's Syndrome and sit there shouting: "Leopardskin Pillbox Hat! That was a good one!"

Listening to the record, Bringing Down The Horse, I do feel sorry for The Wallflowers. Because they stand so strongly as a credible band in their own right. Accomplished, earthy, funky, they are far from being one man and his minions. Guitarist and backing vocalist Michael Ward, especially, is vital, putting a very Neil Young spin on the sound. Massively successful in America, The Wallflowers have been lumped in with Counting Crows and other earnest rockers, but they are dirtier and funnier. Lyrically, Jakob has a penchant for dying cities and open roads that is more reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen than you-know-who. He also shares Springsteen's Candy's Room-era insight into female insecurity. On 3 Marlenas, he talks about a girl who keeps dying her hair to combat the transience of her relationships: a truth one wouldn't expect a guy to pick up on.

"America loves you!" squeal two girls who have travelled from Minneapolis to watch the band play at Dingwalls's. "Thank you," deadpans Dylan, "but you sound kind of apologetic, as if Britain hates us. And we prefer 'America likes us', because we're humble."

They are humble, in part because this is not their first shot at fame. A few years back, the band was signed to Virgin, but parted company with little success: "They kept asking me to do a lot of gossip television and tabloid magazines... I didn't want to do them because it made me physically uncomfortable." The truth is, the girls down front have probably never heard any Bob Dylan in their life. Second time around and MTV has made Jakob a sex symbol (the latest video focuses on the blue of his eyes almost to the point of fetishism). He emplosy two bouncers to fend off admirers.

As a teenager, he was equally exuberant about The Clash. "I still have framed posters of The Clash, The Jam, The Exploited. I still have a sweaty vest Joe Strummer gave me 10 years ago. The Clash had harmonicas and organs and pianos, they wrote really solid songs. And they stopped, unlike some people."

Oh my God, that can't be a reference to ... him, can it? Not mentioning Bob is killing me.

"You can always keep doing it," he adds. "It's just a matter of: do you want to hang on to your glory days? You have to evolve, and a lot of rock stars don't want to. It's like, people in their 70s still dress the way they dressed at their peak. All those women are still wearing the clothes they wore when they were 30, and thought they were beautiful and glamorous and loving life. A lot of musicians are like that too."

You do sound pretty retro, I venture. You have been compared to The Byrds, The eagles, Bruce Springsteen...and some other people. "Ugh, I hate the word retro. I think we're quite modern. Evolving is not jumping from sound to sound. Neil Young has done it naturally and brilliantly and so have U2...up to now. Although please don't say this because I'd like to open up for them. The Rolling Stones are very competitive, or they wouldn't be talking to Babyface about remixes. When you get close to 40 and you're competing with kids, that's when you embarrass yourself."

And then we have a most surreal discussion about this being the first generation with nothing to rebel against, whose parents have done it all already. This kid, whose dad was King Rebel of the Rebel Generation, feels that since everything has been done, we have no option but to do it again, hopefully as well. It comes as no surprise that he is an admirer of Oasis. "They're great. But I do also feel that the waves are moving very fast. Too fast. I went to Kensington Market and they were blasting out The Reflex by Duran Duran. Oh my God - that's cool? And now in Beck's videos he's wearing lounge suits and it's supercool."
How does Jakob square his disdain for fashion with the recent 10-page spread he did for Italian Vogue? "I agreed to do it because it wasn't going to come out in America. And from what I understand, fashion and rock'n'roll are a little more united here - it's not that odd that someone in a band would do that. But it really isn't my thing."

He has even been asked to do acting. "There's this movie coming out called Face Off. And they were hustling me hard to play Nicholas Cage's brother. I kept having my manager tell them: 'But Jakob can't act.'"

Right. Don't they know his dad was in a movie with Rupert Everett? Haven't they seen Hearts of Fire? It finally gets the better of me.

Jakob, you know that thing I'm not allowed to mention? "I tell ya, I already know where you're going with that..." Are you going to walk out? "I'm not going to walk out. I've hung up the phone a few times. In the States I would not answer questions about it and in the end it paid off. We're big now and I never have to go through that again. It doesn't matter, because in all my interviews, no matter what I say, the title is always something from the song catalogue. Knocking On The Kid's Door..."

We sit there for a while thinking of other headlines. "It Ain't Him Babe"? "It's All Starting Now Baby Jew"? He eyes me suspiciously.

They'll say he looks like, sounds like, has these mannerisms. I don't care what they write - so long as it doesn't come out of my mouth, they can say what they want. I just watch my own quotes."

But you sound so much like your own dad, I wonder aloud, it must be something to do with inheriting your parents' vocal cords along with their eyes and noses. Who can possibly listen to Liza Minelli without hearing Judy Garland?

"You're right. It absolutely is genetic. Okay, I honestly don't think I sound that much like him. I don't hear it in myself. But Ziggy Marley sure sounds a lot like Bob Marley. I'll tell you what: there are a lot of Bob Dylan imitators out there who have made a career out of sounding much more like him than I do."


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