Life Bookazines - Bob Dylan - 2020

(coco) #1

17


triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feel-
ings.” He added gigs at the Ten O’Clock Scholar, a bona fide
coffeehouse, to the pizza-place stints, and began introduc-
ing himself occasionally by his latterly famous stage name.
In the summer of 1960 he met, in Denver, the noted African
American bluesman Jesse Fuller, who was something of a
one-man band—singing while accompanying himself on
guitar, kazoo and a harmonica held in a rack. Zimmerman
borrowed this last bit, as he would borrow much through
the years. He later paid tribute by covering a Jesse Fuller
song on his debut album.
In January 1961, Bobby Zimmerman, who was at the time
remembered back in Hibbing as the rock ’n’ roll kid silenced
by the principal—if he was remembered at all—arrived in
New York City as Bob Dylan, an anonymous folkie deter-
mined never to be quieted again. He was also determined
to visit the man who had become his musical idol, Woody
Guthrie, writer of “This Land Is Your Land” and scores of
other popular songs, a man Dylan felt was “the true voice
of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be
Guthrie’s greatest disciple.” He did see Guthrie at his bed-
side in the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, where the
storied folksinger and author (memoir: Bound for Glory)
was gravely ill with Huntington’s disease. He played songs
for Woody, and Woody was gracious in his thanks. These
audiences that Dylan was granted would become part of
the lore once the young man from Minnesota began to be
noticed, which happened very fast.
Within a month of hitting the city, Dylan was singing in
clubs in and near Greenwich Village. There was astonish-
ingly little toil and trouble to his rise; in Dylan’s case, the

TAKING THE VILLAGE (AND THE CITY)


by storm: At left, he is just another folkie
spinning his discs. But soon he is noticed: In
September 1961, Robert Shelton of The New
York Times catches his act at Gerdes Folk City
in Greenwich Village (opposite) and writes a
gushing review. Meantime, the good folks at
the Folklore Center, having seen him perform
at the Bitter End and elsewhere, arrange for
a proper uptown concert in Carnegie Chapter
Hall (below). He is well on his way, and his
first album hasn’t even been released!

TED RUSSELL/POLARIS (2) BLANK ARCHIVES/GETTY


08-35 LIFE_Bob Dylan 2020 Folksinger.indd 17 FINAL 1/13/20 4:16 PM

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