Life Bookazines - Bob Dylan - 2020

30 LIFE BOB DYLAN

The problem was: That wasn’t how he saw himself, and

he was about to let his fans know it.

In interviews, he began to sound contrarian at best and

often crackpot. We will dwell in our next chapter at a lit-

tle more length on his classic, super-surrealistic Playboy

interview of 1966—still ranked by New York magazine at

Number One on its list of Ten Most Incomprehensible Bob

Dylan Interviews of All Time—but suffice for now: Dylan

began publicly denying the mantle that had been thrust

upon him, regardless of the fact that he had so assiduously,

even cunningly, campaigned for that mantle. He didn’t

write “message” songs, he insisted, and he didn’t speak for

any generation. His new cantankerousness was unappeal-

ing to say the least. Many defenders would get used to it

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