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over time, and he himself would leaven it over time, say-
ing that he really did like his fans but that he couldn’t be
responsible for them. But the crankiness of ’63 was new,
and reached its nadir near year’s end when he deigned to
accept the Tom Paine Award from the Emergency Civil
Liberties Committee: a trophy, in other words, for some-
thing he was now denying he deserved. Why he showed upat the Americana Hotel and behaved so abominably, only
three weeks after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, is, like
with many things involving Bob Dylan, anyone’s guess. But
show up he did. If he wasn’t already drunk when he arrived,
he soon became so, in the estimation of most in attendance.
In his “acceptance” speech he laid into the Committee’s
mission and its membership, which was made up, after all,WITH BAEZ AS HIS PATRONESS, 1963
is a heady ride for Dylan, including a
performance at her side at the civil rights
rally in Washington, D.C., on August 28.
But late in the year, there is rougher sailing.
Above: The esteemed writer James Baldwin
seems as bewildered as anyone else by
Dylan’s condition, behavior and words
during the Tom Paine Award ceremony in
New York City on December 13.ROWLAND SCHERMAN/NATIONAL ARCHIVE/NEWSMAKERS/GETTY
TED RUSSELL/POLARIS
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