Expecting Rain

Bob claims in Chronicles (p125) that his first public performances were small roles in annual showings of the Black Hills Passion Play of South Dakota at his high school auditorium.

Does anyone know if this is true or not, or is Bob, once again, adding a little "colour" at the expense of the truth.

The blend of religious imagery and American folklore that play contains just seems to a little too apposite to be Bob's actual first performance.

Anyone have any further information?

I'd put that through google and see what comes up.

I rather doubt that google could help solve the question .... which is really did Bob ever make anything up in Chronicles.... ..... but I can see how that it is possible that he was in a play...... I was a little shoe maker's elf in second grade.... ..... and it just somehow seems rather amusing to think that Bob first performance might have been standing there .... playing a guard..... and you know, holding his spear.....

Could he have been? Yes. According to an article here: http://davehultin.com/2011/01/11/the-bl ... s-no-more/



And it's probably a safe assumption that the play drew on area residents as extras when on tour. According to an article in a 1940 edition of TIME (unfortunately not accessible w/o a password, "...The permanent cast of 23 has been swelled, for mob scenes, by local Protestants, Catholics, Jews."

There are some excellent images of the Hibbing High School Auditorium stage here: http://hibbing.yolasite.com/school-days.php

Whether Dylan actually performed as an extra in the passion play is probably one of those mysteries from that will remain unanswered, along with whether Gorgeous George encouraged him during a chance encounter, or whether he actually saw Buddy Holly perform in the Winter Dance Party of `59, Maybe the best answer is that Dylan wants us to think he did. As Dylan says as an epilogue to the Gorgeous George story, "Whether he really said it or not, it didn't matter."

Thanks, Fred. I have healthy doubts about those scenes from Chronicles, but so far not about him attending the Buddy Holly concert. Whether or not Buddy actually looked at him, of course, is a purely subjective thing.

Actually out of the three incidents I cited, I have my gravest doubts about the Buddy Holly story. As I noted in my blog annotation of the TTRH "Weather" show... http://www.dreamtimepodcast.com/2010/01 ... -hour.html



I'm more cynical about Mr. D.'s claims now than I was in those more innocent times. As I said, he's careful to note that he "probably" saw The Spaniels, even though even the most cursory research on the Winter Dance Party would have shown they weren't part of the tour, nor was Link Wray. So why would Eddie Gorodetsky write something - why would Bob Dylan say something - that they both probably knew was wrong. Personally, I think Dylan either deliberately or accidentally confused the dates, as he has a tendency to do, and actually saw Holly, Link Wray and The Spaniels two years earlier on the 1957 "Irving Feld Biggest Show of Stars" tour, where they indeed all toured together. Of course, that tour name doesn't have the resonance of the `59 "Winter Dance Party" but it makes a better story to conflate the two. I think Dylan has told the story to friends more than once (heck, he even told the story to Link Wray himself, which must of confused the hell out of ol' Link ), told it to Eddie G., who in turn used it on TTRH, inserting a "probably" since he knew that whether Mr. D. had actually been at the Winter Dance Party, the Spaniels and Link Wray definitely had not.

A lot of text expended on a minor thing, but I'm that sort of guy.

great research Fred!

a lot of your balanced and insightful text blows away what passes as "Bob-pontifical-ia" by the ' LuckyMen of the Backstage' that are writing books nowadays. so you still writing that Banned Book i hope?-

you got any angles on how Bob And Link interacted? I always assumed Bob would respect his wildness and timelessness - i had posted somewhere when i had discovered about that time Link went to a DC show and sat in the way back that was poignant

i just found this nice article on Link that mentions Bob:

"The story is how [a young] Bob Dylan took some of his last money to see a Link Wray concert in Minnesota".

http://www.americanindiannews.org/2011/ ... link-wray/

i assume this is Link's brother Vernon, sounds like a Wray voice-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XBw6V9lmLw

the first concert i ever went to as a kid was mountain with leslie west which i remember vividly, however there were 2-3 other bands that i sat thru that i remember nothing about, tho for some reason i thought one of them was the climax blues band. ive been told im wrong ive been told im right.
when he said probably was because he knew all the trainspotters were out and about listening.

bob cant be human? wtf?

Appreciate the kind words. In "No Direction Home," Robert Shelton says Dylan visited Wray in 1975 and told him, "Link, I was sitting in the front row when you and Buddy Holly were at Duluth, and you're as great now as you were then." Dylan either told Shelton, or let the mistake ride, that it was the Winter Dance Party, as Shelton than goes on to perpetuate the myth that Holly and Ray performed in the show which Dylan saw on January 31st, 1959... which didn't happen. Again, I think Dylan was referring to a tour that took place in 1957, rather than the more famous Winter Dance Party tour of `59.

As to the infamous book parts of my TTRH book are being incorporated into another book with the working title, "The Joker and the Thief" (you can draw your own conclusions ) This time I'm not asking for permission, and I've learned from my mistakes about talking to certain parties. Stay tuned.

[/quote]


ok so let me get this right. shelton said not bob, but bob is now responsible because he let it ride? he didnt sic the lawyers on him for some irrelevant fact. have you read all the bob books where nobody knows up from down? i guess all them fiasco of books are now fact because let them ride. too much.

im stayin tuned alright,gonna check out all the nonesense.

YAY!! Signing up for signed copy.
(Deliberate choice of title as per Maimudes's book?)

i dont think e books can be autographed.

I don't think they can't be printed either - or that Fred wouldn't be kind enough to send me (a scan of) his autograph.

goombay is wrong, as he is about so many things...

http://www.autography.us.com/signing.html

goombay, if you think I'm ignoring you... it's because I am. Don't take it personally... or do, if you'd rather.

How about print on demand? And what about the title?

Are you almost done with your book?

i hit square on the center of the bullseye, with the e book. instant perception on my part.




how much for the above? id like my salutation to read 'hello there hello'. the world continues to get crazier. bob is to be held responsible for whatever is written on any of them borderline quacky bob books? is this the new thing?
i am at a loss to believe what im reading.

no matter,when bob requests a copy of the ebook, make sure the pages dont print upside down.

im thinking of competeles me a e book too. no salutations.

We'll see whether the book generates enough interest for POD, JP. Right now I'm planning on the Kindle route if/when I finish it.

I wish Victor Maymudes had written his book. I'm sure there are many people that are relieved he did not. In any case, my title isn't a reference to him or his book... at least not a deliberate one. I'm tilling the same fields that Scott W (and I believe you) are looking into, in my case trying to connect the dots from "Little Buddy" up to the Asian Series, with a stopover at Grey Water Park. The upcoming album may offer some more fodder.

As to "almost done" Giada, no. Certainly the people at ER will be among the first to know if/when I do. As I said, stay tuned and thanks for your interest.

Yeah, I hope none of the people close to him ever write a book, unless it's like Suze's who didn't feel the need to spill any secrets or the like.

a paragon of truth and poetry, victor maymundes.

Yes, I'm getting into it again recently, mainly with the aim of collecting all the source material into one place, only giving background if absolutely necessary. That mention of "Little Buddy" makes me smile, I didn't think of that recently. I wonder if there were any apples in his neighbor's garden. The morning we sourced the Asia Series was quite something - I wasn't the first to find out he copied, but I dug up some of the photos, which was exciting enough. Gave me a taste for looking into these things. If it comes out, it's go to the top of my reading pile, and I'll write you a review.... including some stolen words, if you want.

yes that was some detective work, the asia series. for a second there i had the notion that bob had gone back in time to mandarin china, starting up a donkey farm.

...good one, goombay.

Wow, an entire thread dedicated to catching Bob in a lie !

As goombay pointed out, did it ever occur to anyone that Bob is only human and
maybe...after 50+ years...the details of a concert he saw in high school aren't exactly
crystal clear in his memory?

What i can't understand is why people bother to read these kind of books....
In what scheme of things does it matter if Buddy Holly ACTUALLY met Bob's eyes..?
...or if Bob just THINKS he did ?

bob got a great titanic track coming up soon. now, there have been dozens if not more titanic songs, all based on the same group of elements. yet nobody gave credit to anyone else, each dropped the song as their own. nobody examines any of those folks but watch when the bob song comes, its gonna be pandemonium.
avoid all of those bob examination books, most are lame fiascos.

The detective work wasn't based on whether he did copy in these latest paintings, but where from. There's people interested in this kind of thing. If you're not, that's fine, but that it doesn't matter to you doesn't mean it doesn't matter to everybody else either.