Dylan007 wrote:
Dylan writes something in Chronicles about this. Don't have it in front of me, but I thought he said something like "the truth is I just needed time away." As i read it, I remember thinking that was a pretty big revelation, but it was never much commented on by other readers.
He devotes a one-liner to the incident:
"I had been in a motorcycle accident and I had been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race." (page 114)
Leaving aside the fact that as far as
Chronicles as concerned, Bob Dylan is the most unreliable first-person narrator since Huckleberry Finn, the statement, as brief as it is, pretty much aligns with what he's claimed over the years: that there was an accident (of varying degrees of severity), but that he also used that accident as an excuse to "get out of the rat race."
I think the "rat race" might have been as much an allusion to the Chief Rat, Albert Grossman, as to the pressures Dylan was under. If memory serves by July 1966 Dylan had discovered Grossman was taking 50 percent of his publishing royalties (reportedly finding this out when he wanted to change the name of his publishing company to celebrate the birth of Jesse Dylan and was told that he'd need Grossman's permission as co-owner to do so). Given that Grossman seemed not to care all that much that he was beating the Dylan horse to death, maybe Dylan decided it was time to split the scene in a way that his manager couldn't easily overrule. Maybe there was an accident, maybe there wasn't. Maybe it wasn't as bad as some reports had it. Only Dylan, and possibly Sara, know for sure.
Interesting take. I'm not well read on the Grossman info. That had to have been one hell of a mess for Dylan to deal with. Add that to being a new husband, father, and oh yeah...international music icon. the " accident " was the well needed break from it all. Another area that has to be taken into account is the year of hard drug use. For so many people bob is the poster child for abuse. I've never viewed him as such and refuse to. But to continue, there is that clip in the "no direction home" doc., when he takes off his glasses as he leans back and forth while being interviewed and says " I just want to go home." it's a telling clip and a sad one. He was a young man in need of serious help at that point. Glad he got out of it then, because I don't think he would have made it if he continued on that path.
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