Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thanks to Vasuda for your response...I appreciate your view a bit more
now with the explanation...

And, even though John Lennon was joking he was far more popular than
Jesus ever was or could have been...great sort of humor and thanks for
pointing it out.   

And thanks for noticing my "typo"...I wrote one other long entry to
this site, clicked on spellcheck and voila!  the entire entry was gone
never to be found again.  So I make typos...


good luck,    Big Boy Once, the Musical Dunce.
  

    
hey, I've been in many a bog!  I even have a part interest in at least
three bogs not all that far from Hibbing!

I was probably in classes with him at the UofMinn in the fall of '60, but
never met him.  He does appear in the student directory, though, which
I have somewhere in my attic.  

I first ran into him at Indian Neck in May, '61.  At the same festival
was Bob Neuwirth, (later one of Dylan's "bodyguards", along with Geno
Foreman, according to the news reports of the time).  We didn't talk
much then, but I did make some tapes of some Guthrie songs Dylan was
doing.  Gary Davis was also at that festival.

In October of '61, I was in college in northwestern Massachusetts.
The Rev. Gary Davis was going to do a concert at nearby Bennington,
and one of the Bennington women enlisted a friend of hers to "open"
for the Rev., and that turned out to be by this guy Dylan, who
we'd seen at Indian Neck.

Bill, my roommate, drove Dylan and Gary Davis from NYC to Williamstown,
where we met for dinner at more friends, Borden and Shelley's place.

The dinner took far longer than planned.  The Rev. seemed to be far 
more interested in the wine and the hostess than in getting to the 
concert on time.

After dinner, I drove Dylan and the Rev. in Bill's Simca, up to 
Bennington, 17.4 miles by the shortcut, arriving at about 9:45pm 
for the 8pm concert.

It was clear that the concert-goers were there for Davis, not Dylan.  

Dylan looked the same as he had looked at Indian Neck, with the hat
and harmonica, but actually sounded better, I thought at the time.
But the audience was not impressed, they wanted Davis.  There were
even some boo's, which was very unlike Bennington at the time.

The next story was told to me the day after the concert by Dave Marash 
(the guy now reporting from exotic and dangerous places on Nightline), 
and I can't vouch firsthand for its authenticity:

   Davis was getting $75 and Dylan $50 for that concert.  Afterwards,
   when they were getting paid, Dylan said that Davis should never 
   have to work for less than $100, and have Davis half of his money.

That was unlike anything I had heard about Dylan before or since, so 
I don't know if it's true or not.  Marash didn't remember it, when I 
asked him about it in '80 or so.

Anyway, Dylan never did talk much.  He also didn't want to take his
hat off.  He did ask me, "Hey, man, what state are we in?" while
on the road, which I though was pretty funny at the time.
  

    
good story, Earl.
  

    
Ran into him again backstage at Newport in '63.  He had this 
bullwhip, and didn't want to talk much, too busy cracking the whip.

Then at Shelton's, later in '63, as I mentioned earlier.

Last time I saw him was at a place in Sheridan Square, was that the 
Limelight, maybe?  I'd wandered in to see if anyone I knew was
there, and found Rik Lloyd and John Cooke talking with Dylan.
I knew Rik and John well enough to join them, and stayed awhile, 
but don't remember the conversation.

Dylan came out to Minneapolis in '65 or so for a wake for Avars (sp?)
an excellent classical guitarist killed in a California motorcycle
accident.  He was the boyfriend of Bonnie Beecher (aka The Girl From
the North Country).  The wake took over the building I was living in,
and Bonnie was there.  Dylan never came by, though, presumably 
because his old roommates were there, and some other people who said
he owed them money!  Bob Neuwirth and Dylan stayed over at McCosh's
firehouse/bookstore.  I didn't know at the time that Neuwirth was
there, or I'd have gone over to say hello!

That's pretty much it for the times I've seen (or almost seen) him.
I did hear stories from some of the Minneapolis people, though, of 
his times in Mpls. between Hibbing and New York.
  

    

Thanks for those stories, Earl!

>bog

Sheesh!  Talk about typos!!  Glad you understand what I meant in spite of
that.
  

    
What an amazing bunch of stories for a Dylan fan... Thanks everybody