Armour

[poliphilo]

Personality is armour. Artists- volatile and sensitive individuals whose work involves much exposure to public gaze- often develop particularly baroque personalities. This really isn't surprising.

Consider Bob Dylan. I think, from all I've been reading lately, that he's actually quite a nice, shy, ordinary little guy at heart. It's a measure of the fragility of the man that the personality he projects is so monstrous.

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Don't we all do that?

Idiosynchrasies can cover up so many little cracks in the foundations.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

We all construct a shell around our vulnerable inner selves. The thing about someone like Dylan is that he's out there in the arena and has to fend off a continual public battery.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

True, but that is merely a matter of a different scale compared to the rest of us. the principle involved remains the same.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yup, it's a question of scale-

and visibility.

"full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. "

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Just a personal opinion, I knew Dylan a bit in the 60s during his Village years. He was a dick! People can and do change with age.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"he was a dick"

He-he- I'm sure he was.

I've know men who, I suspect, were very like the young Dylan- ambitious, insecure, bull-shitting, pretentious, scrabbling for attention- the only difference being that he had talent and they didn't.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I heard, third hand or so, that he really abused Dave Van Ronk's hospitality and generosity.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

He ripped people off, especially things like clothing and LPs, or so I heard. I didn't know him real well, just met a couple of times. I was quite young and he scared me, but I did hear about people who would help him and he'd take stuff from them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There was some of that in the Scorsese film. He "borrowed" a whole lot of records from some guy and the guy went round to put the fear of God into him and they had this long weird conversation that got so interesting that the guy kept forgetting that he was trying to terrorize Dylan and according to a witness it was really funny to watch.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He stole House of the Rising Sun from Van Ronk, but from the way Van Ronk was talking in the Scorsese film it seemed like he'd forgiven him.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard about Van Ronk, he was a very forgiving sort. A better musician, too, at least in my opinion. (Still trying to get my fingers around St. Louis Tickle)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He seemed like a nice guy in the movie.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

And then there's Peter Sellers, and I imagined him a kindly, whimsical soul who loved everyone, until I heard about what a monster he was in real life.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's odd. I still love Sellers in spite of reading his biography.

[philtration.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen the film with Dylan and John Lennon? Lennon admired Dylan and someone decided that it would be interesting to get the two of them into the back of a limo and to film their conversation as they drove around. This was about 1965 and both were on top of the world at the time. Dylan was intoxicated and acting like drunken idiot while Lennon was obviously uncomfortable and wanted it to end. Lennon later came up with the quote "Never strive to meet your idols, you will always be disappointed"
He made a real effort to never come across as an asshole when he approached by fans on the streets of New York because of that meting with Dylan.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it but I've read about it.

I've been struck, watching all this Dylan footage, how every so often there'll be a moment when he looks spookily like Lennon. It's not a phyical resemblance, so it must be something to do with poise and attitude