The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[Eric Fishlegs]

He called in to SHUT UP, WEIRDO 2 weeks ago and got the heave ho pretty quickly because  Frangry found him creepy and Andy found him annoying. The next week he called in again and he very subtly toned the gimmick down. He was still LDP (he may have even called himself that instead of Larry da Perv) but he wasn't quite as pervy.

Oh no. Now I feel guilty that my post here may have gotten LDP banned. The Spike ban can go on forever as far as I'm concerned, but LDP seems harmless. Not terribly funny much of the time, but I'd take him over Spike any day.

[robertc]

I wouldn't worry about it, Tom knows all and sees all, and I think there was more to the LDP ban than just his call to Shut Up Weirdo

[Matt]

If not for the motorcycle accident, I think he would have probably spent the next ten years trying to make another 'Blonde on Blonde.'

If not for the motorcycle accident, he probably would've died soon after from some kind of overdose. He looks pretty frazzled in that 1966 footage. 

[Pidgeon]

If not for the motorcycle accident, I think he would have probably spent the next ten years trying to make another 'Blonde on Blonde.'

If not for the motorcycle accident, he probably would've died soon after from some kind of overdose. He looks pretty frazzled in that 1966 footage.

Did you see the footage from around the same time of him bullying some awkward British student for like ten mintues?

[Lothar_Brightblade]

If not for the motorcycle accident, I think he would have probably spent the next ten years trying to make another 'Blonde on Blonde.'

If not for the motorcycle accident, he probably would've died soon after from some kind of overdose. He looks pretty frazzled in that 1966 footage.

Did you see the footage from around the same time of him bullying some awkward British student for like ten mintues?

Donovan?

This is my favorite Dylan video, you can just see the look in Donovan's face, "Oh shit, I'll never be that good."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5093296960435404141#

[Pidgeon]

No, it was a video of some kid who wanted to be a scientist or something and Dylan was just berating him for it. I don't know what the circumstances were and I can't find it on youtube.

[yesno]

"Dont Look Back" is one of the most irritating movies I've ever seen. Bob Dylan the person was really insufferable, at least in that era.  I wish Leonard Cohen or someone else more agreeable would've written all those songs.

[bmills]

The story of Damian going through a table in a wrestling mask and getting the plugged pulled after the first song was great.

[ErnieWV]

@yesno Sure and I wish someone sane with two ears could have painted Van Gogh's paintings or someone sociable had written Catcher In The Rye.

[yesno]

Artists are no more likely than construction workers or engineers or human resources professionals to be insufferable jackasses.  People are just more likely to let them get away with it.  They're also more likely to put on a little show.

[ErnieWV]

Human Resource professionals and construction engineers need other people to do their job. Artists don't. I'm not saying it isn't nice to be nice, just saying perhaps an artist's personality informs his work and in some cases genius emanates from a tortured soul. When Dylan brought Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield on stage with him at Newport  he wasn't being intentionally mean to his suffering audience but I can certainly understand his subsequent reaction to some of his so called fans.

[yesno]

Maybe Dylan was a "tortured soul," but he got good because of hard work and practice, not some inner light with the dual function of making him act like a dick and helping him write good songs.

I reject the 19th century notion that artists are on a different plane of being and ought to be held to different standards.

For all that, being a dick was probably a great career move for Dylan, because it made him fit so well into people's preconceptions of what an artistic genius is like.

[Bryan]

I'm not saying it isn't nice to be nice, just saying perhaps an artist's personality informs his work and in some cases genius emanates from a tortured soul.

A few years ago, I saw Stan Brakhage speak at a film screening, and he declared that the romantic myth of the insane artist was one of the most destructive ideas in our culture. That resonated with me. I don't think we have to go along with this concept. It's possible - and vastly preferable - for artists to be well-adjusted members of society. (Though it's maybe worth saying that Brakhage also seemed like kind of a dick.)

[ErnieWV]

Fair enough but  saying you wish Dylan wasn't a dick(i.e. you wish he was Leonard Cohen) makes no sense to me. There are lots of artists in all fields who's work I enjoy but I wouldn't want to know them personally because they are dicks. I used to romanticize the artist who was insane, alcoholic, syphilitic, or whatever I thought made their art trancsendant, but since I've been sober now for 30 years(I'm 60) I know that's a load of crap. You may have more than I do to base your personal opinion of Dylan on, all I know is his work, which I have been following 45 years, has often influenced my own thinking about many issues and even when I find his message disagreeable(Slow Train Coming) I can still appreciate the power and honesty of it. Perhaps I am influenced by my age and knowledge of certain issues that don't seem relevant any more, for instance what was behind Hurricane and why he sang it and how I and my peers reacted to it, after all Ruben Carter has long been released from prison and maybe dead for all I know. Maybe I do give Dylan too much credit but I was a witness to what truly was pioneering art and if it came about because of, or in spite of, his being a dick, so be it.

[ErnieWV]

@Bryan I saw Harlan Ellison speak and he was a complete and utter dick, but I still enjoyed his work and thought A Boy And His Dog was a pretty good film, and I enjoyed the story of him being a dick to Frank Sinatra. I guess my point is we can wish these people were nice but unfortunately in their pathology part of their creative process is being unpleasant and in all honesty I enjoy seeing the darkness come out honestly in their work although I'm sure I wouldn't want to experience it firsthan