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March 16th, 2009New Dylan Cover... What's It Mean?By John Lewis |
Reporting on the upcoming Bob Dylan CD, Together Through Life, the folks at Pitchfork are speculating that the cover is "sure-to-be-scrutinized." Well, no kidding. When considering any Dylan release, that's the one thing you can be certain of—it will be scrutinized. And not just the cover, also the title, lyrics, song titles, choice of musicians, liner notes, etc.
And I'm sure fans will read various meanings into that cover photo. Is it somehow tied to the new Renee Zellweger film, My Own Love Song? Dylan wrote a song for the soundtrack and doing so reportedly stoked a creative burst that resulted in the new recording. Is the photo somehow related to the film? Nope.
Is it some commentary on aging? After all, Dylan's now 67, and it's probably been awhile since he made out in the backseat of a car—although we can't be too sure of that. But that's probably not it, either.
Actually, the photo is a sly homage to Larry Brown, the Mississippi novelist who passed away in 2004.
That very same shot, taken by Bruce Davidson, also graced the cover of the paperback edition of Big Bad Love, a collection of Brown's short stories.
Dylan was a huge fan of Brown's.
My buddy Jim Dickinson (who played on Time Out of Mind) once told me that while visiting with Dylan some years ago, Dylan asked if he knew Brown. Dickinson, who was a friend of Brown's, asked why he wanted to know. "I've read every word the man's ever written," Dylan replied.
I'm not sure if Dylan ever went public with his admiration of Brown's work, but this may be it. The smart money says Larry Brown inspired the new CD cover.
2:15 pm
Categories: literature, music, photography
what an insightful interpretation. just kidding, it sucked.
I can understand why you call yourself fartface. I sure thought this was both informative and interesting. Thanks, John.
You are as correct as anyone will be, especially since Uncle Bobby himself will never explain it. Dylan is like gambling: the only sure thing is there is no sure thing.
I, for one, am quite interested in anything Bob might be reading. It's a bit late to help Larry Brown though. Let's hope it's not some kiss of death for the photographer, like it was for the man whose picture graced the cover of Modern Times...
Just wonder'n what you meant by the kiss of death for the photographer of Modern Times?
i think the cover is something many people can relate to i think its americana at its best in some respects and effervescent of the 50's while it is intimate to be sure it is not overpowering but some churchgroups may react strongly. actually never read the brown book
i slept in a car myself at a roadside rest this past weekend but shucks i was by myself hahahahahahahahahah ps the church probably wouldnt appreciate that either hey i was tired
"All my underwear's dirty, I can't find my insurance policy." After reading your reference to Larry Brown, I went and bought the book. Read this one sentence I quoted and you'll see why Bob's a Larry Brown fan. Of the infinitude of gifts Bob Dylan's given me, finally getting around to reading BIg Bad Love, after any number of people with less pull in my life had recommended it to me, gets on the list. Thank you Mr. Lewis, and thank you Bob.
[...] under Uncategorized | Tags: book news, books, Lucille Clifton, Tournament of Books | John Lewis pegs the new Bob Dylan cover as an homage to writer Larry [...]
[...] [Via Baltimore Magazine] [...]
About 19:00 through, the photo is in "No Direction Home". What's the interpretation? Dylanesque obscure self-referentiality, or did scorsesee know of dylan's interest in the photo/author--or both?
i think it's two guys.
[...] Read as Baltimore Magazine tries to understand the album art for Bob Dylan’s upcoming release. [...]
John,
"Did God really sit in that chair and talk about Larry Brown?"
(same Larry Brown?)
Yup, the same Larry Brown. And can you guess who (the) God was?
I thought it was to men as well, but if you look at the rest of this series of photographs, you'll see that the blonde is a woman that appears in other shots.
I love that photograph, and I added the book to my goodreads queue. Cool.
I was searching for photography when I found your site. Excellent post. Thank You.
This won't be the first time I proved slow on the uptake. My answer to your question, posed ten months ago, would have to be (in keeping with the spirit of your original post): Dylan. If so, I can imagine a killer song about God getting picked up by the cops on a rainy night in suburban Jew Jersey. Some say he was searching for the house where Springsteen wrote Born to Run.