Bob Dylan on 60 Minutes

Bob Dylan was interviewed on CBS' 60 Minutes last night -- his first TV interview in over 20 years. Not so incidentally, CBS is owned by Viacom which owns Simon & Schuster which just published Dylan's new book. Interviewer Ed Bradley kindly pointed that out to us at the end of the interview.

And what did Bob say? As expected, not much. Never one to reveal himself, Bob was his usual cagey self.

"I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No. My stuff -- they're songs, they weren't sermons. If you examine the songs I don't believe you're going to find anything in there that says that I'm a spokesman for anybody or anything really."

That's about as enlightening as you'll get.

Over on Dylan Pool, fans were less than thrilled, especially that only about 10 minutes of the 90 minute interview made it to air. Poor_Howard posted:

"I found the interview disappointing. I had hoped Bradley would be able to get to Bob more, get him to come out from behind the wall more. The interview sounded to me mostly like a shill for Chronicles. They almost completely ignored everything that happened after Rolling Thunder. And I also agree about there being too much archival footage. I suppose Bob or his people may have vetoed so much of the interview itself that CBS had no recourse but to fill in with all those clips from "Don't Look Back."

About the same time Fox Network ran an interview with Dylan, also. And with about the same amount of enlightenment. Dylan was asked "What religion are you considering next?"

Dylan's reply: "mumble, mumble, mumble."

Today Fox's Brit Hume edited together all of Dylan's "umms" and "errs" into a somewhat amusing cheap shot. Maybe Fox will edit together Hume's teleprompter gaffes next?

More on Bob Dylan's influence.

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