I once saw Bob Dylan in Park Slope. It was on Eighth Avenue at Lincoln Place, right across from the Montauk Club. He was with a photographer and it was June 12, 2001—I remember because it was my son’s birthday—and we were on our way to the subway for an evening in Manhattan.
A small, polite crowd was standing on the corner, talking to Bob. As he walked away, I asked for his autograph and he obliged. He wrote his name on my Mastercard envelope (it was all I had with me).
It’s framed and on the bookshelf in the living room. Did I mention I said to him: "You’re my idol."
I can’t help it. I am such a Dylan fan and this show at the Morgan Library sounds good to me. I am so there.
Bob Dylan’s American Journey, 1956–1966, the first
comprehensive exhibition devoted to Bob Dylan’s early career, is on
view at The Morgan Library & Museum from September 29, 2006,
through January 6, 2007. The exhibition examines the critical ten-year
period that coincides with Dylan’s transformation from folk troubadour
to rock innovator during a momentous, turbulent period of American
history. Bob Dylan’s American Journey, 1956–1966, is organized by Experience Music Project, Seattle, Washington.The
exhibition includes original typed and handwritten lyrics, rarely seen
photographs, concert and television footage, posters and handbills of
Dylan’s early performances in New York, and other artifacts. Several
Dylan manuscripts and typescripts of lyrics from a selection of more
than ninety songs given to The Morgan Library & Museum in the late
1990s by collector George Hecksher will also be on view. These include
such well-known songs as "Blowin’ in the Wind," "It’s Alright, Ma,"
"Masters of War," "Ballad in Plain D," and "Gates of Eden."Bob Dylan’s American Journey
traces Dylan’s personal and artistic development, beginning in postwar
Hibbing, Minnesota, the industrial town where Robert Zimmerman (b.
1941) grew up as a store owner’s son inspired by early rock and roll.
The exhibition follows Dylan to his debut on the national stage of the
Greenwich Village folk scene—one of history’s most fascinating
intersections of art, politics, and lifestyle—through to his massive
fame as one of the first true rock stars and the man who "electrified"
contemporary songwriting. This ten-year span encompasses the release of
some of Dylan’s seminal albums, including The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.
Thank you for the item on the Morgan Library exhibit— it seems a must see for fans..Bob Dylan is the voice and the vision of whatever this “modern” American yearning for freedom and creativity and truth is/was all about. From what I have read, he is adamant that he is nothing more (and nothing less) than a song and dance man. He “makes shoes for everyone even you but [he]…still goes barefoot”… Combining streams of Americana, pop, beat, bohemian, across the American tapestry.. Still an American original which is why his music and books and films continue to interest and inspire. I have never seen Bob Dylan except in performance…A side question – Did Bob Dylan ever play in Brooklyn? …. I wonder if he would ever play at BAM…