Civics and Urban Life

Where the Worlds of Bob Dylan and Park Slope Real Estate Collide

4 Comments

1966-BlondeOnBlonde
Leon Freilich brought this article in the online Intel section of New York Magazine to my attention:

"It's thought that Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Miles Davis have all spent time in the extra-wide townhouse on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope that is now up for sale. The giant home was most recently owned by rock photographer David Gahr, and boasts a whopping eleven bedrooms, great light, an unrenovated roof deck, and many original fixtures. It'll need some updating, but because of the size — it's on a rare spacious corner lot — the price tag might just seem like a stea."

So I wrote the following to Leon and then realized: it's a blog post. So I embellished it a bit and now it is a blog post (that begins as an email…)

Leon, do you know my story about running into Dylan on 8th Ave. and Lincoln Place on June 12th 2001. I remember the day because June 12th is Teen Spirit's birthday and we were on our way into the city for a birthday celebration of some sort.

I noticed a small crowd on the southeast corner of 8th Avenue and Lincoln. Some random Park Slopers and I think the photographer David Gahr was there (there was definitely an older man with a camera around his neck).

And in the center of the small crowd was "Mr. Bob, Mr. Bob, Mr. Bob Dylan (to quote George Harrison at the Concert for Bangladesh).

Dylan was in his Mexican cowboy phase and was, if I remember correctly, wearing a white suit and a cowboy hat. He had that weird skinny mustache and didn't look his best. By that I mean he didn't look as good as he looked on the cover of Blonde on Blonde. But it was 2001 and that was, like, 1966.

I actually asked Bob Dylan for his autograph (nervy, huh?). I told him, quite sincerely, that he was my hero. Guess what? He obliged and signed his name on the back of an
American Express envelope I was about to mail.

That was before my son knew everything there is to know about Bob Dylan. But he did remember
seeing him on the Oscars when he was nominated for a movie song (what song was that, anyone remember?)

"Hey, wasn't that the guy on the Oscars?" Teen Spirit said as we walked to the
subway at Grand Army Plaza. 

Needless to say I never mailed that envelope. It's framed and on one of our bookshelves.

Full disclosure: I am now listening to Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 from Blonde on Blonde. You know, "They'll stone you when you're at the breakfast table, they'll stone you when you're young and able…"

4 thoughts on “Where the Worlds of Bob Dylan and Park Slope Real Estate Collide”

  1. You’re kidding me, right? The best Dylan song since Blood on the Tracks, wins the Oscar, and you cain’t remember it?
    “Things Have Changed” from the Wonder Boys movie.
    “I used to care but…. things have changed.” Coulda been about Bob, rather than the Michael Douglas character. I remember Oscar cameras focusing on Douglas and his wife with s–t-eating grins on their faces as they tapped their feet. It is one catchy tune and the lyrics are vintage Bob.

  2. Wasn’t the Oscar-nominated song “Things Have Changed” from the Michael Douglas film “Wonder Boys?”

  3. That song is Things Have Changed, which, sadly, is the last Dylan song I like. It appeared in the movie Wonder Boys, with Michael Douglas.

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