Like a rolling stone
cjonline.com
Bob Dylan's newest biographer
offers insights as to why the
legendary singer-songwriter
spends so much time on the
road, often in smaller markets
like Topeka.
By BILL BLANKENSHIP
The Capital-Journal
No disrespect intended, but Topeka isn't
exactly a hot spot on the touring schedule of
many internationally known performers.
Why then would Bob Dylan, who can be called a rock legend without a
hint of hyperbole, come here this weekend to perform his second
concert in the Kansas capital in seven years?
The simple answer to why Dylan, who turns 60 next month, plays so
many concerts a year, often in smaller markets like Topeka, is, "There's
simply nothing else he wants to do," says Howard Sounes, author of the
just-published "Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan" (Grove Press,
$27.50).
Dylan, who performed in May 1994 to a
near-capacity crowd at the Topeka
Performing Arts Center, will play Saturday
night at the Kansas Expocentre's Landon
Arena, where around 3,500 tickets have
been sold so far for the 7:30 p.m. concert.
Speaking by telephone Tuesday from his
London home, the former Daily Mirror
reporter said Dylan's work ethic dictates he
needs to perform.
"It's your job," Sounes said. "You get up 100
nights a year, and you play a show, and
you'll do it until you drop dead."
"I also get the impression from speaking to
many people who know him very well that he
really, genuinely loves it," Sounes said.
And Sounes interviewed 250 of Dylan's
friends and associates -- many of whom
have never given interviews -- during the
three years he researched "Down the
Highway."
Sounes said he took on the Dylan project in
part because he had been a fan since he
was a child and in part because he didn't
think anyone had yet written a great
biography of the singer-songwriter. Sounes
applied all of his journalistic skills to research Dylan's life, and despite
the volumes of stories written about Dylan, he uncovered new facts.
The most publicized revelation in "Down the Highway" is Dylan's
heretofore unknown 1986 marriage to one of his backup singers, with
whom he sired a daughter, now 15.
"There's been all sorts of fantastic stories -- or fantastical stories -- told
about how many children he has fathered and with whom," Sounes said.
"I thought if I'm going to spend all this time and all this money doing this
book, writing this book, researching it, I must get to the bottom of this.
It's not good enough just to repeat a rumor. I don't like doing that. I think
it's lazy."
Sounes revealed in his book that Carolyn Dennis gave birth to Dylan's
daughter, Desiree Gabrielle, on Jan. 31, 1986. "Robert Dylan" is listed
on the birth certificate as the girl's father.
"The birth was one of the most closely guarded secrets of Bob's career,"
Sounes writes in "Down the Highway." "Not even close friends and
members of Bob's family knew at first, and the full facts have not been
revealed until now."
Dylan and Dennis wed on June 4, 1986. The marriage certificate was
filed with the Los Angeles County Registrar as a "confidential marriage."
Nothing about the wedding was reported in the press at the time. The
couple would divorce in 1992, with the filing made under the name of R.
Zimmerman -- Dylan's birth name is Robert Allen Zimmerman -- again in
an effort to keep the marriage secret. The divorce court judge later
sealed the file of the divorce proceedings.
Last week, Dennis, through a statement released by her publicist,
acknowledged the marriage and the daughter they had together.
However, Dennis accused Sounes of implying Dylan was ashamed in
some way of the union and their child.
"In fact, the truth doesn't reflect badly on him or her," Sounes said. "The
book, in fact, makes it clear that Bob Dylan has been a very good
father."
"He's done nothing scandalous or inappropriate. He's done the right
thing. They had a child. He married her. He tried to make it work. When
it didn't, he supported them, and he still sees them," Sounes said.
While revealing Dylan's second, secret marriage is the biggest scoop in
Sounes' book, the 527-page volume also gives new insight into the life
and music of "a quirky and complex man."
"He's not an ordinary person by any stretch of the imagination. He
doesn't behave in an ordinary way, and there are aspects of his behavior
that you might look at askance, but I find him really lovable, really,"
Sounes said. "To me, apart from everything else, apart from being a
great artist, he's a great eccentric.
"He's an original He's a complete original. He's a 'one of.' The world is
better for having him in it. He's a source of continuous amazement and
entertainment."
And, Sounes said, Topeka is fortunate that Dylan's desire to perform
takes him to smaller venues, such as the Kansas Expocentre's Landon
Arena, where audiences can see him up close and not on a giant
television screen from the other side of a massive arena.
Those who know Dylan best wouldn't be surprised to see him return to
places like Topeka again in the future on his so-called Never-Ending
Tour.
Says long-time former girlfriend Carole Childs in "Down the Highway":
"He will go on as long as he can. He's practicing his practice. He's doing
his job. This is what troubadours did. This is what vaudevillians did. This
is what burlesque people did. This is what you do. You entertain
people."
Bill Blankenship can be reached at (785) 295-1284 or
bblankenship@cjonline.com. |
