Bob Dylan at the White House

Last September I linked to a Rolling Stone interview of President Obama. In it he described the performance Dylan gave at the White House.

He didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that. He came in and played "The Times They Are A-Changin'." A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I'm sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left.

As not to be tainted by the rubbing of elbows with those who muck it up for the little guy, Bob Dylan did what he had to do.  He left.  That's who he is.  Somehow mixing it up with the people he's been writing songs about still doesn't fly for Dylan. Wouldn't you think, some 50 years after he literally changed America forever, Dylan could allow just a little bit of intermingling?  No.

The reason I bring this back up is because I have finally found video of Dylan's performance.  I had watched on PBS the concert at the White House but it did not show Dylan.  It showed everybody else but for some reason it ended without him.  I figured he didn't even want it recorded.  Nonetheless, what I find most amazing about Dylan at the White House is that this is his first performance ever at the executive mansion.  I would have thought Clinton would have brought him in but I guess not.



I must also give a full disclosure on this.  I am not really that much of a Dylan fan. What he did is nothing short of amazing.  But his music never swayed me one way or the other.  What he does draw attention to for me is the fact my generation does not have a Bob Dylan.  I went to high school in the 90s, a time when someone who was a product of Dylan occupied the White House.  There was no need then for a counterculture antiwar movement.

Even during the Bush years, when we had a hugely unpopular president and America drastically went from peace and prosperity to war without end and fiscal insanity, no Dylan emerged.  Even worse, the closest we have today to an American singer motivated by the political happenings of the day is Lady Gaga.  So, yeah, nostalgia for Dylan at the White House is intrinsically linked to the void of today's patheticalness.