These interviews, speeches and concert raps are organized by
year. I have made no attempt at a "complete" set of
interviews, but have instead focused on interviews with some relationship
to the topics of this site, Slow Train Coming. All the concert
raps come from either I or someone else listening to actual concert
tapes or dupes of same. Punctuation is of course merely a guess.
1978
1979
1980
1981
1983
1984
1985
1986
1991
EDLIS Dylan and Christianity Agency
William C. Parr
bill@billparr.org
__________________
I thought you'd like the following, from a midnight interview
of Dylan, at
a Fort Lauderdale hotel this last year:
Question: Is America better or worse than, say, in the days of
'The Times
They Are A-Changin'?
Dylan: I see pictures of the '50s, the '60s, and the '70s and
I see there
was a difference. But I don't think the human mind can comprehent
the past
and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate
you into
thinking there's some kind of change. But after you've been around
awhile,
they both seem unnatural. It seems like we're going in a straight
line, but
then you start seeing things that you haven't seen before. Haven't
you
experienced that? It seems we're going around in circles.
Question: When you look ahead now, do you still see a Slow Train
Coming?
Dylan: When I look ahead now, it's picked up quite a bit of speed.
In fact,
it's going like a freight train now.
X-Sender: wparr@unixpop.utcc.utk.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 00:49:13 -0600
To: vangrod@gate.net (John Henry)
From: bill@billparr.org (William C. Parr)
Subject: Thought you'd enjoy this one, also
Cc: bill@billparr.org
[Bill Flanagan interviewed Bob Dylan in New York in March 1985
for his book
"Written In My Soul." This text is taken directly from
that book]
BILL FLANAGAN:
You integrate your faith into the songs more subtly than at the
time of
"Slow Train Coming."
BOB DYLAN:
Now I'm just writing from instinct. I do that most of the time
anyway. I
just write from instinct and however it comes out is how it comes
out.
Other people can make of it what they choose to. But for me I
can't expound
too much on what I'm doing because I really don't have any idea
what I'm
doing. But I'll tell you one thing, if you're talking just on
a scriptural
type of thing, there's no way I could write anything that would
be
scripturally incorrect. I mean, I'm not going to put forth ideas
that
aren't scripturally true. I might reverse them, or make them come
out a
different way, but I'm not going to say anything that's just totally
*wrong*, that there's not a law for.
BILL FLANAGAN:
One of the nice things about "Sweetheart Like You" is
that anyone brought
up with the Bible will hear that song one way, but the song will
still work
on a different level for someone else.
BOB DYLAN:
Oh, I think so, yeah. Because the Bible runs through all U.S.
life, whether
people know if or not. It's the founding book. The founding fathers'
book
anyway. People can't get away from it. You can't get away from
it wherever
you go. Those ideas were true then and they're true now. They're
scriptural, spiritual laws. I guess
people can read into that what they want. But if you're familiar
with those
concepts they'll probably find enough of them in my stuff. Because
I always
get back to that.
X-Sender: wparr@unixpop.utcc.utk.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 1996 23:19:55 -0600
To: HWY61-L@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
From: bill@billparr.org (William C. Parr)
Subject: EDLIS Christianity and Dylan: 12/7/79 interview
Cc: bill@billparr.org
Sender: owner-hwy61-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
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Good car to drive, after a war
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EDLIS Christianity and Dylan Agency
William C. Parr
bill@billparr.org
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