Exhuming Bob 21:

Will The Real Bob Dylan…?




      Our friend Bob Dylan has given the impression that he knew nothing of Barry Obama, The Great Black Hope, until the summer of 2008 with just a few months left in the campaign when he gave the candidate his endorsement.  Surely this isn’t so.  Surely he not only knew of the Hope but knew him personally probably before 9/11/01.

     In my essay Bill Ayers, Greil Marcus, Bob Dylan and Barry Obama on my Contemporary Notes blog, linked above, I posit that all four knew each other and of 9/11 before it happened.  Impossible, huh?  Stranger things have happened.

     I hadn’t thought about it much after writing my piece but then a few days ago- 7/22/09- I came across a post by one Lark, The Times Are A Changing (Again):  Bob Dylan On Obama.  Lark quotes Dylan on Obama in the London Times.  Let’s review it:

     Dylan begins:  “Well you know right now America is in a state of upheaval.”

     True enough.  Many sorts of upheaval.  What sort of upheaval does Dylan refer to:

Bomber Billy Ayers

     Poverty is demoralizing.

     Can’t argue with that.  Is he talking about coal miners, fruit pickers, the unemployed, or what?


     More problematic here.  Purity isn’t a virtue it’s a state or condition.  Has nothing to do with poverty.  Well, Dylan’s a poet, one of the enigmatic kind, so I presume he may mean honest by pure.  But which people, is he talking about Blacks?

     Well, I come from a long line of poor people and so far as I know we were the kind described as ‘poor but honest.’  In other words we didn’t steal or cheat.  I’m not sure how scrupulous we were about lieing.  Seems to be a much more common fault.  I’ve been around the block a few times now and I’ve come to the conclusion that crime has nothing to do with poverty.  Rich or poor a thief steals and is well able to justify his thefts.  Need I point out the 50 billion dollar thief Bernie Madoff?  Or about the raft of Rabbis just arrested in New Jersey for some very serious financial crimes.  And then I read about this reasonably well off  one guy who stole some records because he thought he could use them better than the rightful owner.  So it may be common to think you have to be poor to be ‘impure’ or dishonest but mistaken nevertheless.

     Bob makes himself a little more clear:


     Naive but sincere.  Spoken like a true cheerleader.  ‘This guy out there’ sounds like affection if not familiarity to me.  So now, when and how did Dylan become aware of the Hope?  As I conjecture it Greil Marcus is the key to the riddle.  I’m guessing, but my guess is that Marcus’ curiosity led him to introduce himself  or be introduced to Bill Ayers, the ole Mad Weatherman Bomber,  probably in Chicago.  Ayers and Marcus being of the school of  Whiteness is a plague on the Earth probably quickly came into accord.  And then the Hope was probably on the way under the sponsorship of Ayers so Marcus and the Hope were introduced when certain anti-American and anti-White plans were discussed probably among them a projected attack on America.  Certainly one remembers that Ayers had already made several bomb attacks on America so why not the Big One…the Really Big One…the World Trade Center.

Greil Marcus

    Dylan and Marcus are pretty close.  Dylan is either a Lubavitcher or close to them.  Lubavitchers hate Whites, especially of the Christian sort.  That partially excludes me by the way, White but not of the Christian persuasion.

     As it appears that Dylan was much more familiar with the Hope than he let on and his album Love And Theft seems to reflect a pre-knowledge of 9/11 coupled with Marcus’ Rolling Stone article as detailed in the link to my essay above, there is every reason to believe, or think, or fear that Dylan, Marcus, Ayers and Obama were privy to 9/11 well before it happened.  Possibly if not probably in on the planning stages.

     Dylan goes on:  He’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out.

     If the Hope is redefining what a politician is then the definition is toward that of an African chief.  An African chief owned every bit of his territory personally.  He owned every inhabitant as his slave to dispose of as he wished.  He was free to do with all as he chose with or without their consent.

     That seems to be how the Hope  is playing things out.  True, the Hope is somewhat hobbled by the remains of the old political system but with his Liberal allies he has so far met with no insuperable resistance.  To oppose his plans is to be vile.  So far the fear of being considered vile has prevailed.

     Then Dylan:  Am I hopeful?  Yes.  I’m hopeful that things might change.  Some things are going to have to.

     Well things have changed.  Many of us believe the way things are changing is in a direction more destructive than beneficial.  In short the Hope is already a complete failure.  We’d all be pleased to have a detailed opinion from Dylan on whether his hopes have been realized.

Barack Obama     Dylan then closes with a platitude:  You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future.

     Yep.  Sure enough.  I suppose the argument would break down over the issue of what’s best or worst and which has been left behind.    There’s no doubt we’re headed into the future.  Some kind of future at least.