Hello again and I hope you’re all
having a happy summer. I find it hard to believe that it is July and
Judas! issue 6 time already. Tempus fugit, indeed. Mind you,
if Dylan is opening for a band called the Dead who apparently are the
Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia (a baffling concept even for a non-Deadhead
like me) then anything is possible. He’ll be opening for Phil
Lesh next...
Oh well, there is nothing quite like ‘demystifying oneself’
is there? Still, there is always the other tendency, the one that leans
toward the self-mythologizing and it would appear that the film Masked
& Anonymous achieves this in a novel and successful way, despite
all advance pointers making us fear the worst. If summer tour news does
not augur well at least there is plenty of positive news on the cinema
front. Most of the reports from those who have seen the film are extremely
favourable and - while in no way saying it will appeal to a mainstream
audience - Judas! is confident on the back of our coverage
in issue 5, that it will appeal to more Dylan fans than the early worries
would have suggested.
On a personal note it is extremely gratifying to see many of the suppositions
I arrive at in various sections in the “Love And Theft”
chapter of my book Troubadour carried forward into the film
and its soundtrack. Clearly the minstrelsy and Civil War themes had
not yet been explored as far as Dylan wanted to take them. The interaction
of ‘'Cross the Green Mountain’ with both his last studio
album and now Masked & Anonymous throws up interest a-plenty,
but the central-to-the-film performance of ‘Dixie’ is likely
to be a fertile debating ground for a much longer time to come, for
a wide variety of reasons. (Including some rather nonsensical ones,
one fears.) I am also pleased to have included my John Goodman/Roseanne
footnote to the ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ chapter. One
can see why the chance of working with Dylan would pull a sterling performance
from Mr. Goodman.
There are other silver screen attractions to come as well. Not only
do we have Todd Haynes’s unorthodox ‘biopic’ (with
Dylan portrayed by seven different actors, including a woman and an
11-year-old black boy), but our man will also be the subject of a Martin
Scorsese documentary that, it is claimed, will ‘examine the cultural
and political impact of Dylan’s music’. Clearly a magnificent
opportunity to achieve something meaningful here, fingers crossed it
all goes well and we will keep you updated in future issues as to its
progress.
There is positive news around on the book front too, albeit with the
disappointing, if not unexpected, continual putting back of the publication
date for Chronicles. Paul Williams’s chapter that kicks off this
issue is from his long-awaited, now imminent, book. He informs us that
it ‘is approaching completion’. There are now only a few
months left for you to advance order a limited edition hardcover for
$60 and get your names listed in the book as ‘Subscribers’.
For more details email paul@caddy.com
Almost upon us now is the even longer heralded book on Dylan by Christopher
Ricks. Issue 7 of Judas! will feature a review of this critical
analysis from a recognised literary authority by the Dylan world’s
own voice of lyrical authority, Michael Gray. Meanwhile, Stephen Scobie’s
Alias Revisited has still to come out. When it does we will
be running a special interview with Stephen to mark its release, as
well as featuring an excerpt or two.
Speaking of excerpts form forthcoming books, John Hinchey is already
well into his follow-up to the excellent Like A Complete Unknown. Given
it is written in his spare time, however, it will be some time before
it hits the streets so Judas! will be badgering him for chapters
of that as he progresses and we are delighted to say that his thoughts
on ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ will also adorn issue 7.
There is good news too on the photography front. Duncan Hume has been
providing us with a slew of top quality pictures, some of which adorn
this very issue. As we know how much you enjoyed the last ‘spread’
of his photographs that we did, we are aiming to do another one soon.
Regular contributor to Judas!, John Hume also has welcome news.
There was a change recently to the photo of Dylan being used for concert
posters etc. The new one is a live shot taken by John who was told that
Bob had chosen the photo himself, something you’d imagine would
make him as happy as happy can be.
I have reminded you in a few editorials of my overall vision for Judas!
and am loath to repeat it all again (though I need to do so every now
and then for all the newcomers to the magazine). Suffice to say for
now that John Perry’s understandable-even-to-a-non-muso-like-me
article on Dylan’s acoustic guitar playing in 1966 and David Pichaske’s
concluding chapter on Dylan’s language are especially pleasing
in our commitment to bringing you authoritative articles on ‘music’
and ‘voice’ as well as our more manifold expressions of
the same on ‘lyrics’ and ‘performance’.
Enjoy issue 6, so bulging with material that we are using our website
as overspill. There you will find, amongst other things, letters from
Sheila Clarke, ending with a question oft raised by myself plus Toby
Richards-Carpenter pointing out the positives I missed in my review
of Olof’s books, as I was hoping someone would. Easy to follow
log-in instructions for the subscriber-only section of the website are
on screen at www.judasmagazine.com
