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BOB ON BOB: Dylan talks: . by Louis Menand in the New Yorker. This is not a new interview, it's a riff of a review of “The Essential Interviews” (Wenner; $23.95).

...as an interview subject, Dylan probably ranks a few notches above Elvis, who was one of the all-time worst. The trouble with Elvis was that he had very little to say; he was mainly concerned about sounding polite. Dylan is rarely concerned about sounding polite, and he says things, but he sometimes makes them up. He also contradicts himself, answers questions with questions, rambles, gets hostile, goes laconic, and generally bewilders. What makes it truly frustrating is that, somewhere in the stream of inconsequence and obstreperousness, there are usually a few nuggets of gold. The nuggets make interviewers think that the other stuff must be a put-on, that Dylan could speak with the tongue of angels all the time if he wanted to, and this makes them press harder, hoping that the next question will break through the misdirection and resistance, and the man in front of them will turn into “Bob Dylan.” Since there is nothing Dylan likes less than being mistaken for “Bob Dylan”—“If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers,” he once said—this is not a productive interview dynamic.

Or, as my husband said, more succinctly, after the Dylan concert in Pawtucket Thursday night, "I'll be your baby tonight but I won't be your Bobby tonight."

Related: Modern Times, Dylan's new CD, is released tomorrow.

There's a huge collection of "unusual Dylan links" at Hanan Levin's Grow-A-Brain.
Leading: Dylan performs Ballad Of A Thin Man in Copenhagen 30th April 1966. The link goes to a video.

Postcard announcing Burning Man 2006 (detail) Hotstock: Burning Man 2006 starts today. If you can't be there, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, you can watch it on TV.

Weird: The birth of weeniecello, hot dog infused vodka. With photos.