This week's Friday Bruce Fix is inspired by the recent news that Bob Dylan was detained by police as he wandered the streets of Long Branch, NJ one rainy Thursday evening in July. Bob apparently stood a little too long in front of a house for sale, peering into the window, thus spooking its occupant. This led to a suspicious person phone call to the Long Branch Police. The police officers probably thought it was a bit unusual for a scruffy looking 68 year old wearing a hoodie and a dark raincoat to be wandering around by himself in the pouring rain in a working-class neighborhood.
When asked for identification, the guy who almost singlehandedly changed the course of popular music couldn't produce any and the young police officers didn't recognize him, nor were they buying his claim to be Bob Dylan. Long Branch's finest drove Bob back to his tour bus (he was in town, on tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp) where his manager vouched for him.
There are all kinds of great reports and blogs out there on this incident that you may want to find through Google, but I want to focus on the rest of the story. What was Bob doing? He said he was looking at houses for sale. It just so happens that when police found him, Bob was just a couple of blocks away from the home where Bruce Springsteen lived in 1974, and where he wrote the songs for his breakthrough 'Born to Run' album. It also just so happens that within the last 9 months, Bob has visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon. Since Bob hasn't seen fit to explain what he's up to, I thought it would be entirely appropriate to speculate, and I'd like to encourage everyone reading this blog to post your own theories. Here are a few of my own unfounded speculations to kick things off.
- He's searching for inspiration for a song about how the best songs are written in dumpy old homes (apologies to the parents of Neil and John).
- He's planning to buy at least one previously lived in home of everyone in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, and then sell the whole lot of them to a wealthy Dubai developer at a tidy profit.
- He's studying to get his real estate broker's license as a fall back plan in case his singer/songwriter thing doesn't work out.
I look forward to your comments. Now onto this week's clips. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bruce Dylan, or is it Bob Springsteen? I got it.... from Hibbing, New Jersey, Mr. Frederick Zimmerman!
To wrap up our little tribute to Bob, here is an outstanding audio only clip from a show in early 1975, before 'Born to Run' was released, and I suppose while Bruce was still living in that house in Long Branch. I think this must be Bruce's best cover of all, and maybe the best all time cover of a Dylan song, although there are probably a lot of good counter arguments to that last statement, and you might also argue I am biased. The photo looks to be post 'Born to Run' as he had shaved off his beard. Nice ride. Hmmm, do you suppose that's the house in Long Branch? Does anyone know?
Happy Friday!
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Posted by: robe | August 26, 2009 at 10:27 AM