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NJ Police Question Bob Dylan
"Like a complete unknown," indeed. On the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, Bob Dylan just wanted to go for a stroll in Long Branch, New Jersey to kill time between concerts when someone called the cops about a "scruffy old man acting suspiciously." Unfortunately, the wrong cop arrived at the scene; Kristie Buble, a 24-year-old who was sure Dylan was not the legendary singer-songwriter she had seen in photos. "I asked him what his name was and he said, 'Bob Dylan,' Buble said. "Now, I've seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn't look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head." Buble followed her training and humored Dylan, who she thought was maybe an escapee from a hospital. "So I said, 'OK Bob, what are you doing in Long Branch?' He said he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. So now I'm really a little fishy about his story." She drove him back to his hotel to confirm his identity, and was shocked when a staffer showed her Dylan's passport.
squiggy
These guys are going to rule the world? LOL They gave her a gun though! LOL
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n--Y--charles116EdmondDantes
I personally can't stand Dylan's stuff, so what the heck. Make him feel like a regular mensch. Why should he -- or anybody else for that matter -- get preferential treatment? The background narrative to this 'story' is that such a famous guy should have been cut more slack than the regular Joe/Jane. What a stupid premise for a story. And the 22-year-old cop should receive a commendation.
GeorgeB
Not a question of privilege, merely identity. He apparently was doing nothing that would warrant an arrest, so his status as a (former) pop-God serves only to neatly underscore the fleetness of fame. btw, is it still impossible to get a new stylus for a Grace F9E?
EdmondDantes
Whatever "acting suspiciously" means. It's what cops pull out of their arses to justify some patting down and intimidation.
Trilby16
I think you have really missed the point, which is that Dylan did NOT expect special treatment. He co-operated thoroughly and politely, and did not expect special treatment or throw a hissy-fit as most famous people today would do. He is a class act. Too bad you don't like his stuff. Many millions do.
pricklypear
Trilby16, good point.
mickeyhooligan
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row
MariosRight
Damn! Times sure are achanging.
bedstuypunk
nice one!
mike22
Hmmm, I don't like the celebrity worshiping tone of this. So what if a cop doesn't recognize a famous person?! That is what we should hope that cops do - treat famous people just like they were ordinary people. Good for this police woman!
It's just weird that the article implies that she did the wrong thing. It shows how screwed up we are as culture.
By the way, I'm a huge Dylan fan.
And, by the way, who the heck still has vinyl records or finds it funny that someone has no way to play them? Is that some NJ problem?
And, by the way, the question "who is Bob Dylan" is a mystery that even Bob Dylan doesn't have the answer to, so I'd say the joke is on the cops, not on the police woman... her "ignorance" is actually wisdom. Who, indeed, is Bob Dylan? Bob would approve I'm sure. He must have been amused.
This article is weird on so many levels.
North49
Well, Mike22, I've got some old vinyl records lying around with no way to play them. Let's not get this tribe calling for President Obama to solve that problem like he is solving the health care "problem".
mike22
Not sure which tribe you think I'm in, so I'll tell you that the same guy (me) who disdains the celebrity culture assumption of this article is a dedicated anti-fascist and anti-Republican and a committed "social democrat" (that's "socialist" to you) hoping and praying to my Lord in Heaven that Obama will create a single payer national health insurance system. So that's my tribe.
pricklypear
Be careful what you pray for.
reardongalt
"By the way, I'm a huge Dylan fan"
You may be a fan (although I doubt it), but you certainly don't get this story.
mike22
Mr. Bob Dylan is at the top of my list... best song writer, best vocalist, most important musician whom I've never met personally... etc. There's no poet or singer who I admire more, although for pure love I must put in a word for Gillian Welch.
Because I follow Dylan I'm damn sure I know about his ambivalent feelings about being a celebrity named Bob Dylan. In this case, he'd probably rather not have been bothered (who would want to be?), but given his widely reported feelings of ambivalence about the character he has created named Bob Dylan, I am sure he must have found the situation to be at least mildly amusing.
And so, yes, I don't get the story, and the reason I don't get it is that the people who wrote it and participated in it obviously have no sense of irony, no familiarity with their subject, and can only conceive of a world in which celebrity's should receive privileged treatment just for being who they are... which surely you must admit is a sick idea?
mike22
By which I mean "celebrities", not "celebrity's", with apologies to the God of Apostrophes.
arethabaez
Lighten up, this is a trivial pursuit type joke and generational humor. I was surprised when the cop reported Bob respondedly "very nicely". Maybe Dylan will find a song in the incident. He wrote "When My Ship Comes In" after a hotel clerk refused to register his scruffy, unknown self until Superstar Joan Baez entered the lobby afterwards. Then the scene changed to : "Oh Miss Baez, so sorry. We didn't know HE was with YOU".
jst4horses
I have read the Constitution many times in life, especially in Constitutional Law classes, and I have never found that being out of fashion is a crime.
I live by Cal Tech, we have some strange old scientists, in their rumpled clothing, both men and women, and fashion plates. One of the rumpled ones who used to wander our streets was Einstein.
People should leave others alone, and let the police get along with their job.
leftyCPA
I suppose it is weird that the cop didn't know who Dylan is, but I find that confronting a "scruffy old man" for acting "suspiciously" to be outrageous. Let's see, at this rate, COPS can confront and bust anyone for apparently being old, for being black, for being brown, or for any thing else that ignorant and power mad cops want to call a crime. Welcome to America.
roninkannushi
Fellow Beasts,
Someone said, those that forget history, are doomed to repeat it.
What history did the policewoman have? Far less, than Bob Dylan, no doubt. She is just as important as he is. Generations pass life, not their own reality. The fall about lack wisdom. Wisdom is better than wise.
She grew up in her own time(s). A heartwarming story with comical consequences, and childish ribbing. Leave her alone, you guys are showing your fears. The few that know, understand.
"...and the times, they are a changing." -Bob Dylan.
Best wishes,
Ronin Kannushi.
hibiscuscottage
Naturally, she would have known who Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan are....Would she know who Mick Jagger is? Who or what would she recognize? I was not alive when Buddy Holly was, but I know who he was. Would she know who Johnny Carson was or who David Letterman is? No wonder Jay Leno has so much fun with people that are practically socially illiterate.
keemia
While all the attention is being paid to the fact that a young cop didn't recognize a celebrity, the main question should be, why was he arrested to begin with? He's a scruffy looking older man walking in the streets and ... what part of that is against the law? What if he wasn't Bob Dylan? Would they jail the guy? Another case of "disorderly conduct"?
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n--Y--cvillekidChicago48
This is hilarious. Sounds like a Skip Gates type of arrest.
crymeariver
To be honest, I had no idea who Bob Dylan was either until 6 months ago. I have HEARD the name before but thought it was some dead 60's rocker. I still don't understand what makes him special, but I get that he is special to people of a particular age.
Truth is that 50% of the current U.S. population wasn't alive when Bob Dylan was at the top of his game. Most of us have seen or heard about the Beatles growing up in pop culture but not Bob Dylan. So I consider the cop to be a normal, mainstream person who should NOT have know Mr. Dylan.
North49
crymeariver, I believe Bob Dylan is an American musician. You'd have to be American to appreciate that. You are probably another "Harvard scholar",no?
crymeariver
100% American and I still didn't know who he was. I bet you the cop is also 100% American. I bet $100 that 90% of my high school graduating class doesn't know who Bob Dylan is either. He really is a generational star-I know it's hard for you guys to believe it.
socialworklady
@crymeariver:
Well, young 'un -- you should know how to use teh Google machine :)
Utaneus
@crymeataint
If you don't know Bob Dylan or his body of work then you are terribly deprived of American culture.
jst4horses
I think Dylan was a person who actually did not go out of his way to be a celebrity. He just said what people had on their minds and got famous. It is a pity that we do not teach our own history. From my graduating class, over 700 people are missing, their last known address the US Military. The draft. No one remembers that by 1967 young men had one thing to look forward to, the draft. Graduate June, be in college, or be in boot camp by fall.
No one remembers that the drugs came back from the war. They had started trickling in from Korea, but Vietnam sent the drugs and the fear and depression to use them spiraling.
No one remembers that everyone used to play in bands, and at the park and the beach. But by 1967 the bands were more focused on anti-draft and what the hell is going on.
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin said we are the people our parents taught us to hate. Dylan was one of the hundreds of voices that were saying let us stay alive.
Too bad no one remembers that women figured it out, I did for sure, by tenth grade, that getting married, going to college with fun guys and learning about life before having children was not going to be our reality. The guys were drafted, or so intense on not failing school because they would get drafted it was a nightmare.
Doctors soon realized they had made a big mistake, they graduated, THEY got drafted.
Dylan.
An icon of an age American needs to remember in reality, but you know, it is hard, if not impossible to find even one copy of the real under ground newspapers and magazines, That is really strange for a country that has Betsy Ross's great aunt's recipe for soap somewhere published in a little hand written magazine (just joking, but Americans keep everything that is written, unless it upsets the status quo).
larryblair
He is still at the top of his game...number 1 album THIS YEAR!!
This is like not knowing who Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix or even Michael Jackson...sad state of affairs!
crymeariver
Most of the WORLD (regardless of age and race) knows who Michael Jackson is thanks to MTV.
I don't know who Janis Joplin is--sorry, is that folk music? I have heard of Jimi Hendrix via re-mixes of his songs.
squiggy
Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Bowie (Ziggy), lots of artists who defined rock and didn't sound the same!
Utaneus
I hope you're a troll cry
jst4horses
Well, they took music out of the curriculum long ago.
Most of my students can't read or write, let alone know Bach, Beetovah, Brahms, or any of the Native American greats who in fact stood up for THEIR country.
But whatever, with mindless idiots, it is much easier to push them around.
crymeariver
P.S. Yes I did go to an Ivy but apart from trying to insult me you didn't say what is unique or special about Bob Dylan. Here is your opportunity to stick it to the younger generation, you have the floor. Talk.
squiggy
That's the point, before MTV there was just music, you had to listen, learn the difference in sounds, no pics, maybe on occasion, but it was the music, the words, not the show! Music spoke to you, not entertained you!
Ritarita
Bob Dylan
Was the first
Poet/Songwriter to take
Song lyrics to another level.
He used music as a foil for his poetry
And painted dreamscapes with words
Much like Fellini did with film
And Salvatore Dali did with art.
Before Dylan song lyrics usually
Described love or the loss of it.
Here's a slice of 'All Along the Watchtower'
Put it in your ipod and check it out.
Dylan has a mean raspy voice
But the original is still the greatest.
There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.
No reason to get excited, the thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.
All along the watchtower, Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
I don't remember
Dylan's early career
But I have always known
Who he was and his larger than life mystique.
Has the young cop ever heard of
Issac Newton? William Shakespeare?
Vincent Van Gogh?
Seems like Dylan is just the very tip
Of the iceberg.
dalegov
No one is trying to "stick it" to anyone. Where is all the hostility coming from? It's just a matter of knowledge and culture. If someone comes along that is truly of some significance to our culture today, I will take note of it. Rolling Stone certainly will, and that mag was invented by my generation.
"Can't we all just get alone"...ha ha
Chicago48
Dylan is one of the worst singers to walk the earth, but he writes the BEST songs. I just wish he wouldn't sing them.
jst4horses
Come Senators and Congressmen,
Please heed the call,
Don't stand in the doorway,
Don't block up the HALL
Times they are a'changin.
The universal Soldier, he really is to blame, he comes from here and there and you and me and brothers can't you see this is not the way to put an end to war.
Buffy ste Marie, and Baez, and Dylan singing around a coffee club from time to time.
I think Buffy Ste Marie actually wrote it, but it was a standard.
I don't want a nickel, I just want to ride on my motorcycle
I don't want to die, I just want to ride on my motor cy............................cle
Was that Guthry?
Sometimes I feel lonely and sometimes I feel afraid
Hold me babe and heal me (?)
and say you'll never go,
something and that highway in the wind.
Guthry or Dylan..............can't remember
Mad cow.:)
keepakeeper43
Why, cryme,
You're just a pup!
Trilby16
Note: Dylan is still very much at the top of his game. To people who have not heard of him-- that is your loss. You should educate yourselves.
wordmarshal
Did anybody notice that the policemen the Daily Mail reporter quoted talk like Brits? "I'm afraid we all fell about laughing," one supposedly said. "The poor woman has taken rather a lot of abuse from us." Has anyone else reported this story? What was the policewoman's name?
sophia5
Is there more to this story ?
Why is it shocking that a 22 year old never
heard of Bob Dylan ?
The last time Dylan got "current" (radio play),
his music was on 8-tracks.
larryblair
he had a number 1 album THIS YEAR! 2009!! Seriously?
sophia5
Wow ! Stand corrected. It's been about 40 years.
It's nice to see an actual musician get props, rather than
the A.D.D. lip sync culture of Britney and Miley.
crymeariver
Name ONE song on that album that was #1 on billboard. Maybe that would help.
squiggy
That's the other kicker cry, there would be one song to hit the radio but every song on an album back then was good!
Chicago48
He won a Grammy about 3 years ago, and has still charted high on Bilboard. He tours all the time. I fear for Dylan. I think he's going to die young.
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n--Y--charles116squiggy
no doubt!
jst4horses
He can't. He is older than I am, I met him and he was older than I was, and even if I die today, it will not be young.
jst4horses
I feel it is shocking because we only apparently teach mindless crap to our children and like it or not, the draft and a war that never was a war that killed thousand and harmed hundreds of thousands of others with the drugs that came home from that horror is our history
Just because we do not like it, does not mean we should not make sure our children do not know it.
But then, they might have brains enough to question...................anything and everything, which I think Jefferson, and Franklin and others warned us we better do, or America, like all visions for a great government would fall to the greedy and corrupt.
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n--Y--misterdonflyoverland
Why the reference to Woodstock? Bob Dylan did not play at Woodstock. The rumor was he was offered big dough, but negotiations broke down. A week later out here in flyoverland, I was at a concert for The Band from Big Pink (later, The Band). They played a few songs and then said, "we'd now like to bring out a good friend of ours" And, of course, everyone is thinking its one of their cousins trying to get a break. It was Bob Dylan who played all night (for free). There were many great nights at the old Mississippi River Festival. One night, Chuck Berry refused to stop playing and they had to shut the power off to the stage to get him to stop. I also personally saw Jerry Garcia count $50k in cash out of a suitcase (they demanded to be paid in cash). One night, I was working backstage as a volunteer and ELP was trying to get to their limo parked out behind the stage. There was a mob of girls waiting. They asked several of us to run interference to the car with them holding onto the backs of our shirts. We get to the car and the driver had locked the keys in. I yelled for a coat hanger and one of them says, "what the hell do you want a coat hanger for?" I showed him how we unlocked cars back then as the girls tore their clothes off.
socialworklady
Well, sheesh
Now, you don't sound
Like such a bad guy, Fly
flyoverland
Some day I will tell you about the time I ran for office as a Dem.
socialworklady
Heh!
Okay ;-)
squiggy
Way cool fly! Way cool!
jst4horses
Yes, way cool and our children should know about how way cool we actually were before we put on our grandma and grandpa suits.
I actually wear jeans and tee shirts and tennis shoes. Little old lady from Pasadena. I loved it then, and it inspired me. I train bad horses and work with gangs, I think Dylan is a big part of that never grow old person I am, not look old, I do, and I earned every wrinkle and unfortunately, I got fat cancer, but, it beats dead cancer, so Thank God I had a miraculous team and I will just keep going.
Our kids need to know.
MaliciousDisorder
Bobby Vinton had 4 number 1 singles during the 60's. I couldn't find any for Dylan.
smitisan
Who's Bobby Vinton? And when was the last time you were in a Victoria's Secret ad?Cracks me up, though, to think about Dylan trying to explain himself to a cop: "No, nuh, really, I do talk like this."
MaliciousDisorder
That's right, whose Bobby Vinton. The same people in power today and the media are the same people and media that hijacked the 60's era and turned it into the baby boomers hippy fest. Summers of love and stuff. It was in the same order with the made up Kennedy Camelot tag. I experienced it all. There was no better time to be a teenager than in the 60's. We really had freedom then.
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n--Y--charles116smitisan
Hey, MD, I grew up in the sixties too. And, yeah, I admit I knew who Bobby Vinton was, a lounge singer compared to Dylan. And I was free too, just like you, just like all of us, until we got drafted. And there's the difference between a Vinton and a Dylan. One Bobby made the chicks go all swoony, the other actually sang his own songs about real stuff.
MaliciousDisorder
No one said Dylan wasn't a great folk singer whose pride was anti government. He led a movement. I had a couple of his songs on tape while a grunt. He was only a lounge singer on Mondays and Wednesday when he wasn't filling an arenas the rest of the week.
Alisonw
Perhaps Bob said it best in his recent song Thunder Mountain:
I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from crying
When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the line
I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be
I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee
I hate to think that soon most would forget who the Wallflowers are too.
squiggy
My oldest likes them! He even surprised me knowing that was Dylan's son! Gave me hope someone would keep the "knowing" and listening alive!
kscr14
Love Dylan ! The last time I saw him in concert.......He was very strange. Still love him tho.
Chicago48
Dylan should be not allowed to sing and tour. He should turn all his songs over to others to sing.
I'm starting to feel the same about Prince. Great writers, but singers they are not.
MaliciousDisorder
Right on Chicago48, Arnold should also fork over his movies as should Baba, Mr Star Wars, Tom Hanks and the other AAA list
Trilby16
Good thing YOU are not in charge of what should and should not be allowed. Dylan has an amazing voice. It is real. You should not be allowed to post nonsense.
HTuttle
No doubt she couldn't understand a word he was saying.
Thank you.
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