"judas!"

"this land is your land & this land is my land--sure--but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway--"

B.D.


i am miserably tired, but that does not mean i'll be slacking off on bob week. it's already half way through, and i'm at the top of my game. i do have shit load of stuff to do, but i always have shit load of stuff to do, so i don't care much.

i wanted to post here the infamous "judas" incident, but stupid stupid sony blocked all the precious dylan videos on youtube, and i spent quite some time trying to dig it up elsewhere, but no luck--it's gone. so instead, i thought i may talk about something else, but i didn't really wanna do that either. so i decided to do both--talk and not talk about it.

any dylan fan (or anyone remotely interested in the man) knows what the controversy is about. right as dylan and the band are going through instruments and such on the stage, some heated fan breaks his chains and cries (very passionately too) "Judas!" in a moment of rage. The whole crowd goes bananas, and they begin cheering and screaming. Dylan, who is practically an expert at ignoring unsatisfied fans, even screwing around with them ("It's a folk song") startles. He takes a few second, and strolls towards the mic. "I don't believe you," he snarls, "you're a liar."

now when you tell the story it doesn't sound all that impressive, but when you actually see the moment, it kinda gives you the chill. for a couple of reasons--first and foremost being the fact that it pushed dylan to respond. now people have been doing all kinda crazy things to get the attention of that man, he is usually pretty good at acting as if they don't exist (naturally, in his way of thinking, i honestly think he exists compeletely alone). especially at the height of his game, at the height of his tongue more like it--when he goes slashing and burning through poor the times reporters, you can see it hits a nerve. he pauses for a full second there.

second it's creepy--the way the crazy fella finds that very second of absolute silence to spit out his word--the way dylan just stands there, almost stranded, under attack. it makes one feel weird.

third it's a powerful way of putting it. everyone's been bitching about dylan till then but no one had put it down that poetically. "Judas" summarizes all those resentments towards him in a flashy kind of way.

why i'm talking about this--well, that's my final argument for the importance of the moment. it was my first official introduction to the man. me and my friend had watched todd haynes' i'm not there , and she--after declaring to me that "that actually happened" began digging up through dvds and finally found the one she was looking for. it was well into the night, and we both sat by the tv, in her living room, close to the screen and she found the right scene. then in the darness of the night i watched the man-kid turn around, and the first spoken words i herad from his mouth that weren't a song were those he spoke as a reponse to that fiery cry of "Judas!" I knew then something was up with him. I still do.

well hence the start of our one sided fellowship--and i thought what better occasion than bob-week to talk about it--it being both personal and historical (it is one of the greatest shows in history, do check it out, bob fan or not, it is a 1966 show called (falsely) Royal Albert Hall Concert)--but since i can't find the damn video i'll post you another precious dylan performance--this being much earlier than judas! and much more innocent and sweet--

enjoy!

ps: something just went wrong. i will be posting the vid later. love ya.