info
Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Bob Dylan photo on the cover of the final issue of The Village Voice (1955-2017)
87 views
Skip to first unread message
khematite
Sep 21, 2017, 2:21:47 PM9/21/17
to
Why The Village Voice Was Crazy To Put Bob Dylan On Its Last Cover
Seth Rogovoy September 20, 2017
Had I been eating soup when I saw the cover of this week’s farewell issue of the Village Voice, I would have spit up.
There, on the cover, is a full-page photograph of Bob Dylan, circa 1965, taken in Greenwich Village, saluting the camera in a manner which, one supposes, could be viewed as a goodbye gesture. I get that.
And Bob Dylan did, indeed, emerge out of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s, calling the Village home for the first half of the decade and then again in the first half of the 1970s. The same Village that gave the Village Voice its name. So I get that, too.
And throughout those many years, the Voice reported on, reviewed, and analyzed every move Dylan made — as did every counterculture media outlet as well as the mainstream press. How, otherwise, could Dylan have come up with the immortal opening couplet of the song, “Idiot Wind,” which went, “Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press.”
And as a loyal reader of the Village Voice for many of those years, and as a huge fan of Bob Dylan back then, some of that coverage is so firmly embedded in my mind that I remember it more clearly than what I read in yesterday’s New York Times.
Take, for example, the time the Voice sent not one but four separate critics to review Dylan’s four-hour epic film, “Renaldo and Clara,” in 1978, all four of whom trashed the movie so badly that it was withdrawn from theaters in a matter of just a few weeks. One of the reviewers wrote, “I wish Bob Dylan died.”
Or, when reviewing the album “Infidels” in 1983, the Voice cast Dylan as “the William F. Buckley of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” presumably because they totally misunderstood the song “Union Sundown” as an anti-labor screed rather than as a warning against global capitalism run amok. Or maybe it was the song “Neighborhood Bully” to which they objected — a thinly veiled indictment of anti-Semitism going back to “Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon” up until the present, when, speaking of Israel, Dylan sang, “There’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back / And a license to kill him given out to every maniac.”
It was apparently all too much for the Village Voice when the Voice of a Generation ceased, in their view, to tread the party line.
I have fond memories of reading the Village Voice in its heyday, of smuggling it into my suburban high school like some piece of samizdat literature.
Those fond memories do not include the Voice’s coverage of Bob Dylan.
Which is why I would have spit out my soup had I been eating it when I saw they had decided to say farewell with an image of Bob Dylan.
But then again, I don’t eat soup.
Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward and the author of “Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet” (Scribner, 2009).
Seth Rogovoy September 20, 2017
Had I been eating soup when I saw the cover of this week’s farewell issue of the Village Voice, I would have spit up.
There, on the cover, is a full-page photograph of Bob Dylan, circa 1965, taken in Greenwich Village, saluting the camera in a manner which, one supposes, could be viewed as a goodbye gesture. I get that.
And Bob Dylan did, indeed, emerge out of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s, calling the Village home for the first half of the decade and then again in the first half of the 1970s. The same Village that gave the Village Voice its name. So I get that, too.
And throughout those many years, the Voice reported on, reviewed, and analyzed every move Dylan made — as did every counterculture media outlet as well as the mainstream press. How, otherwise, could Dylan have come up with the immortal opening couplet of the song, “Idiot Wind,” which went, “Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press.”
And as a loyal reader of the Village Voice for many of those years, and as a huge fan of Bob Dylan back then, some of that coverage is so firmly embedded in my mind that I remember it more clearly than what I read in yesterday’s New York Times.
Take, for example, the time the Voice sent not one but four separate critics to review Dylan’s four-hour epic film, “Renaldo and Clara,” in 1978, all four of whom trashed the movie so badly that it was withdrawn from theaters in a matter of just a few weeks. One of the reviewers wrote, “I wish Bob Dylan died.”
Or, when reviewing the album “Infidels” in 1983, the Voice cast Dylan as “the William F. Buckley of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” presumably because they totally misunderstood the song “Union Sundown” as an anti-labor screed rather than as a warning against global capitalism run amok. Or maybe it was the song “Neighborhood Bully” to which they objected — a thinly veiled indictment of anti-Semitism going back to “Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon” up until the present, when, speaking of Israel, Dylan sang, “There’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back / And a license to kill him given out to every maniac.”
It was apparently all too much for the Village Voice when the Voice of a Generation ceased, in their view, to tread the party line.
I have fond memories of reading the Village Voice in its heyday, of smuggling it into my suburban high school like some piece of samizdat literature.
Those fond memories do not include the Voice’s coverage of Bob Dylan.
Which is why I would have spit out my soup had I been eating it when I saw they had decided to say farewell with an image of Bob Dylan.
But then again, I don’t eat soup.
Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward and the author of “Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet” (Scribner, 2009).
Janice
Sep 21, 2017, 3:14:52 PM9/21/17
to
I understand Rolling Stone magazine is also up for sale. Jann Wenner and his son are looking for a new owner/publisher.
Eras are ending.
~`~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DianeE
Sep 22, 2017, 10:25:59 AM9/22/17
to
I actually *read* that issue of VV, and what Ragovoy fails to mention is
that the photo was taken by Richard Avedon and the context was an article
about an exhibit of Avedon's photos, not an article about Bob Dylan.
that the photo was taken by Richard Avedon and the context was an article
about an exhibit of Avedon's photos, not an article about Bob Dylan.
khematite
Sep 22, 2017, 12:40:17 PM9/22/17
to
http://forward.com/culture/music/383341/why-the-village-voice-was-crazy-to-put-bob-dylan-on-its-last-cover/
https://www.photos.com/photo/83557127/dylan-salutes-in-sheridan-square-park
marcus
Sep 22, 2017, 1:02:04 PM9/22/17
to
I guess I've been out of the loop. I didn't know the Village Voice was ending. How sad.
I started reading it around 1967 and continued to do so for the next 6-7 yrs, until I moved away from the NYC area Back in the late 60s/early 70s, the Village Voice was the print equivalent of listening to WBAI back. Here's what I said about it in my book, "Until The Birds Chirp: Reflections On The Sixties":
"In late October 1967, we were with Grandma and Grandpa in their small apartment. I was 17 years old and grew bored with old people talk. Therefore, I went for a walk around the block on Broadway. My goal was to find a newsstand and buy a paper that I had heard about, but never read... the Village Voice.
The week before my trip to New York, an antiwar march occurred at the Pentagon in which demonstrators led by activist, Abbie Hoffman, and poet, Allan Ginsberg, tried to exorcise the building of its militaristic demons. The group attempted to levitate it. Based on my limited knowledge of the Village Voice, I thought there might be several articles about that event, perhaps by one of the newspaper’s founders, Norman Mailer(the following year,I read his book, “Armies Of The Night” about the Pentagon march). I discovered a newsstand not far from my grandparents’ hotel. It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
I started reading it around 1967 and continued to do so for the next 6-7 yrs, until I moved away from the NYC area Back in the late 60s/early 70s, the Village Voice was the print equivalent of listening to WBAI back. Here's what I said about it in my book, "Until The Birds Chirp: Reflections On The Sixties":
"In late October 1967, we were with Grandma and Grandpa in their small apartment. I was 17 years old and grew bored with old people talk. Therefore, I went for a walk around the block on Broadway. My goal was to find a newsstand and buy a paper that I had heard about, but never read... the Village Voice.
The week before my trip to New York, an antiwar march occurred at the Pentagon in which demonstrators led by activist, Abbie Hoffman, and poet, Allan Ginsberg, tried to exorcise the building of its militaristic demons. The group attempted to levitate it. Based on my limited knowledge of the Village Voice, I thought there might be several articles about that event, perhaps by one of the newspaper’s founders, Norman Mailer(the following year,I read his book, “Armies Of The Night” about the Pentagon march). I discovered a newsstand not far from my grandparents’ hotel. It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
khematite
Sep 22, 2017, 1:46:25 PM9/22/17
to
On Friday, 22 September 2017 13:02:04 UTC-4, marcus wrote:
>
>It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
Unless you happened to stumble upon an unusually generous newsstand proprietor, I think your memory that the Village Voice was free in 1967 is incorrect. It did not become free until 1996. I, too, was reading it in 1967 and seem to recall a cover price more like 25 cents.
>
>It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
Willie
Sep 22, 2017, 1:53:36 PM9/22/17
to
https://www.cjr.org/criticism/village-voice-final-issue.php
Somehow I had it in my head the the Voice had stopped several years ago. The one year I lived in NYC (1983-4), it was invaluable.
khematite
Sep 22, 2017, 2:25:15 PM9/22/17
to
On Friday, 22 September 2017 13:53:36 UTC-4, Willie wrote:
> On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 1:46:25 PM UTC-4, khematite wrote:
> > On Friday, 22 September 2017 13:02:04 UTC-4, marcus wrote:
> > >
> > >It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
> >
> >
> > Unless you happened to stumble upon an unusually generous newsstand proprietor, I think your memory that the Village Voice was free in 1967 is incorrect. It did not become free until 1996. I, too, was reading it in 1967 and seem to recall a cover price more like 25 cents.
>
> Was the first issue free? Scroll down here and view its front page:
>
> https://www.cjr.org/criticism/village-voice-final-issue.php
If you mean the cover with the word Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sprawled across it in an upward diagonal, that's from April 1996 and is indeed the first free issue--but not the first issue. That first issue cost a nickel in 1955.
> On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 1:46:25 PM UTC-4, khematite wrote:
> > On Friday, 22 September 2017 13:02:04 UTC-4, marcus wrote:
> > >
> > >It didn’t take me long to find the current edition of the alternative weekly...and best of all, it was free. I spent the majority of the two hour ride back to Danbury with my head buried in its pages."
> >
> >
> > Unless you happened to stumble upon an unusually generous newsstand proprietor, I think your memory that the Village Voice was free in 1967 is incorrect. It did not become free until 1996. I, too, was reading it in 1967 and seem to recall a cover price more like 25 cents.
>
> Was the first issue free? Scroll down here and view its front page:
>
> https://www.cjr.org/criticism/village-voice-final-issue.php
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/village-voice-media-inc-history/
"In 1959, just after weekly circulation broke the 10,000 mark, the Voice's offices moved from their original loft location to the corner of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue. The paper was now winning awards from the New York Press Association, and was becoming nationally known as a voice of alternative culture. By this time the newsstand price had doubled, to ten cents an issue."
marcus
Sep 22, 2017, 2:33:35 PM9/22/17
to
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 1:46:25 PM UTC-4, khematite wrote:
DianeE
Sep 22, 2017, 11:35:19 PM9/22/17
to
"khematite" <khem...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9336d164-2c7f-44c0...@googlegroups.com...
Ah, no, we're not talking about the same photo. I meant this one:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGy-DghXoAATokv.jpg
The demise of the printed Voice had actually been announced a few days
before that August issue came out. I thought it *was* the last one. I did
not realize it would stagger along for another month. Thanks for the
correction.
DianeE
President_dudley
Sep 27, 2017, 12:14:34 AM9/27/17
to
funny how fog, amphetamine, and or pearls does that to ya.
strangely, back in august the missus and i were down in the city on personal business and also to visit the 8 miles of shelves Strand bookstore (we both knew the villages of our youth are now the NYU campus, but it's hard seeing the reality).
in any event and not knowing the imminent demise i picked up the now free (if it hasn't been pointed out, it was the 90s and the New York Press that drove VV to "Free") paper and looked through it on the Metro North ride home.
like most print media, the dimensions of the paper, height width and depth (in both senses) is vastly reduced from elden times and heydays.
which mediawise is part of the message.
i wonder, but not enough to care, if VillageVoice.com is worth a look.
hey errrbody, tomorrow's gonna be another day,
rdd
Will Dockery
Sep 27, 2017, 1:46:19 AM9/27/17
to
An all time classic shot of the legendary Dylan, of course they wanted to bask in some of that glory.
0 new messages