Motorcycle accident -- a scam?
Jeff Makey
direct access to the net. I will relay any responses to her.
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In the 1 September 1989 issue of the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster,
PA, under the headline
"Dylan's '66 Accident Faked Says New Book"
it says,
Bob Dylan fans may be surprised to learn that the folk god's
near-fatal motorcycle accident back in 1966 was really the concoction
of his then-manager, Albert Grossman -- or so reports a new book on
the music industry.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Marc Eliot, author of
"Rockonomics," said that after Grossman made Dylan a millionaire, he
set his sights on a new record deal with MGM, which wanted to pay
handsomely for the privilege of turning Dylan into the "next Hank
Williams, a singing-cowboy movie star."
But MGM wanted to audition Dylan first, believing correctly that he
had become a heroin addict. Stalling for time, Grossman concocted the
now-infamous story of Dylan's motorcycle accident, in which he
purportedly suffered a broken neck while tooling around Woodstock, New
York. This coincided with a two-year period in which no new Dylan
albums were released. Meanwhile, Grossman hired guards to keep Dylan
locked in his home while he detoxed.
Though he -- and Grossman -- profited from the outcome, Dylan never
forgave his manager and onetime confidant for abusing his trust and
turning him into a pawn and a prisoner. Once freed of his contract to
Grossman in 1975, Dylan his best album in years, "Blood on the
Tracks."
I personally have always found the motorcycle accident a little fishy.
However, I don't recall anyone ever specifically saying it was a hoax.
This explanation for the period between "Blonde on Blonde" and "John
Wesley Harding" is as good as any. Has anyone heard any other
explanations?
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:: Jeff Makey
Department of Tautological Pleonasms and Superfluous Redundancies Department
Disclaimer: Logicon doesn't even know we're running news.
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David Chalmers
> "Dylan's '66 Accident Faked Says New Book"
>I personally have always found the motorcycle accident a little fishy.
>However, I don't recall anyone ever specifically saying it was a hoax.
>This explanation for the period between "Blonde on Blonde" and "John
>Wesley Harding" is as good as any. Has anyone heard any other
>explanations?
Well, I think the conventional wisdom on the accident is that it happened,
but it wasn't as serious as they made it out to be. Dylan used the time
to relax at his home in Woodstock, after a few intense years which had
threatened to burn him out. A lot of people have claimed that it was
all a hoax - these rumours started circulating in the first few weeks
after the "accident." Most recently, Bob Spitz made a big deal about
it in his biography. There was an article by John Bauldie (one of
*the* experts on Dylan) in the Telegraph a few years ago which dealt with
the whole thing in death, but I can't remember how it went.
My rough guess is that he spent a few weeks, or maybe months, recovering,
and then gradually got drawn into home-life with Sara. This was no doubt
more and more attractive to him...witness the growing domesticity from
_John Wesley Harding_ to _New Morning_. He had plenty of his mates around,
with The Band living near Woodstock also, along many other big figures in
rock. Of course, he got together with the Band along the way to produce
trhe rollicking "Basement Tapes", which don't sound exactly like an invalid,
but perhaps like someone who had recovered.
There were any number of stories about the accident: that he was laying low
until his contract expired, that he needed some time to replenish his
creative imagination... There does seem to be some kind of consensus
that the accident may have *saved* Dylan's life, by taking him off the
crash-and-burn path which he appeared to be irrevocably headed along.
About Grossman: well, according to Shelton, Grossman was very annoyed by
the accident - it seemed to mean no concerts, no money from albums, and
so on. Dylan gradually began to break with Grossman around this time,
and by the early 70's Grossman was pretty well phased out.
All this is far from definitive (just from hazy memory). If anyone has
more details, post!
--
Dave Chalmers (da...@cogsci.indiana.edu)
Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University.
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must make it all up."
Jim Hori
>However, I don't recall anyone ever specifically saying it was a hoax.
I know Sara Dylan through a very good friend and see her socially. I asked
my friend Pat about the accident after seeing this article. According to
Pat, she and Sara have discussed the accident many times - Sara in fact
saw the accident happen (Pat forgets whether Sara was
following behind Bob or whether he had just started down
the road) and vividly remembers a white light coming down
in front of Bob as the accident occurred.
So Sara's memories of the accident are still fresh, and yes it
did happen.
....
jimh
Richard Shapiro
Intelligencer Journal, which is quoting from an interview with Marc
Eliot in the Chicago Tribune -- got that?]
> ...after Grossman made Dylan a millionaire, he
> set his sights on a new record deal with MGM, which wanted to pay
> handsomely for the privilege of turning Dylan into the "next Hank
> Williams, a singing-cowboy movie star."
What in the world is that last sentence supposed to mean? Hank
Williams was one of the greatest talents in American music this
century. He was never an Elvis-style movie star, cowboy or otherwise.
In fact he was never "a singing cowboy". He sang/played/wrote country
and gospel music, almost exclusively. He was a major influence on the
young Bob Dylan, and the single most significant performer in post-war
country music.
Richard Shapiro
>the road) and vividly remembers a white light coming down
>in front of Bob as the accident occurred.
Are we talking "wrath of God" here, or ufo's or what?
>So Sara's memories of the accident are still fresh
I'm not sure "fresh" is the word I would use in this case...
A white light? Coming down in front of Bob? Maybe it was just Lou Reed
being metaphorical.
Richard Shapiro
>Does anyone else remember the discussion about his voice changing???
>They say there is an actual difference between before and after
>albums!
>
>(my husband thinks I am dreaming this!)
Oh yeah, the voice change between _Blonde on Blonde_ and the next new
album _John Wesley Harding_ is pretty dramatic. It was a hot topic of
the time. But I don't think this had anything to do with the accident.
The voice on the next album after that, _Nashville Skyline_, was even
more different (grotesque, if you ask me, but that's another story).
And as we found out subsequently, _The Basement Tapes_ shows yet
another quite different voice. On the early records, Dylan grew
increasingly idiosynchratic (and increasingly impressive) as a singer,
but it was more a matter of changed inflections than anything else.
The later changes altered the overall timbral quality of the voice.
Even in retrospect, it seems a little strange that "Visions of
Johanna", "Tears of Rage", "Drifter's Escape", and "Lay Lady Lay" were
sung by the same person. I can't think of any other major rock
singers who've altered the "grain" of their voice as much or as often
as BD did.
John Howells
<
<
<it says,
<
< "Rockonomics," said that after Grossman made Dylan a millionaire, he
< set his sights on a new record deal with MGM, which wanted to pay
< handsomely for the privilege of turning Dylan into the "next Hank
< Williams, a singing-cowboy movie star."
<
I don't know about the "next Hank Williams" part (Richard Shapiro has
already pointed out the absurdity of this claim), but it is a known
fact that MGM wanted desperately to sign Dylan in order to save their
record label from ruin.
< But MGM wanted to audition Dylan first, believing correctly that he
< had become a heroin addict. Stalling for time, Grossman concocted the
< now-infamous story of Dylan's motorcycle accident, in which he
< purportedly suffered a broken neck while tooling around Woodstock, New
< York. This coincided with a two-year period in which no new Dylan
< albums were released. Meanwhile, Grossman hired guards to keep Dylan
< locked in his home while he detoxed.
<
I doubt very much that MGM needed to audition the most famous rock
singer in the world at that time. Dylan could have put out an album that
consisted of 45 minutes of shooting up and MGM would have thrilled to
release it. At that time (1967) MGM was in serious financial straits
and needed a popular artist to put them in the black. Their only
money-making band, The Animals, just wasn't enough to cut it for them.
< Though he -- and Grossman -- profited from the outcome, Dylan never
< forgave his manager and onetime confidant for abusing his trust and
< turning him into a pawn and a prisoner. Once freed of his contract to
< Grossman in 1975, Dylan his best album in years, "Blood on the
< Tracks."
<
Actually I think Dylan was free from Grossman long before that, in 1971
I believe.
<I personally have always found the motorcycle accident a little fishy.
<However, I don't recall anyone ever specifically saying it was a hoax.
<This explanation for the period between "Blonde on Blonde" and "John
<Wesley Harding" is as good as any. Has anyone heard any other
<explanations?
<
I think that Dylan needed a rest from his hectic touring schedule and
the accident gave him just the excuse he needed to take the time off.
If you believe, as I do, that he had a serious heroin addiction problem,
then it makes sense that he would use the accident as an opportunity to
clean up without having to make a public spectacle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Linda J. Szkoropad
I remember alot of DJs commenting on his VOICE after the
accident....alot of them said his nasal quality had changed, and had
actually sounded better.
If he was on a heroin addict--did he snort it or what????!!!! (just
a joke)
Does anyone else remember the discussion about his voice changing???
They say there is an actual difference between before and after
albums!
(my husband thinks I am dreaming this!)
linda szkoropad