Bob Dylan
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Bob Dylan
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Thu, Oct 13, 2016, 5:55 PM
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I know you all know how big a fan I am. In honor of Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, here is an essay I wrote almost twenty years ago on an African American newsgroup. Several people reprinted it on the Internet. I was actually contacted by a rep at Sony music who asked me if I had time to expand on the essay for the authorized BobDylan.com website. I can't remember why, but I didn't even bother to respond, seems silly in retrospect. Anyway, here is the essay, if you are interested.
African American Culture and
Bob Dylan: Why He Matters
This is an eloquent piece by Robert Chapman, originally
posted on soc.culture.african.american, explaining what
Bob Dylan has to do with African American culture.Originally compiled: August 24, 1997
Last revised: August, 24 1997
From: Robert Chapman (robert.chapman@worldnet.att.
"Where black is the color, none is the number."These are the words of songwriter and musician Bob Dylan, written when he was just twenty-one years old. They are from his haunting and beautiful song A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall, released in 1963.net)
Subject: AA Culture and Bob Dylan: Why He Matters
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997
I have been asked why I wrote at great length about Dylan recently on SCAA-misc. What does this white man have to do with African American culture? For those who are unaware of his contribution to the civil-rights struggle, I wanted to answer the question.
In the early sixties, he was a driving force in rallying much of America to an awareness of the struggle of blacks for equality in our society. The sad truth is that too many whites--then, and now--are not nearly as responsive to a message that emanates from a person of color as they are when they hear it from a white person. And, of course, as a white man he had opportunities to be heard that a black person (in the early sixties) was simply not afforded.
While the great black civil-rights leaders fought on the main front, and other blacks (and whites) quietly and valiantly labored in pursuit of equality, Dylan reached others on a different battleground.
"How many years can some people exist, before they’re allowed to be free?"
This, from his famous anthem, Blowin’ in the Wind. If his answer to the query was uncertain, his questions were not. He pointed a dagger at the heart of Jim Crow America in the early 60’s, and with his unvarnished voice spoke immutable truths.
He was a folk-singer writing during a time when popular song focused on "Moon-June" sentimentality and vacuous ditties. At the time it was unheard of for a young white songwriter to compose the kind of songs that he did, and he knocked down some serious barriers to what was thought possible within the parameters of popular music.
In Only a Pawn in Their Game he wrote of the murder of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers. But instead of focusing on the racist murderer or the victim, he described the nefarious structural edifice behind the symptoms of racism. Showing remarkable maturity for a twenty-three year old white person in America in 1964, he pointed out that unless the underlying socio-political structure changed, you could round up racists for hate crimes all day and nothing would ever really change.
Consider the extraordinary ballad, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. Released in 1964, it is based on the true story of the murder of a black woman. Hattie Carroll, fifty-one years old, was the maid for a rich (white) Baltimore landowner by the name of William Zanzinger. She was the mother of ten children and by all accounts a person of great rectitude. At a society gathering, Zanzinger became drunk and upset when she didn’t bring him a drink quickly enough. In a rage over nothing, he beat her to death with his cane. In the song, Dylan describes the incredible injustice as Zanzinger got off with just a six-month sentence.
You who philosophize, disgrace, and criticize all fears.He stirred a restless and emerging youth culture of the sixties that wanted to work towards a more egalitarian society. Many of the "Freedom Riders" that went down south in the early sixties to register blacks to vote did so to the sound of Bob Dylan’s music, giving them inspiration to deal with their fears. He played at a concert for black voter registration in Greenwood, Mississippi, and participated in many other events on behalf of the civil-rights struggle.He was remarkably prescient in his warning of the turbulence to come if America did not face up to its racial injustice:
Bury the rag deep in your face
Now’s the time for your tears.
Where black is the color, none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountains so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.Bob Dylan
On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 4:02 PM, Jackie Albright <jackie28joy@gmail.com> wrote:
" smoke rings in my mind " I love that image.Blowin'n
On Thursday, October 13, 2016, Robert Chapman <rchap347sum@gmail.com> wrote:Yes, for once I agreed with the New York Times....what took them so long? Here's a favorite lyric of mine from his song, Mr. Tambourine Man:
Hey Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Then take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 1:35 PM, Jackie Albright <jackie28joy@gmail.com> wrote:What a breath of fresh air ..
So glad he won !!
He was such a favorite of mine and we had posters of his lyrics in our Narthex at church for a long time.
Hope all is well with you and MeeYan , love mom
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Thu, Oct 13, 2016, 10:18 PM
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Beautiful Bob thanks for sending. Was really moved when I saw he won the Nobel Prize this morning...
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 6:57 AM
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Bob, once again, thank you for your contributions. And, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this man who certainly shaped our cultural consciousness.
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:04 AM
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Very impressive!
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 10:56 AM
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Thanks Bill appreciate you kind words.
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 11:08 AM
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By the way, I spoke with mom this morning and she said she wasn't sure you were going to be able to hold your nose any longer. Any new thoughts?
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 11:20 AM
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You mean about Trump?
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 11:41 AM
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Thanks Vicki.....the other funny thing is after I saw it was being reprinted on the Internet, I actually found two websites that were selling it (or trying to sell it) for $50. These are websites, I think they call them Term Paper Mills, where college students buy term papers on a subject and then apparently turn them into their classes as their own writing. So the website would show them one paragraph from the essay, and if the student paid the $50, they would send them the whole essay. I thought, wow, I could use Bill's legal services to get them to cease and desist, but again I couldn't be bothered. It just made me laugh. Pretty sad though, when we were kids you actually had to write your own papers.
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 1:04 PM
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Yes. Wondered if you're still voting for him and what your thoughts are on this big mess.
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Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 5:37 PM
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The one good thing is I am in California, where my vote doesn't matter. Not that that's good, but it frees me up to not have to consider voting for someone as vile as Trump. He can't win out here no matter how I vote. So I will be voting for Evan McMullin.
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Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 10:17 AM
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Okay, I promise this is the last one on Dylan. Since Mom was such a great teacher for so many years I wanted her to know I must have gotten lucky and inherited some of her genes.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Chapman <rchap347sum@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 10:08 AM
Subject: Bob Dylan
To: Myc <myc50rc@gmail.com>
Wait, I just checked and it's Lakewood, Ohio.From: Robert Chapman <rchap347sum@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 10:08 AM
Subject: Bob Dylan
To: Myc <myc50rc@gmail.com>
Check out page 8 of the PDF. My essay was source material for a class taught in Lakewood. Not sure if that is Lakewood, CA as I once was in Lakewood, CO.
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Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 10:43 AM
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That really is bizarre. I've heard of "the poet that didn't know it" well
maybe your "the writer that's out of sight - er"
Who knows where your writings may linger...
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Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 10:48 AM
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There's a few more references to it on the Internet when you google the title. One of my favorites was a writer who said he really enjoyed it because he inferred from it that I am black and therefore it had credibility. Your brother Bob: Honorary Soul Man. 
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Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 9:38 PM
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Sent from my iPhone
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Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 6:27 PM
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Looks like you missed your calling as a teacher or a writer for the LA Times :)
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Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 10:23 PM
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Bob:
This is awesome! I knew I had a soul brother and this article just bears that out. Very impressed to see all of the coverage even though much of it was in violation of your common-law copyright interests!
Bill
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Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 10:25 PM
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I knew I should have hired Bill as my lawyer....
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Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 11:54 AM
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Yes, I am late to the party again. I just saw and looked up that link you posted below. That is so amazing that they are using your article in school...without YOUR permission!!! Is that legal?? But really cool at the same time that a High School in Ohio has it in their curriculum and others are using as well except those trying to pass it off as their own work. Now that is not cool at all.
LOVED reading this:
"Although it is not clearly stated, I have to assume that Mr. Chapman is African American because in the second paragraph of his article, he justifies why he is writing about "what a white man has to do with African American culture." The article quotes lyrics from four songs that directly or indirectly deal with the struggle faced by African Americans in the United States of the 1960s. I feel that Mr. Chapman is a credible source, first, because he is African American, and thefefore has experienced first hand the struggle of the race, and second, he does seem to have some knowledge of D!."
Bob has clearly been validated as our soul brother. (Copying Kendra on this because one of the meanings of her name is "Powerful black woman". Now she will finally know how she fits in our family tree
) Just like Mom's dad Raney was Native American.
) Just like Mom's dad Raney was Native American.
Having fun googling my famous writer/brother today :) and googling Jim's name as well, as a poet...just haven't found it yet.
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Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 1:28 PM
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Thanks Kathi, I am definitely going to leave the poetry to Jim. 
I remember Dad's great line, "If you don't toot your own horn you may go without music." In that spirit, here's another link for you, from the writer Jack Doyle (I'll be very honest - to show up under "Sources" along with some legendary writers I have admired for decades like Greil Marcus, Nat Hentoff, and Robert Shelton - shown below, but not inclusive - is quite a kick):
In any case, while Dylan the musician continued to move on to new musical forms and genres — as he does to this day — his contributions to protest music are fact, remain significant, and have become legend. Dylan’s protest songs of the early 1960s did make an important contribution for many in the civil rights arena and beyond. Dylan’s contributions to protest music are fact, remain significant, and have become legend. "He was a folk-singer writing during a time when popular song focused on ‘Moon-June’ sentimentality and vacuous ditties,” wrote Robert Chapman in the late 1990s on why Dylan was important to civil rights in the early 1960s. “At the time it was unheard of for a young white songwriter to compose the kind of songs that he did, and he knocked down some serious barriers as to what was thought possible within the parameters of popular music.” In addition to “A Pawn in the Game,” “Oxford Town,” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol” mentioned here, other protest and civil rights-related songs he wrote include: “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, and “The Death Of Emmett Till” (a song about the a young Chicago boy beaten to death on a visit to Mississippi in 1955 for whistling at a white woman). And of course, there is also “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Sources, Links & Additional Information
Robert Chapman, writing on “African American Culture and Bob Dylan: Why He Matters,” posted to selected newsgroups, Saturday April 26, 1997, and later reprinted at “Things Twice” web page.
Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, Da Capo Press, 2003 reprint of 1986 original, 576 pp.
Greil Marcus, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, Public Affairs, 2005.
Song List & Liner Notes by Nat Hentoff, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, May 1963.
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