(December 14, 2023)
Video Transcript:
Sometimes I wonder what Bob thinks of his fans.
On one level I think he’s probably grateful to them because without fans, he wouldn’t have lived such a good life.
I assume he’s lived a good life, I imagine he has.
He’s rich and famous, it’s probably cushy.
On the other hand, part of me feels like he probably thinks his fans are idiots. And I get it, I’m definitely an idiot sometimes.
But I think there’s something empty in it. It must be weird to have pretty much everybody have heard of you, heard your name, heard your music, but nobody actually knows you.
We don’t know Bob from Adam. We have no idea who the guy is. At all.
And I would hazard a guess that probably nobody really knows Bob.
There might be one or two people in the world who actually know Bob Dylan, like the REAL man.
You could really say that about anybody.
I think everybody is too far up their own ass to REALLY KNOW others.
That’s not always true, but if you ask me… do I feel like anybody really knows me? I would say like a couple people. Maybe.
So I imagine it’s probably the same for him.
It must be strange to have all these people know about you, but not know you at all.
There is his entire body of work that you could psychoanalyze…
But so much of creative art is funneled in from the aether.
It’s not something you make up yourself usually. True, inspired art is… from elsewhere.
Because of that, I struggle to say that we really could know Bob from his music/lyrics.
You’d be closer to knowing him from his books, and there aren’t that many of them.
When Bob lays his head on his pillow at night, I don’t think we could ever guess what he’s thinking about.
He’s not thinking, “Oh my God, I’m Bob fkn Dylan.”
He’s probably thinking about what everybody else thinks about…
What happened that day, or what emotional real estate is being taken up in his life.
He’s probably thinking about family or himself, but not in the context of being famous.
Back to what he thinks of his fans…
He probably feels like it’s another person that everybody’s thinking of when they think of Bob.
He probably feels detached from it, as well he should be. We don’t know him at all.
I also wonder how impeded his experience of knowing other people has been. That’s an even bigger issue than what he thinks of his fans.
I don’t consider myself a “fanatic” of anything. I’m an appreciator.
Think about it…
Bob has been famous for 60 years, some people don’t even live that long.
He’s been famous for a lifetime.
He was really young when he became so famous.
Immediately in this world when you get any type of notoriety…
Even if you’re just wealthy and you’re not particularly famous, you can’t trust anyone.
To think he’s been having that experience since he was so young…
What has that done to his ability to know people?
Cuz it was so long ago when he wasn’t famous, didn’t have anything that everybody wanted…
Does he even remember what it was like to deal with people from the standpoint of NOT being Bob Dylan?
If he does, it probably sucked anyway.
Not to be pessimistic about the human condition, but it pretty much sucks.
Life is great, but it’s also a joke.
Other people are so full of crap.
There are some certain ways in which I feel bad for Bob and anybody in that position…
Like Michael Jackson… he was lonely.
I remember a scene of MJ in a Las Vegas hotel and there were crowds below…
And they were just going crazy trying to catch a glimpse of him.
You could just see that even in the midst of all of those people supposedly being so into you…
You’re still alone and perhaps even more alone than you would be as a regular person.
Has Bob been deficient in actually knowing people?
Just because of the celebrity and the legend of who he is?
I would imagine that not everybody is starstruck.
I’m sure there are lots of people who could talk to Bob Dylan and not be fixated on who he is.
I’m sure there are people who could genuinely conversate or chill with him and not be weird.
I’d imagine it would be very rare to have a pure, unbiased experience with other people.
Not everybody’s a fan of Bob Dylan, I get that.
Who doesn’t like Bob Dylan though? Aside from the riff-raff…
Pretty much everybody has heard a Bob Dylan song and thought it was pretty chill.
There’s just like nobody who hasn’t been touched by that.
You’d have to go to some remote tribe on an island somewhere to find somebody who’s never heard about Bob Dylan.
How often does he have an unbiased experience with people?
Even when you’re just wealthy and not famous, people still want to kiss your ass…
Everybody wants something.
No matter what, you’re probably almost never gonna find anybody who’s gonna be real with you.
Fame and wealth aren’t the only things that make people treat you differently.
Any kind of status, beauty, it all conditions the way that people treat you.
Imagine the hassle of being Bob Dylan.
You couldn’t go anywhere without being disguised because people would recognize you.
It would be a security risk.
It would be scary, you would think.
You couldn’t go anywhere because people would be potentially crazy and stuff.
It’s not just his interpersonal dealings with people, it’s also normal experiences…
Again, Michael Jackson wore disguises so he could go out places.
You’d have to do something like that to observe the world from an unbiased standpoint.
But maybe Bob doesn’t really care about having a normal experience.
Especially at his age, he’s probably crossed that bridge a long time ago.
I wonder if part of him resents his fans?
I wonder if it’s a love/hate type thing.
In one way, they’ve given him so much. And these people do love Bob, the idea of Bob.
Cuz again, we don’t actually know him. He might suck as a person.
I don’t think he does, I think he’s probably pretty cool, but we don’t know.
The fans have given him a good life because of the support they’ve given him.
I’m sure he’s grateful for that, but…
Maybe he could be resentful in some ways because it’s also potentially taken a lot from his life experience.
Having to deal with not being able to go out in public like a normal person. Not being able to have an honest interaction with other people.
He’s certainly not had a normal life. And if he ever did, it was so long ago, God only knows if he even remembers it.
God only knows if it sucked or not.
I just wonder how he feels about it. Does he feel like he missed out on certain things because of the fame?
There are certain experiences that I have been curious about…
I wonder what would it have been like if I could have done this or that?
It’s a normal human thing to have those kinds of feelings.
I wonder if he just doesn’t care about this aspect of things?
Every single person has a lot on their plate in the first place.
Not everybody cares about certain stuff.
I appreciate Bob’s fans, cuz dude…
They’re some dedicated people.
Bob shouldn’t be salty about how obsessed people can be with him.
It’s kind of a compliment, you must be pretty interesting if people feel that way about you.
Let people have their fun.
It just makes me smile because…
As much as I have a problem with humanity, I also love some things about it.
I love how human it is to just be obsessed…
It’s so human to do those things, and I don’t hold it against ’em.
