Elvis Transcends His Talent To

Along With A Lot Of Other Things, Becoming A Bob Dylan Fan Made Me A Writer. I Was Never Interested In Figuring Out What The Songs Meant. I Was Interested In Figuring Out My Response To Them, And Other People's Responses. I Wanted To Get Closer To The Music Than I Could By Listening To It - I Wanted To Get Inside Of It, Behind It, And Writing About It Through It, Inside Of It, Behind It, Was My Way Of Doing That.

Farber Had A Huge Effect On Me As A Writer. I Don't Mean I Write Like Him. Farber Is, First Of All, A Great Stylist, A Great Writer. Anyone Can Read Manny Farber's Film Criticism, Whether That Person Is A Novelist, A Poet, Another Critic, A Historian, And Learn A Lot About Writing By Reading Him.

I Am A Critic Who Is Pulled Toward History. But Bob Dylan Himself Is A Great Historian. He Is An Historian Who Acts Out History. So It Always Has A Personal Stamp. It Always Has A Particular Timbre. It Always Has A Particular Howl, Or A Moan, In That Voice.

The Sixties Are Most Generously Described As A Time When People Took Part - When They Stepped Out Of Themselves And Acted In Public, As People Who Didn't Know What Would Happen Next, But Who Were Sure That Acts Of True Risk And Fear Would Produce Something Different From What They Had Been Raised To Take For Granted.

Rock 'n' Roll Is A Combination Of Good Ideas Dried Up By Fads, Terrible Junk, Hideous Failings In Taste And Judgment, Gullibility And Manipulation, Moments Of Unbelievable Clarity And Invention, Pleasure, Fun, Vulgarity, Excess, Novelty And Utter Enervation.