Expecting Rain

Do you think Dylan cares about his past or thinks about his legacy fondly? I was reading his wiki pages dedicated to his discography and couldnt help but think those sessions for Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde must have been amazing to be apart of , I wondered if Dylan felt the same way or he was just looking at it like "I'm just making a album nothing special"

I believe he's quoted as saying he didn't think he'd top Highway 61. By all witness accounts he gave his best on Blonde, junk be damned. I don't think it's that difficult to pick out the songs he's committed to during a show, but those really run the gamut.

I think he cares about his legacy a lot, and in the last decade has done many things to try to shape how he and his career will be viewed when he's gone.

That line from "Silvio" -

Silvio

Stake my future on a hell of a past
Looks like tomorrow is coming on fast
Ain't complaining 'bout what I got
Seen better times, but who has not?

Silvio
Silver and gold
Won't buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio
I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know

Honest as the next jade rolling that stone
When I come knocking don't throw me no bone
I'm an old boll weevil looking for a home
If you don't like it you can leave me alone

I can snap my fingers and require the rain
From a clear blue sky and turn it off again
I can stroke your body and relieve your pain
And charm the whistle off an evening train

I give what I got until I got no more
I take what I get until I even the score
You know I love you and furthermore
When it's time to go you got an open door

I can tell you fancy, I can tell you plain
You give something up for everything you gain
Since every pleasure's got an edge of pain
Pay for your ticket and don't complain

One of these days and it won't be long
Going down in the valley and sing my song
I will sing it loud and sing it strong
Let the echo decide if I was right or wrong

Silvio
Silver and gold
Won't buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio
I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know

_____________________________________________________________


"Stake my future on a hell of a past"

Kind of says he's proud of his past, doesn't he?


And - "Find out something only dead men know"

Great line too. Is there life after death? Did he ever find out?

Two things that say he very much cares....

One of the more recent interviews.... something after Modern Times came out.... the interviewer asked somewhat the same question..... I don't remember his answer exactly but it was to say that he thought his legacy was now going to be ok.... I think he knows looking back what worked and the times when he says to himself "what was I thinking"....

The second one is even more vague.... I think he hangs on to everything.... example Milky's Prada shows coming back out from storage.... and then the papers that go on sale of his old hand written lyrics.... seem to just quietly go off the market.... rather quickly after they surface.... just who do you think is gathering that stuff up.... story is he got the little red 'blood on tracks' notebook back and took control of who can see it and when.... I think there really is a vault and it is stocked full of goodies... to be shown or not according to what Bob wants..... his put his personal history out there according to what he wants to have remembered in NDH and Chronicles...... he has a plan and nobody, but nobody, decides his schedule but him.... and I for one think he is doing just fine.....

When reading this I pictured Dylan on the next episode of A&E show Hoarders for some reason...

He hires people to do it for him. His stuff cost a whole bunch more...... think mystery of the museum

He already appeared on Pawn Stars

"When I'm gone you will remember my name"

dont look back

Waits is a hoarder, no doubt. bob keeps it all in an iphone. which was installed in his brain. he downloaded the design for Steve Jobs, who was then inspired to do what apple did.

on the serious side. actions speak louder than words:

bobdylan.com (new site!)

and this: http://www.examiner.com/music-in-boston ... tes-part-1 , from ER's front page, just a few days a go. he's a revisionist.

I don't think Dylan is concerned about his own past. Meaning yesterday and so forth. But I would agree with others here that he is concerned about the BOB DYLAN legacy, and the past that's associated with his myth. The examples Lily posted support this. The attention given to NDH and Chronicles, etc. suggest that he is, even in the present, carefully crafting his past.

Dude has always had a bit of an ego, so I'm guessing yes.

I doubt whether he thinks about his legacy; he doesn't have to. He knows it's safe, come what may, and he knows how big it will be. He admitted as much when questioned on the subject by a Times interviewer, several years ago.

Didn't ge say recently that he wouldn't put just any old words together after all the songs he's written in the past? That interview accompanying his last art exhibit, perhaps.

That sums it up!

probably the same as anyone else: remember the good and the bad, try not to make the same mistakes again: go for new mistakes.

I remember an interview about the time of the release of the first official Bootleg package where he compared the word legacy to legion and then the word legion to the Devil or something like that. I'll have to go try to find it sometime, unless anyone else remembers and can put their hands on it quicker than I can. The point is, he said he wasn't interested in that sort of thing.