Bob Dylan

Expecting Rain

Bob Dylan in Crouch End


In America a few years ago, Dave Stewart, of the Eurhythmics, said to
Dylan that the next time he was in London he should drop by his recording
studio in Crouch End. Dylan, at a loose end one afternoon, decided to take
him up on it and asked a taxi driver to take him to Crouch End Hill. With
the bewildering array of streets in the area all named for various
permutations of Crouch, End and Hill, the cabbie accidentally dropped him
off at the right number but in an adjoining road.

"Dylan knocked at the front door and asked the woman who answered if Dave
was in. As it happened, her husband was also called Dave, so she said: "No,
he's out on a call at the moment", and Bob said he'd wait. Twenty minutes
later, Dave - the plumber, not the rock star - returned and asked the
missus whether there were any messages. "No", she said, " but Bob Dylan's
in the living room having a cup of tea".

"It's a sweet image, compounded by the rumour a couple of years later that
Dylan had been seen with local estate agents looking for a house in the
area. There are worse ways to end up than enjoying a quiet life in suburban
London, dispensing advice over the fence to the next door neighbour on how
to keep your lawn free of grass clippings ("The answer, my friend, is
mowing in the wind"). Maybe, as he contemplates a long and uncertain health
treatment, it has even more appeal. As he wrote in one of his most famous
couplets, "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now".
He's older than that now.


From The Sunday Telegraph of June 1 or June 8 1997.

Thanks to Roddy Forsyth for the transcription!

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