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Dylan's wide-ranging conversation with the New
York Times was his first major interview since 2017 and came a
week ahead of the release of his first album of original music
in eight years.
But the man regarded as one of the world's most influential
singer-songwriters gave few clues about what motivated his spurt
of creativity or the meanings behind the new songs that are
stuffed with pop culture references from the last five decades.
"Rough and Rowdy Ways" will be released June 19. Dylan, 79,
released three singles earlier this year, including a 17-minute
track, "Murder Most Foul," inspired by the assassination in 1963
of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Dylan said the songs came from a stream of consciousness. "Most
of my recent songs are like that. The lyrics are the real thing,
tangible, they’re not metaphors. The songs seem to know
themselves and they know that I can sing them, vocally and
rhythmically. They kind of write themselves and count on me to
sing them," he told U.S. historian Douglas Brinkley in the
interview.
Referring to the death of African American George Floyd who was
pinned under the knee of a white police officer in May, Dylan
said it "sickened me no end to see George tortured to death like
that. It was beyond ugly. Let’s hope that justice comes swift
for the Floyd family and for the nation."
Dylan revealed that he enjoyed the work of the Eagles and the
Rolling Stones, some of the many cultural references on his new
album.
Asked which Stones songs Dylan wished he could have written, he
replied, "Maybe 'Angie,' 'Ventilator Blues' and what else, let
me see. Oh yeah, 'Wild Horses'."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant)
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