A Man Of Myth: How Bob Dylan Created Bob Dylan

When Sam Shepard was roped into the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, he was able to purvey the mastery and myth of Bob Dylan first-hand. “Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not to the head,” he eventually wrote when he made it to the other side of the tumultuous roving folk show. “It moves us into an area of mystery. Some myths are poisonous to believe in, but others have the capacity for changing something inside us, even if it’s only for a minute or two.”

That air of legend has always been there in the welter of the wavering ways that make up the original vagabond. “Dylan creates a mythic atmosphere out of the land around us,” Shepard continues. “The land we walk on every day and never see until someone shows it to us.” As Dylan said himself: “All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.” Read more >