The Bob & The Caddie

Paul is my good friend, and Eleanor's godfather. Of all the people I know, Paul has the strongest affinity for Bob Dylan. He's got really good taste, Paul, and he's consistent with his good taste...which means that he and I will sometimes totally disagree over something you'd think we'd totally agree on. I like it when this happens. It gives me hope that I can stand on equal footing and genuinely like people unlike me. Paul and I once traveled in Puerto Rico together. We've been trying to make it happen again lately, to no avail. (Some day, tho'...) He & I dissected Bob's new Escalade commercial last week, IM-style, arriving nowhere in particular:

Paul: did you see his Cadillac commercial? You can youtube it. all things considered,
it's pretty awesome.

me: Holy cats! The Bob is selling SUV's now. That's rock n'roll...???

Paul: if you really think about it, you will see that bob dylan selling suv cadillacs is about a rock n roll as it gets.

me: I hate Escalades.Give me an old shark Caddie any day of the week. If Bob was selling old caddies, that wd be cool...

Paul: Escalades are just a metaphor for shark caddies in dylan's world. Like in that one song...

me: Oh. Well then I agree that Bob is once again rock n' roll.

Paul: there's a lot of cool dylan shit on youtube. i've never really looked at him on this site.

me: there's a nice one of him and Johnny Cash coked up howling about 'Stackolee' or some shit at a piano. the anti-harmony of dylan n' cash. Janelle just said, "Bob totally sold out. I don't like him anymore. That sucks." (and i quote.)

Paul: She needs to think about it for a bit.

me: She can't man, she's in the zone. she's deeply injured by his caddie commercial.

Paul: bob dylan is not mick jagger, and that's where one can see that it's cool that he did the suv commercial.

me: what do you mean?

Paul: his whole schtick is about flipping the acolyte on their ear.

me: what's an acolyte?

Paul: disciple

me: a follower. cool. Yeah, but there's infinitely cooler ways of doing that than selling bovine-mobiles. Sell a shark, not a bovine. Sharks not cows.

Paul: to be honest, i think for anyone else, that may be true. but not for dylan. that's about the coolest thing he could have done at that moment in his life, in my opinion.

me: I just told Janelle I'd e-mail her the link and she said "i don't want that crap in my inbox."

Paul: at the height of the environmental movement to curb global warming, dylan does an suv commercial.

me: It's rock n' roll the way Charlton Heston was rock n' roll, which is to say not at all.

Paul: no!!!

me: Just quizzical. Again, I get where you're coming from. But still. Not like he just killed a baby or anything. Just, sort of like, why an SUV? Why not post-it notes? Or styrofoam dolphins? Or miniature figurines of himself?

Paul: i can't help but love it, and while that may be blind devotion, i think a)he likes fucking with preconceptions and pissing everyone off cause it's fun, and, b)he likes the car. so he sells it. i don't use the term "it's punk rock" ever. but if someone was going to use that term appropriately, bob dylan selling suvs would be the right way to do it.

me: Punk is dead.

Paul: rock n roll is dead too. that's a whole nother discussion but man please.

me: Rock n' rollers selling SUV's during an oil crisis sounds about right, too.

Paul: i just cracked up reading that sentence!

me: They aren't world savers, they're poets of the world's ways.

Paul: now you're talking (Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) style he took all those hippie kids to the strip club and got schnockered.

me: That said, yeah, okay, i can see Bob selling the car. That's fucked up. And hilarious.

Paul: bob selling a volkswagen would not turn me on at all.

me: No. No cars. Not even sharks.

Paul: wilco selling a volkswagen, i can understand.

me: Styrofoam dolphins, man.

Paul: but that's form without function.

me: I'm sending Janelle the link right now.

Paul: you know the man lurves cadillacs. trying to convince janelle that bob selling cadillacs is like trying to convince her that battlestar is not science fiction.

me: Bob shdn't be selling SUV's. It's predictable. Not bold. Is my point.

Paul: it's like trying to convince someone that cheap whoring is awesome!

me: Yes. Yes, totally. She gets so mad when people do stuff like that.

Paul: i can agree that it isn't bold, but i don't think it's predictable either.

me: Nothing's shocking. It's all predictable.

Paul: i don't think he was trying to shock, and that's part of the point.

me: And that might be just the jaded nature of the fuggin' zeitgeist, which Bob shdn't be held solely accountable for...but if he's the rock to the roll, he shd be exempt from the usu. cultural predictability. Of course, that begs a larger question, which is, "can ANyone be Exempt From oUr CultuRal MediOcriTy AnyMore? Can anyone just be cool?

Paul: i won't enter the discussion because i don't consider bob shelling suvs to be cultural mediocrity

me: No. They gotta sell SUV's and rubber monkeys. Right. But you only think that because he's Bob. So your argument is circular. You love Bob. He can do no wrong.

Paul: i think the guy lives on another plane. like mlk and rumi. i think he sees what we can't.

me: Yup.

Paul: my argument is circular, i agree.

me: And that's probably true to some degree. He def. knows shit that I don't.

Paul: i do think that blood on the tracks holds up no matter when you listen to it. "saved" on the other hand, that's a different story.

me: How cd he write like that and not? He's seen some shit. Been through some shit. So, sure, let him sell his caddies, Jon-Dog, and look the other way. But I can't. Bob taught me not to, goddamnit. Arrgh. AAARRRRRRGHHHHH! I mean.

Paul: i hope you guys have a happy fun family day. please ask janelle to consider buying land in p.r. with us regardless of my bob cadillac feelings.

me: Yes. Same to you. And Lanie.

Paul: give ellacita a kiss on the forehead for me.