Solid-rock facts that prove Dylan’s innocence as his ‘temple’ faces incendiary claims

Bob, we believe in you, no matter what ‘JC’ says she remembers in the Chelsea Hotel…

The world of Bob Dylan fans, experts and pundits has gone up in flames after he was accused of sexually abusing a girl aged 12 in 1965.

A lawsuit has been filed.

If the claims are real then Bob needs to face the music…but if they are proved to be wrong, as so many of us stoically believe, then J.C. – the only identification being given to his accuser – should be taken to task.

It is claimed that Bob, aged 80, allegedly groomed, sexually abused and threatened physical violence against J.C.

Both MSM and social media are gathering at Bob’s ‘cabin door’ to dispute the claims – and experts say it is virtually impossible for him to have been in the Chelsea Hotel in New York due to his touring schedule.

This is supported by Dylan experts who say the time and place of the allegations don’t fit in with Dylan’s touring commitments.

The claims in the suit say the assaults happened in April and May. But Dylan was overseas for the majority of May, playing almost a dozen dates in England detailed in setlists.

He was also all over on the West Coast in April, playing in Berkeley, California. (April 3); Vancouver, British Columbia (April 9); Portland, Ore. (April 23); and Seattle (April 30).

Swedish researcher Olof Bjorner, who documents Dylan’s live performances and recording sessions has highlighted these events.

Then on April 25, Dylan went from Seattle to the UK to begin his Don’t Look Back tour, Rolling Stone magazine says. Upon arrival in England, he gave a press conference at the airport, which documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker seen in his 1967 film Don’t Look Back.

The tour ran from April 30 to May 10, then he flew to Portugal with Sara, says Dylan scholar, Prof Anne Margaret Daniel. Dylan then returned to London on May 23 where he actually went in to hospital for a number of days.

The alleged abuse occurred multiple times over a six-week period between April and May 1965.

When did he have time?

Clinton Heylin, well-known Dylan writer, has said that Dylan spent most of his time in Woodstock when not touring. And if he was in New York City, he stayed at his manager’s apartment in Gramercy. “It is almost impossible to find one week — let alone six — that spring when Dylan could have been staying at the Chelsea Hotel,” Heylin told Rolling Stone magazine.
The legal documents,seen by USA TODAY also claim that Dylan “exploited his status as a musician” to illegally provide drugs and alcohol to the underage girl.

A spokesperson for Dylan said that “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended”.

All of us, I’m sure, agree that the claims must be causing one of the greatest artists of this and the last century much heartache and upset.

But us true fans must not allow him to dwell in the shadow kingdom of litigation and fear … if he committed the crime, he will be punished.

If he didn’t then he will almost certainly be cleared. But in this awful internet world, cyber mud sticks.

We at Our Society will monitor the case closely and we will also continue to play Dylan’s brilliant catalogue and revere him for the genius who is generally seen as.

But too it is a sign of the times when celebrities are sued – or accused – of some kind of impropriety which could ring the bells in a career ending holocaust.

It’s not the first time Bob has faced hurtful and shock claims … in 2013 Croatians filed a lawsuit against him for “incitement to hatred”.

French officials notified Dylan of the lawsuit when his “Never Ending Tour” brought him to Paris for three concerts at the Grand Rex, and to receive the Legion of Honour.

The suit was filed last year by the Representative Council of the Croatian Community and Institutions in France (CRICCF).

It was based on a quote in Dylan’s interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Referring to the legacy of the American civil war, Dylan said: “This country is just too f**ked up about colour . . . Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery – that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that. If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”

The allegations never amounted to anything.

Then Levy’s widow, Claudia Levy, filed the lawsuit back in January after Dylan sold his publishing catalogue to Universal Music Publishing Group in December, arguing that the estate should receive a portion of the overall amount that Dylan took home from the reported $300million sale.

Dylan and UMG’s lawyers contended that the original agreement drafted between Dylan and Levy in 1975 made it clear that he would not own any of the material, and that his profit participation would consist of a share of songwriting royalties, which Judge Barry Ostrager of the Supreme Court of New York agreed with.

In another extraordinary accusation, Bob was accused of being racist in Hurricane, a song about Reuben Carter … Grant Avery claimed that the 43 year old ‘outlaw’ song had racist content. It floundered on the desk of a local radio station.

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