Why Dylan became as big as Elvis after meeting a man named Gray in Dinkytown

Bob loves Elvis, no doubt.

After all Elvis was the God of rock n roll, beautiful, handsome, sensual, wild, wiggly, outrageous and with a voice to sell your soul for.

And Bob was at the crossroads.

It was 1959 and Bob was in Fargo and was banging out ivory-clad bullets of rock for the Poor Boys and Bobby Vee and the Shadows. It didn’t last for long though … he was dumped by both bands.

The major problem was he’d sold himself to them as Elston Gunn, the imaginary owner of a state-of-the-art electric Wurlitzer-style keyboard.

Of course he wasn’t Elston and he’d never had a travelling Wurlitzer..

In an article in The Forum a decade ago, Bobby Vee’s brother, Bill, said: “We bought him a shirt that matched ours. When we picked him up, we were a little surprised he didn’t have a little electric piano with him. So, when we got to the gig, there was an old crusty piano there, and he played that.”

And, according to Bill, he wasn’t very good.

So, there Elston stood. Alone in Fargo, dumped by a hero for telling a lie.

It could have worked out so differently – so badly – for him and the rest of the world.

He could just have kicked up the dust outside this North Dakota town and left a scrawl at the crossroads bemoaning ‘Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?’

But he still had Elvis.

And Woody too.

But Woody was old and tired and ill, a literary genius who could set an image on fire with two words, a political singer with power for the people. Elvis, on the other hand, was young and vital … and did Bob know it at the time? But he had the young and old elements for his alchemy right there and then at the crossroads … young and old which would keep him forever vital and youthful. And so the magic was mixed at the Fargo crossroads and Bob set off down the road armed only with his spell.

Elvis was one of Dylan’s key influences, after ‘Hound Dog’ there was no looking back. Bob said: “When I first heard Elvis Presley’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”

But did the kid with an alias who got fobbed off in Fargo ultimately become greater than Elvis could ever be?

From Fargo Dylan went down to Dinkytown, second-hand clothes, Second-hand Roses, battered books, coffeehouses and cheap, cheap bars.

There bob met a man named Gray and moved in to his drugstore.

Bob wrote in his biog; “There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms (in rock), but the songs weren’t serious or didn’t reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, and much deeper feelings.”

It was then that Bob decided to go gaunt and finger-pointing and became a hero of the bearded ones who cupped their ears and called it a conch-ience.

But rock n roll had been around since the 1950s, heavy beats, black rhythms, white country, twelve-bars and fat old-lady basses and Animal drums.

When The King passed away dramatically in 1977, it was said the death hit Dylan harder than most and was unable to speak for a week.

Not only did Bob become a star but Elvis recorded Dylan’s ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’.

But for some reason Bob snubbed Elvis. There were talks of a collaboration in 1972 when Elvis invited Bob and George Harrison in the studio. Inexplicably Bob and George didn’t bother turning up!

He was in Minnesota with his children and their art teacher, Faridi McFree, and he wrote: “I went over my whole life. I went over my whole childhood. I didn’t talk to anyone for a week after Elvis died. If it wasn’t for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn’t be doing what I do today.”

Elvis, Woody, Hank, Tom … all of them are gone now, but Bob is still on that road. And as you watch his eccentric, idiosyncratic, brilliant shows, every so often you see the flash of a memory, Bob will craft moments in his performances and for a split second you catch a glimpse of his heroes.

Like the Indians danced in the dark with Jim Morrison, our Bob dad-dances for each and every one of us along with his heroes.

#ritamay #bobdylan #elvis #dinkytown #amannamedgray #wenttoseethegypsy #gerrylee