In 1966, the first of Bob Dylan in France

During his first appearance in France and in Match, in June 1966, Bob Dylan was, according to a theme dear to the imagination of traditional American music, at the crossroads.Going to electric and rock, moving away from the "protest song" for symbolist poetry which will earn him a pulitzer and a nobel of literature from decades later, the herald folk of the rebellious generation of the sixties has brokenWith its original audience.The divorce was made in the previous May, in Manchester, when a spectator yelled to him: "Judas!»»."I don't believe you," replied Dylan, before singing his crime of lese majesty, "like a rolling stone", and by intimating to his "band": "Play it damn strong!»»

This heckled tour is exhausting, morally and physically.On the occasion of his press conference in Paris, Match discovers a puny dylan, still on the defensive.Years later, the singer confided that he had been, at that time, at the highest of his drug consumption, in particular amphetamines to hold the chain of concerts.

A few days after his visit to France, Dylan published another masterpiece "Blonde on Blonde", double album pushing the nail of his moult rock.The following July, Dylan will plant his motorcycle on a small road, near his house in Woodstock.He is seriously injured, but as the singer himself explains in his memories, the drama was a chance.Forced to rest, Dylan puts an end to his tour, recharges himself in the countryside, flourishes with the family with his wife and their first child, focuses on music with the band.The key, one of the most prolific periods of his career, immortalized in the Basement Ties and the magnificent album "John Wesley Harding".

Here is the report devoted to the arrival of Bob Dylan in Paris for the first time, published in Paris Match in 1966…

Découvrez Rétro Match, l'actualité à travers les archives de Match...

Bob Dylan: an event, the "master" is in Paris

Report in Paris: Claude Rabanit / Report in New York: Bernard Giquel

Antoine, the Stones, the Beatles, Joan Baez, Hugues Aufray recognize that, without Bob Dylan, they would be "like lost dogs".

In the corridors of the George-V, we meet strange characters, with a little too long hair and wearing unusual clothes.They meet the buttons drawn, as it should be, at four pins.

At the time of lunch, under the parasols of the Cour-Restorant, the strange characters in question settle in small tables next to the foreign fringants of passage.The sommelier blushes by serving them with milk...Not to the "glass", but by large bottles of one liter!Bob Dylan, their leader or their God, does not descend;He takes his meals in his room.Which does not mean that it is less seeing than the other members of the group.On the contrary.He is a being with a pale complexion, in the incredibly fluette and malingre carcass.He has the ruthless garlic of the one who judges;A light, clear, transparent blue eye with a mobile black pupil, dilatable.His sense of humor (sarcastic) manifests itself in any matter by spontaneous replicas pronounced half -voice, in a serious tone, a little nasal.The man constantly passes his right index on the edge of his nose by speaking, not as a ICT but "as if he touched a fetish".The pale complexion of his thin face further accentuates the acuity of his gaze;He is a giant sheltered in the body of an elf.

He passes without transition from one idea to another to come back suddenly, sometimes he frankly makes a "number".It is unleashed in grimaces, burlesque dances, contortions.But that he goes from an opinion in the opposite opinion or that he puts his feet on the wall, in everything he does we have the impression that he never loses his control.We saw him the other evening at Olympia, or the one called "the Pope of Folk Song", the rebellious American youth ambassador, gave his first recital in France.

The bottom of the platform is covered with a huge flag.American.We hear screams: "U.S.Go Home!"Or" remove the flag ";Other strong minds simply whistle.Dylan then enters the scene, cadaveric, almost in rags, shaggy and staggering hair.In her sick girl's face, two immense and lost eyes.He sings in a nasal voice, as for him alone, placing an agreement on his guitar, always the same.He staggers, he will fall!

He stops.The bad sound system forces him to reactor his guitar for a long time.We hue it.He rebuffs himself:- No one has a guitar to lend me?- Me, I don't care.It is for you that I try to arrange my guitar.Or: - You don't have a newspaper to read!And finally: - Folk Song is all the time like that!

It is said to be true.It is, indeed, "like that".The "folk song" was born in the cafes, and it is not there that it takes its true dimensions, in the hubbub and the torpor of excitement.The attractions of these “Coffee-Houses”, where we speak Political and avant-garde literature, it is these anarchist and rags that go from one city to another, in self-propelled, the guitar in a strap, to deliver their message in the form of a melopée: pleas for racial integration, world peace or the suppression of atomic war. Ils chantent aussi la misère des pauvres, la tristesse des amours contrariés et, en général, la mélancolie du déracinéAmerican.

Joan Baez, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, and many others less known who sing the songs of Bob Dylan (he wrote more than two hundred songs) agree that he is the only and authentic masterFolk Song.

Today, some "folk song" are adapted, updated, by angry young people.A religious song like "We Shall Overcoma", has become the anthem of the fight for civil rights.Two hundred thousand people sang it on Washington Walking Day in 1963.

Si les années 1950 étaient en Amérique les années « des rebelles sans cause»», les années de gloire de James Dean, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, les années 1960 sont et resteront pour la jeunesseAmericane des années de révolte et de protestation.It is a real awareness, to which we have witnessed, an almost general commitment of a generation in fight against injustice, racism and war in Vietnam."Before Bob Dylan," wrote a New York critic, the great successes among young people were still more or less stupid love songs about unhappy college flirtations. Aujourd'hui Bob Dylan fait des succès avec des sujets aussi graves que la politique étrangèreAmericane, la pauvreté et les « civil rights»».In fact, he continues, it is the personality that has the most influence on today's youth.»»

For young Americans, guitars and banjos are machine guns and peaceful bazookas.There are about seven million of these rope instruments in circulation in the United States.In 1965, 100,000 guitars were sold.In Newport, the Folk Song festival, which comes after that of jazz, made twenty thousand more entries than last year.There is not a walk, not a strike, not any demonstration, without young people going out their guitar and singing a song of protest.This song is becoming more and more an editorial and less and less a walk. Car, comme le dit Bob Dylan, « ce sont les mots qui comptent le plus, ce sont les mots qui font réfléchir, ce sont les mots qui éveillent l'attention, la musique n'est là que pour vous aider à vous les rappeler»».

Bob Dylan, lui, refuse d'être étiqueté comme « politique»».He is not part of any movement, any organization or defense committee.It is above all an individualist, a rebellious, a pacifist.At ten years old, he made fugues, far from Duluth (Minnesota), his hometown, where his parents were pharmacists."In Duluth, it's simple, I was choking.»» Plus tard, il se fit renvoyer de l'université du Minnesota pour avoir refusé d'assister à la dissection d'un lapin, il quitte la classe en disant les cinq lettres au professeur.

"I start to be tired of all these songs on the bomb, etc.., said today Bob Dylan.What is wrong in this country and in the world, it is not the bomb that may not have fun, what is serious is to see how many really free people are few.Most are alienated.They have strings sewn by the lips.As soon as they try to speak, there is something that pulls them to prevent them.»»

Les « chansons»» de Dylan sont plutôt des récitatifs accompagnés.He has a long time to say;Time does not count and he takes his own.Even by understanding only half of what he says, it never seems long and he never repeats himself.He likes to play with words, with their consonances as with their meaning. « Mona Lisa»» a le sourire de quelqu'un qui a sûrement le blues.»» Des images graphiques ou surréelles, comme celle de « la méduse à moustaches qui cherche ses genoux en souriant !»»

In the midst of these visions contrast the ideas of the committed man, the protester, the indignant pacifist:

The Second World War / did not last four years we forgive the Germans / and they even became our friends / although they wiped out / six million men in their ovens in their ovens in their ovens in their ovens in their ovens./ The Germans, too, / now have God in their camp./ I now have to hate the Russians / With all my heart, from all soul / if another war occurs / It will be them my enemies / We must hate them and flee / protect themselves and accept all this with courage/ We have God in our camp.

We are far away, far away, distressing marshmallows.Even the Beatles are in poor parents. Quant aux Français les plus « engagés»» comment pourrait-on même oser les lui comparer, ne serait-ce que par ce qu'ils disent ?

Whatever one thinks of him, Bob Dylan is someone who has something to say and who laughs at everything that is not the present moment, of all that is not poetry of the moment.

A Paris, lors de sa conférence, de presse (qui est pour lui une « forme d'art»»), il a montré son vrai esprit.His answers have passed, it must be said, well above the head of most assistants.

Question: Do you think that the drugs inspire? Dylan (to the interpreter): "Ask him if he tried.»»Le journaliste : « Quelquefois.»» Dylan : « Dites-lui qu'il doit savoir...»»

Q.- They say your friends prefer your first songs.Dylan : « Qui pose cette question ?»» Et lorsqu'il voit le questionneur : « Ah ! mais ce n'est pas un ami à moi !»»Q.- Why not the hair of the photographer (the one that follows it everywhere) is not as long as yours?Dylan: "It's his problem.»» (Le photographe est à demi-chauve).

A propos de trois questions sur le Vietnam :1ère réponse : « Pourquoi me demander à moi ?»»2ème réponse: « Pensez-vous que ce soit aussi simple ?»» 3ème réponse : « Demandez-lui (au questionneur) si c'est facile pour lui de poser cette question.»»

Q.- Why are you here? Dylan: "I'm good for it.»»Q.- So you are not free?Dylan: "You either.»»

During the conference he had by his side an old cardboard puppet.He names her Finian or Charles Laughton. A quelqu'un qui lui demandait comment elle était là ? « Elle m'a suivi»», dit-il.

A propos des photographes qui le suivaient partout, il nous dit en rentrant au George-V: « C'est drôle, quand je sors je ne sais jamais où je vais aller mais ils y sont toujours avant moi !»»

Plus tard, il se prit tout à coup d'enthousiasme pour un petit personnage encore plus chétif que lui et qu'il appelait « Mister président»» ! C'était le président (et le seul membre) du « Bob Dylan Fan Club»» ! Dylan le prit par le cou et l'emmena à travers les corridors sans fin du George-V, afin de le présenter au « bell-boy»».The cinema team followed, in full.

As for the manager of Bob Dylan, Alfred Grossman, he had, to be in the note and keep his place let his hair grow up to the shoulders!At fifty, it's a tough event.Also, when the manager has to go out on the street, he takes a cap or a hat and, as soon as he can, that is to say as soon as he is out of sight of his boss, he drives his fleeceIn her hairstyle!These are the servitudes of non-protein at the court of the folk-song pope.