Real Rock ’n’ Roll Has Not Existed Since 1962 Says Bob Dylan

By Stephen Pate – Bob Dylan’s interview with America’s official seniors organization the AARP is an excellent promotional piece for his new album “Shadows In The Night” due February 3, 2015.

50,000 readers of AARP’s February magazine have a shot at a free copy of “Shadows In The Night” which is a brilliant marketing plan considering there are more than 37 million members of AARP and they get the magazine free with their membership.

Heck, if I lived in the States I’d be a member except I hate to get lumped in the “seniors” group even if I am 66 years old.

Featured image Bob Dylan Newport Folk Festival (photo: Alice Ochs/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Readers have to remember this is a Bob Dylan interview where Dylan has always maintained the right to revise history, be controversial and pull the reporter’s leg.

Dylan’s musical history of the 1940’s and 1950’s in the AARP story is a great sepia toned look at the era but it is not correct nor is he being factual.

If “real rock and roll” has not existed since 1962, what was Dylan playing on the Newport Folk Festival stage in 1965 performing “Like A Rolling Stone” with a rock band.

Dylan was denounced by folkies in America and Great Britain for leaving their beloved folk music for the raucous and rowdy world of rock and roll when he strapped on a Fender Stratocaster guitar.

For the most part, other than forays into country, really old folk music and roots music, Bob Dylan has been performing rock and roll since he released Bringing It All Back Home in 1964.

Rock and Roll did not die with Buddy Holly, or when Elvis Presley went into the US Army or when Hip-Hop arrived. Rock and Roll is the most popular musical genre of all time. It is alive and mutating constantly as young artists join the millions of performers for billions of fans. Rock and Roll is more powerful than your parents orders to turn it down or the futile efforts of the KGB to confiscate all albums of The Beatles.

Quite amazingly, Rock and Roll was created from the music of black American slaves, the transplanted people of Western Africa who brought their own religion, rhythms, musical forms and instruments to the white European music of their slave owners. The music of bondage and persecution filled with the desire for freedom could not be held back by any force of man or nature.  The history of rock and roll includes Bob Dylan in a big way which is the point of the book On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom.

So have fun, read the article Shadows in the Night – Bob Dylan Does the American Standards His Way, get a shot at the 50,000 free copies and buy Shadows in the Night anyways since it obviously will be a classic Dylan performance as he shows us his crooning ballad style once again.

Watch out for the twinkle in Bob Dylan’s eye.

Check out the related stories which have preview songs from the album – Bob Dylan Pre-Releasing Shadows In The Night Feb 3 2015 and Columbia Records Posts Bob Dylan’s “Stay With Me”

I’m buying a copy of the Shadows In The Night (Vinyl) since it seems proper for a record of old songs to be on vinyl and I’m an old guy.

Shadows In The Night is available for pre-order in the United States, Amazon.ca in Canada and Amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom where it will be available one day early on February 2, 2015.

Also available from iTunes “Shadows in the Night – Bob Dylan“.

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