the aughts

If the 60s were the decade in which Bob Dylan showed how rapidly he could evolve, every subsequent decade illuminated puzzling and contradictory sides of his talent and persona (family man, arena rocker, born-again Christian, hit-or-miss songwriter). By contrast, the Aughts were a decade in which Dylan stuck mostly to one character and one sound — though still unpredictable, he gave us hints, at least, into the mystery.

This week reports surfaced that Bob Dylan was considering lending his voice to a GPS navigation system. Numerous mainstream media sources picked up the story and ran it as hard news — BBC, NY Times, and the Washington Post all published stories about the convergence of 60′s folk rock and the latest in automotive technology. But as Gossip Cop reported today, this story doesn’t exactly check out.

The AP reports what, on its face, is a humorous little account of Bob Dylan being stopped by New Jersey police in Long Branch who asked him for ID, because they’d never heard of him. Never heard of Bob Dylan! O-ho!

Yes, yes, AP, it’s funny that they didn’t know who Bob Dylan was, but the rest of the reporting in this piece is paper-thin. Also, we have better song jokes…