What about Bob?
I wasn't a Dylan fan immediately. I was at university [in Newcastle,
England, in the late 1960s] and had a soul band, the Gas Board. I wanted
suits, quiffs, and dance moves. So when students came clutching Dylan
albums, I thought, ''Acoustic guitar? Not my thing.'' Then he went
electric and my prejudice was overcome.
The Quiet Man
I've never met Dylan. We're both quite shy. If I was trapped in a lift
with Dylan, there would be a lot of pregnant silences — like [in] Beckett
or Pinter. I think it would be a good little playlet!
Roxy Music Update
Dylanesque was a holiday from making the new Roxy CD. Brian Eno
[ex-Roxy member] came in for two days, mucking about. His great thing
is ideas. And bags of personality — too much! He was the most competitive
in the band, apart from me.
Coal Miner's Son
My dad was a farm laborer [in northern England]. He went down the coal
mine to look after the horses. One day there was this guy who was
mistreating the ponies. My dad knocked him out.
Stylin' Start
I worked at a tailor's shop when I was 16. They had these books of style
patterns. One would be called the Berkeley, and it would be a guy with a
pencil mustache and a bowler, with a Rolls-Royce going past. Wonderful
drawings of a glamorous life.
For the Record
I was very upset by the recent brouhaha [Ferry was criticized in the
U.K. for allegedly praising Nazi iconography]. I've embraced two
cultures in my career: black American music and American Jewish culture,
which produced George Gershwin and Kurt Weill. The idea that I'm
anti-Semitic is ludicrous!
