Public Enemy Bob Dylan said he “identified”

But ten years before his iconic protest song, during his global appearance in the early 1960s, Dylan’s voice immediately captured the anthropological Zeitgeist. From the very beginning, “Blowin ‘in the Wind” presented the vocal world of the killer, the lyrics refined so much that during three minutes of a vertical ballad he could make fun Man’s inability to refrain from constant conflict and social injustice. And so later the music fans hung on every word to help navigate the sticky waters of the modern world when they were looking for understanding.

Such an artistic depth brought him the Tom Paine award in 1963 from the emergency Union of Civic Freedom (ECLU). A distinction awarded to people for their fight for civic freedoms, rarely awarded musicians, and therefore promised that he would be a monumental moment in recognized relations between music and politics.

After accepting the prize, the submitted Dylan gave a speech, which was interrupted by the chorus of Boos for the reference of the killer of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald. Speaking of a man who shot the president, just a month before the speech, the transcriptions of the evening reveal that Dylan said: “I will be able to uncompromising what I have to be honestly, I just got it, or as I could admit that the man who shot President Kennedy , Lee Oswald, I don’t know exactly where – what I think, but I must admit that I also saw myself a little in him. “.

After the initial shock of the statement, Dylan continued, to provide the context: “I don’t think he would go – I don’t think he could go so far. But I have to get up and say that I saw the things he felt in me – don’t go so far and shooting, “fighting through Boos, he continued:” You can Boo, but Booing has nothing to do with it. This is only a-Muser to tell you, the old one, this Bill of Right is a free word and I just want to admit that I accept this prize of Tom Paine on behalf of James Forman from the Committee of Coordinating Students without violence and on behalf of the people who went to Cuba. “

After the event, the chairman of Ecl Corlissa Lamont wrote a letter to the participants of dinner, apologizing on his behalf, stating: “Many of our friends rejected our choice of Bob Dylan for Tom Paine. Without defending his acceptance speech, I would like to say why we think he deserved the prize. “

He still explains that the Committee “defends the rights of all Americans to support their beliefs. This is not limited to ideology or political groups. Certainly, it should be extended to our own youth, which according to many experts is becoming more and more alienated and lost in our current society. Regardless of whether we approve or not, Bob Dylan has become the idol of today’s progressive young people, regardless of their political fractions. He speaks with them in terms of protest that they understand and applaud. ”

Dylan himself followed the chairman’s letter with his own answer. Written freely in the verse and with a lot of enjambment, he saw Dylan in an environment, which perhaps for him was more convenient for him, the world of the craftsmanship, as opposed to improvised public speeches, and thus gained him to ensure the context in his unique style. He said: “When I talked about Lee Oswald, I talked about times / I didn’t talk about his act if it was his act. / The act speaks for himself / but I am sick / yes sick / in Hearn “we all divide the guilt” for each / bombardment church, a battle for weapons, a mine disaster, a poverty explosion, the president killing this / appears. “

Later in his answer, he said: “Yes, if violence appears in time / there must be violence in me.”

Despite the context, Dylan’s reference to Oswald was a shocking inclusion in a speech given to the nation still in the strict stages of national mourning. While he was certainly about talking about the participation of society in isolated tragedies, the dust threw out the position of Dylan from the statement as a fierce defender of civil rights. However, in the following years, the poetic overthrow of Dylan for Eclu was a place for his music, which painted a wider picture of his point with the way the bore, whose acceptance of the prize could never have achieved.

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