Bob Dylan Explains A Writing Technique - "Don't Look Back" Outtake, 1965
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 гру 2020
- This is an interesting insight into Dylan's curiosity and creativity. Here he teaches a writing technique called the "cut-up method" to a posse of journalists. The audio is a bit difficult to understand, so I've transcribed the conversation below as well as in the captions for this video (just click CC and the subtitles that I manually created will pop up).
This technique is something that I've heard Dylan use in some of his songs; he'll switch logically-ordered lines in order to make it sound more fun and whimsical. I can't trace an example as of writing this but will update it if one comes to me. Feel free to comment if you've seen this before in Dylan's work.
After this interview, there was a photo session. Dylan held a typewriter. Interestingly enough, I managed to find the exact photo that was taken here and edited it into the video.
DYLAN: It's very hard to explain, I wish I had...
INTERVIEWER 1: Have you read John Lennon's book?
DYLAN: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER 1: Is it anything like that?
DYLAN: Not really...
[tape is changed]
DYLAN: ...you cut it up.
INTERVIEWER 1: What do you mean you cut it up?
DYLAN: Uh... I wrote out the song, you know? And then I cut it up on the paper, like into four. I cut it up in the middle, then I cut it across. And then I rearranged the paper, so it comes out like this. Can I have a piece of that paper?
INTERVIEWER 1: Yeah, of course.
DYLAN: It's just a technique, which some people say some people invented and other people say other people invented. And some people say it's a very old technique. But it goes like that, and you write what you wanna write all through here.
INTERVIEWER 1: Yeah.
DYLAN: [Tearing the paper methodically] And then you cut that. See? And then here's the way it would go, right? This is the way it looks.
INTERVIEWER 2: That paper is now covered with ordinary writing?
Dylan: Yeah, this is ordinary writing. It's covered like that, right?
INTERVIEWER 2: Yeah.
DYLAN: Let me just take these two [pages] and put them here.
INTERVIEWER 2: Mr. Dylan, are you telling us the truth?
DYLAN: Yes.
INTERVIEWER 2: [Laughs]
INTERVIEWER 1: You play about like a...
DYLAN: Well it's called... [Inaudible]
INTERVIEWER 1: It's like a jigsaw puzzle.
DYLAN: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER 1: But you already did this once?
DYLAN: Yeah, just for one song. It didn't work out 'cause the rhyming scheme was kind of weird.
INTERVIEWER 2: Is this for your book, or is this a separate thing altogether?
DYLAN: This is separate... William Burroughs did it in, you know, Naked Lunch.
Peace & Love,
~SP
![Bob Dylan & Joan Baez Sing Together, 1965 ["DON'T LOOK BACK" OUTTAKE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PR5ShVsy7EM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Bob Dylan & Joan Baez Sing Together, 1965 ["DON'T LOOK BACK" OUTTAKE]](/img/tr.png)
Ginsberg & Burroughs called it a " cut up " . They got it from the surrealists . Who knows who devised it originally . Works well if you have the imagination to put the pieces into some semblance of a story .
Bowie used it too - see "Cracked Actor" TV documentary.
They got it from the DADAists! Tzara in particular. Similar, I know.
@@onthewattle Correct . Tristan Tzara was one of the greats . I am quite fond of Duchamp's work as well . I was looking at a small piece by Duchamp in New York at MOMA . I was alone , no other people in the room . Who walks in ? Yoko Ono ! We stood there in silence looking at the piece for a few minutes . She left . One of my favorite memories ! Peace ...
Brion Gysin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brion_Gysin
Trouble is - it doesn't fit the rhyme scheme. Dylan doesn't do cut-ups, he re-arranges faces and gives them all another name!
“Mr Dylan, are you telling us the truth?” Hilarious!
You cant expect Dylan to explain how he writes anymore than mozart compose or van gogh paint. "With a pen or type writer" would have been an honest answer.
It takes one to know one
On a rien sans rien 😎
Another side of Bob Dylan facebook.com/Miss.lonely64
A free french approach according Miss Lonely
Must be extremely hard for a genius like him to explain his process. I just love hearing about how he cut down Like a Rolling Stone from 36 verses to 4.
36??????
well, this was very simple
36 is probably exaggeration but it's plausible he'd edit for brevity, maybe even cutting down quite a lot. I do it all the time and lots of other people do. Given that Dylan's mind seems to be all over the place most of the time it makes sense his drafts might need considerable trimming. Even then, when we're seeing nothing but the finished product, some of his songs have such a rich profusion of ideas and images they've got everything but the kitchen sink thrown in.
Edit: But the cut-and-shuffle technique he described was sheer spoofing, just leading the reporters astray for the hell of it.
He is a widely well known exaggerator, heck he outright lies about the most mundane things. very unreliable to believe anything he says.
@@bucky7162 He told someone once that his father was a riverboat gambler. It's hard to tell sometimes whether Dylan knows who he even is. Such a fertile imagination makes his work incredibly creative but he must be a very confusing person to know.
David Bowie used this technique too for many of his songs. I do it too when I write my poems. I think it's a great technique to use, the finished product is really interesting to read through.
Thanks. I was scrolling through the comments to see if someone mentioned Bowie and this technique.
He's having them on. You can see him smirking, its what Burroughs claimed to do when writing novels.
Oh yeah, he's yanking their chain big time.
@@stevefaure415 pulling their leg even.
@@mondoseguendo6113 taking the metaphorical piss
That's what he wants them to think.
“The Cut-Up Method” - except Burroughs actually did it where here, Dylan is fucking with them.
I can relate to having no way to explain writing, what comes from feelings, experiences that wake you up in the middle of the night or at anytime. Placing together all the random notes on any kind of fragmented puzzle pieces. My favorite poet Bob Dylan.
Great find Sp! Good stuff!
I love his sense of humor!
Im happy this channel exists.
Thank you so much for the captions! I have auditory processing issues and I hugely appreciate your effort.
mysterious, unusual and unique dylan. with his technology, which arouses curiosity and laughter among those around him. beautiful.
Much appreciated Swingin Pig, have a great holiday and stay safe! ✌️❤️🎶
This is very interesting. Thanks for sharing this. Cheers!
"And I said I didn't know that, but then again there's only one I've met, and he just smoked my eyelids, and punched my cigarette" --from Stuck in Mobile.. always loved that line, wonder if he used this kind of technique for that
And he did the same switcharoony on, "The Post Office has been stolen, and the mailbox is locked". A mail box is stolen, a Post Office is locked.
Remarkable Swingin Pig! Thank you for your dedication!🙏❤️
Thanks for sharing Swingin’! :)
This is very cool Swingin’ thank you! I have done that with songs but not ripping them. But drawing arrows and switching parts of verses which is not quite the same but similar is some ways I think. Bob is so cool explaining it to them! I think I am going to watch for evidence of this in some of his songs; especially ones without a strong rhyme scheme. :)
This the Bill Burroughs cut up collage technique . a search for interesting new sentences and ideas .
Amo os comentários pois assim conheço mais de perto e aprendo detalhes de sua história.
Como não amar Bob Dylan !
The original troll. He always went over the heads of the critics. That remark about Naked Lunch was the cherry on top!
EDIT: Seems he was being serious believe it or not
Sorry, what do you mean? Naked Lunch was written using this technique. Maybe I’m missing something though.
@@SwinginPig Oh wow you're right. I had no idea; I thought he was just giving them more shit haha
@@Michael69 Haha that’s what I thought too before researching it. Surprising how he wasn’t a troll here like usual.
@@SwinginPig That's our beloved Dylan: forever mysterious!
@@SwinginPig It sounds as though they asked him for a technique, so he gave them one. One reporter can hardly contain her laughter. Dylan admits he tried it once but it didn't work out. My thought is that he likely did (no troll here). I think the cubist writing on Tangled Up In Blue is the only song where he uses a technique from a different medium (he says as much also).
It’s easy to understand dylan - play whatever he says:backwards. That simple.
Amo os comentários pois assim conheço mais de perto e aprendo detalhes de sua história.
Como não amar Bob Dylan
It's a form of automatic writing. Surrealist technique.
Sell me back to the cigarette
Some folksinger sold y'already to the anarchist
Hahahahahahahahhahahahahh
My absolute favorite Dylan photograph is the one you showed of him holding the typewriter. His expression is inscrutable. Could be hurry up, could be possessive, go away, a little bit of fk you...who knows? Just like his songs. 😎
It looks like he's about to shot put the typewriter.
Mind of a genuine man
Boom! 1st in.
Interestingly enough, when I was an editor of fiction, I sometimes edited stories like that.
yeah, he mentions Burroughs at the end of that first clip. This was a William Burroughs technique - writing down a whole heap of words, then pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting up the page, and rearranging them. I've tried it myself on a few of my poems! It doesn't often work, haha
There is a scene in eat the document, where Dylan riffs on the words written outside a pet shop. Some of what he came up with was nonsense, but some could be used in a song. What I found interesting was the speed which he worked through the phrases. If you watch it, the it seems very plausible that he is telling the truth to the reporters in this clip.
He's so sped up in that clip, and was throughout that whole era. Amphetamines are a hell of a drug.
Bill Burroughs approved.
awesome
it works!
''I figured you lie to the press."
Nice put-on Bob :D
The one time he is kind to reporters in that movie and they edited it out.....
After watching the documentary again recently, I noticed Bob is always friendly and charming with the ladies lol but he was still dealing with reporters in a jesterly way up until 66. I notice after that he was just tired and fed up with answering questions and press conferences
Didn’t know that Dylan used that technique but I shouldn’t be surprised.
This is 9 years before Bowie demonstrated the same technique in the “Cracked Actor” documentary and was loosely credited with bringing it into pop music culture.
That's the first thing I thought of too. 😎
To see them both describe the process on film is interesting. I wonder who had more uppers in their system?
my favorite song and dance man
A genius at work
Another superb cut fro Swingin' Pig!
Glad to see swinging pig. Back. Enjoyed. Dylan. Are previous posts still available on utube ?
The "cut-up" method....I read an interview with Bowie where he stated using this technique also
Yeah he used it and according to him very much. I think he started with the cut up method on his Berlin years with Brian Eno as part of the oblique strategies, but maybe before i don't remember, and it seems like he never stopped using it
@@thetruestrepairman7423 he also used it for diamond dogs, there's a great part of the "cracked actor" film that shows him doing it ua-cam.com/video/m1InCrzGIPU/v-deo.html
It’s like an “exquisite corpse,” technique, really interesting! 🥰
Cadavre Exquis. this is what i always suspected about a great number of his cryptic songs.
you're having me on man
I heard about this techinique. Nice to hear Bob explaining it nowWell, actually not now... It was 1965!
Heeeeheeee 🤗 😉 Good one Bob!
Keep on keepin' on Singin'... 😎
Very young back then.
surrealists called this way of writing CADAVRE EXQUIS (exquisite corpse) ... and they also used it to rearrange sketches or paintings together
Love it big Bob Dylan me .I play abit my slef bob music got me into playing and pick guitar up
I see Joan Baez smiling over to the side there.
And her sister Mimi right next to her, i think..? Excellent footage. A cutting room slice from "don't look back", i'd imagine.
@@HuckleberryAlexander - Yes.
@@HuckleberryAlexander No, that's not Mimi. But yes, it's always great to see any footage that includes Joan, though she's clearly on the periphery in this moment.
@@HuckleberryAlexander Did this get cut? It's been too long since I watched the film - first run in fact - so I don't remember if I saw this scene or not.
He's honestly just fucking with them
This is fun🌺❤️🌞👌
the coolest of the cool
“You must be putting me on”
How the fuck did he keep it together? I laughed my ass off knowing it was a joke. He smirked a little I think, genius.
it wasnt a joke. david bowie used this technique too. it came from the dadaists
Bob Dylan (Duluth, Minnesota; 24 de mayo de 1941), registrado al nacer como Robert Allen Zimmerman.
82 años.
The greatest troll of all.
I have this bridge....in Death Valley....
the irony that he's BEING a cut up, by describing a cut up
He's totally putting them on, and they're eating it up 😂
What did they say at 2:08 that makes everybody laugh?
Not sure! Couldn’t hear it either but will post it if someone figures it out.
Sounds something like "We really have got to have this typewriter if we're going to do more" ? It really is hard to tell!
I re-arrange "Lay Lady Lay" every time I play it. Make up new words. Make up old words. Lot's of color. Lot's of strands in old Duder's head. My clothes are dirty, but my ears are clean.
Looks like the Burows
That’s a journalism tool.
He’s obviously taking the piss. So funny to see.
"HAVE YOU EVER READ THE BIBLE?"
Can someone explain this? I don’t think I understand it at all lol
problem is... no english subtitles...
Juxtaposition
Burroughs Rimbaud Moses
Bowie did the same thing.
This is hilarious. He's having a go 😂😂😂
Hahaha. Easy catch
Thank You 🤗 S-P😎 Vid💙I🎸🎶🙏🔯🕎✡️🙏👍✌️
Bob just played with people. And why not!
I think he was taking the piss
I admit I didn't understand anything about his explanation, in case he was being serious
😂
It's all total bullish-it. Dylan is just making fun of these people by doing this, and pretending he's serious. They are so dumb they will believe anything he says. But he found out this out real early on in his career.
Who was he making fun of when he became a born again Christian?
He writes a song on a piece of paper, then he tears it up -- and they think he's serious? Back then, the country was full of idiots who called themselves 'liberals' and had no idea what was going on. These were people who voted for Kennedy and later for Humphrey -- people like Tommy and Dick Smothers and Peter Paul and Mary --They thought something important was going on and were desperately trying to catch up to it lest it get away from them and they would lose relevance. Bob wrote a whole song about them; the one with Mr. Jones in it. "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?" Bob's point was, nothing much is going on. You guys are just fantasizing and you're making clowns of yourself: "The circus is in town."
@@ardalla535 Google Dadaism. And stop lecturing others while being ignorant. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
@@ardalla535 much ado about nothing
Well non one in their right mind actually takes these songs seriously. It's fun to listen to but no more than that
Dylan explaining his craft to journalists is like a painter explaining his art to a paint maker. Futile.
:)
Bob obviously failed origami class
People don’t laugh like that anymore
Why did he have kissable lips?
Sounds like he was just bullshiitting another reporter
This is why marihuana is so dangerous. People smoke marihuana and write all this crazy stuff and then the marihuana user smokes it and and listens to it and thinks it has some kind of deep philosophical meaning.
What is dangerous about that?
Finally, someone who gets it. The Beatles got this technique of just throwing words together from Dylan, and John Lennon many times talked about how he was just throwing words together to see if they worked, that there wasn't any deep meaning to it. Joni Mitchell talked about how Bob called it his "black box" technique --- whether metaphorically or literally, he was randomly throwing words together as though pulling them from a black box.
It OBVIOUSLY was the drugs. Which is why he told Ed Bradley that he used to be able to do this, but he can't do it anymore. It's because he doesn't take drugs anymore and is stuck with a predominantly rational mind to write his lyrics. But that isn't unusual --- drugs wrote tons of great music in the '60s and '70's. Then, in the '80s, when everyone switched to cocaine, the songs got boring.
In fact, Dylan talked once about how he was just typing vomit for a few hours one night, and pulled from it a song that became a big hit. I forget which song it was. He just pulled phrases and words out and then strung them together and made them more cohesive.
This is why he laughs when he plays those ridiculous lines from "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" --- "yonder stands your orphan with his gun, crying like a fire in the sun". He knows it's ridiculous. It's also why he tells the Time Editor that there's no meaning behind the songs he writes, he just writes them.