Advertisement

Bob Dylan “was a saboteur if things were going too well in the studio”

Uncut tells the story of Bob Dylan’s controversial ‘lost decade’, the 1980s, with help from a host of his collaborators, in the new issue, out on Friday (May 23).

Trending Now

Uncut tells the story of Bob Dylan’s controversial ‘lost decade’, the 1980s, with help from a host of his collaborators, in the new issue, out on Friday (May 23).

Dylan’s producers and musicians, including Arthur Baker, Chuck Plotkin, Neil Dorfman and Fred Tackett discuss the songwriter’s unusual working practices and their experiences recording and performing with him.

Advertisement

“I don’t want to use the wrong word here, but Bob was a little bit of an agent provocateur, or he even had a little saboteur in him,” explains Neil Dorfman. “If things were going maybe too well, in somebody else’s definition, he would consciously make an effort to make that stop.

“Whether it was walking away from the piano and vocal mic while he’s doing a take, or, I remember him taking the tinfoil from a sandwich, and standing opening and closing it like an accordion into a vocal mic during a take.

“And, of course, everybody stops playing, thinking there was something wrong technically, but it was just his way of saying, ‘I’m bored with this, I don’t want to do this particular song anymore.’”

Advertisement

The new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014, is out on Friday (May 23).

Advertisement
Advertisement

Latest Issue

Advertisement

Features

Advertisement