11 Comments

Great interview. Thanks, Simon! Wondering who or what he had in mind when referring to the Beats as "but a lot of the writing feels lazy or pretentious to me."

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Thanks, Peter, for your positive comment. Elijah Wald refers to the ‘great’ Beats. We must assume that, for him, Ginsberg and Kerouac fall into that category. Eliot Katz is going to share his book on Ginsberg and politics with the interviewee. Maybe he’ll change his mind…

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after all, they were anything but lazy! Though I've heard that word bandied about when referring to Burroughs' cut-ups, but that's just one aspect of his work. Maybe Kerouac 'just typing' is ringing in his ears.. Let's see what headway Eliot can make!

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This land is my land… Johnnys in the basement making up the medicine. . I perform Robert Johnson Walk-in Blues .. Wald is a brilliant cat . . I can’t wait to dig. The flick. Brilliant interview. Revealing and insightful.. Dylan is a Garbo like figure a superstar who lives in the shadows but who’s influence on society is incroyable- and the Oscar for best actor goes to…….

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Thank you as always for your hi-energy enthusiasm and support!

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RBG PROVIDES AN OUTLET FOR HIGH END LITERARY INTERPLAY

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yeah, now! what a great interview, Simon---what a plugged-in cat!

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Thank you!

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Great interview, Simon. I've not read Elijah's Dylan book, but I thought his Robert Johnson book was terrific. One thing struck me as odd, from the author of a book specifically about Dylan going electric - he describes the Free Trade Hall as a 'smaller room'!

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Hi Peter – I think Elijah was merely calculating the fact that there was an audience at Newport which was maybe 10 times the size of that at the Free Trade Hall. Did that favourite venue of old take more than 2,000, I wonder?

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