Pat Dollard | Young Americans

By Naftali Bendavid - (The Swamp)

Now that it turns out Barack Obama and Bob Dylan share a mutual admiration, the analysis can be the beginning of what all this means and how Dylan’s oracular, obscure lyrics might shed light on Obama’s candidacy. After all, the two men are among the most highly analyzed of their times. Dylan’s songs have prompted a talmudic literature so extensive as to constitute an entire field of study, with every utterance and offhand lyric studied as though it were a scrap of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And analyzing Obama’s significance has become an equal obsession in some quarters. Put the two together and you get a sort of harmonic convergence of delphic inquiry, a perfect storm of over-analysis. You can picture a group of geeks in a room somewhere–the sort of people who would otherwise be arguing about the finer points of Klingon grammar, or who used to believe that Paul was dead–cross-referencing Dylan’s lyrics with Obama’s speeches.

An interesting element of Obama’s musical preferences, by the way, as described in the issue of Rolling Stone out today, is that they track some of the candidate’s key demographic support groups. For instance, the candidate says he likes the rappers Jay-Z and Ludacris, and so do many of the young, hip and/or African-American voters who have lent so much energy to his campaign. Obama also cites among his favorites some of the well-worn staples of classic rock radio–songs by the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder–likely to resonate with the educated, upper middle-class voters that form the other key pillar of Obama’s support.

Obama does not mention the Grateful Dead as one of his faves in the Rolling Stone interview. Just a guess, but maybe that’s because he doesn’t want to be associated with the psychedelic, acid-trip, tie-dyed culture that often surrounds the Dead. (”Vote Obama: What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.”) Even in this age of voter microtargeting, it’s not clear Deadheads constitute a demographic the Obama camp wants to pursue. While they are arguably concentrated in key swing states, it’s kind of hard to vote if you’re stoned, and even harder to make sure you pull the right lever. Or so I’m told.

None of this is to suggest that Obama’s stated musical preferences are consciously tailored to attract key voters. If he starts announcing a sudden fondness for, say Garth Brooks, though, that would be highly suspect.

All of this is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s online contest to choose a campaign theme song. Remember that? It was back when many people thought the Clinton campaign was an invincible machine that never made mistakes. (As Dylan might say, “The loser now will be later to win.”) The winner of Clinton’s campaign song contest was “You and I” by Celine Dion, announced in an online video featuring Bill and Hillary Clinton that spoofed the final episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos.” Some might argue that the Clinton’s campaign’s collapse is traceable not to specific primaries or certain strategies, but to the campaign’s fatal decision to rely on Celine Dion as its musical messenger.

But back to Dylan. The rock oracle was effusive recently when asked by The Times of London about the U.S. presidential campaign. “We’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up…Barack Obama,” Dylan said. “He’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I’m hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.”

Obama, for his part, tells Rolling Stone his iPod contains about 30 Dylan songs and the entire “Blood on the Tracks” album. He specifically cites the song “Maggie’s Farm,” which contains lyrics like,”I wake up in the morning/ Fold my hands and pray for rain/ I got a head full of ideas/ That are driving me insane.” Presumably for Obama, some of these are policy ideas.

Glibness aside, the relationship between politicians and artists is always complex. Artists have to be honest or the art doesn’t work. Politicians have to shade the truth. There is a purity in the best art that politics rarely attains. Yet the two spheres somehow strongly attract each other. Artists reach out those who, unlike them, have power to make change in the real world. Politicians are eager for the support of those who awaken the passions and emotions of their followers, who wear the aura of greatness and celebrity. But the pairing, when it comes, is often uneasy.

As for the Obama-Dylan pairing, many Dylan songs express Obama’s theme of change, such as “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (”Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call/ Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall.”) And of course the bard has written any number of songs about social justice, from the murder of Medgar Evers to the conviction of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

Certainly Dylan has had plenty of caustic things to say about war, which fits Obama’s opposition on Iraq. In “Masters of War,” Dylan wrote, “You fasten the triggers/ For others to fire/ Then you sit back and watch/ When the death count gets higher.” That could be a succinct expression of Obama’s views on Halliburton. On the other hand, Dylan has noted acidly, “Sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.” And on the album “Infidels,” Dylan expressed his strong support for Israel: “The neighborhood bully just lives to survive/ He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.”

Dylan’s complex Middle East policy aside, you get the feeling Obama isn’t listening Dylan’s early protest songs so much as his first electrified period and beyond, when the songs have been wilder and more personal. In “Maggie’s Farm”–which Obama cites as one of his favorites, especially in this political season–Dylan observes, “I try my best/ To be just like I am/ But everybody wants you/ To be just like them/ They sing while you slave, and I just get bored.”

Beyond that, Obama’s fund-raising success suggests he might not subscribe to the classic Dylan line “Money doesn’t talk, it swears” from “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” That same song, though, contains another lyric that Obama, should he capture the White House, would do well to heed: “Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.”