POD DYLAN
Episode 134 - Lenny Bruce
Rob welcomes fellow Bobcat Michael J. Fillmore to discuss"Lenny Bruce", from 1981's SHOT OF LOVE.
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In a 1981 interview with Dave Herman Bob Dylan said it’s true that he once rode in a taxi cab with Lenny Bruce.
Just listened to this episode. I noticed you are perplexed by the “nor cut off any baby’s heads” line. Given that this is more or less from Bob’s born-again phase, it seems obvious to me (though I don’t have any evidence) that this is an allusion to the massacre of the innocents (google it), where shortly after the birth of Jesus, King Herod allegedly ordered “the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem”. Since Bruce was, you say, no friend of religion, it seems like a concession by Dylan that even so, he wasn’t its worst enemy either.
Pretty grudging-sounding concession, as you say, but still relatively broad-minded, given that on the preceding albums Dylan had been preaching hellfire and damnation, e.g. Precious Angel, lovely tune but: “Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high, when men will beg God to kill them and they won’t be able to die”, or the sentiment of “Gotta serve somebody” – the devil or the lord. Maybe BD felt a kinship with LB’s anti-conformism, and is looking for a way to justify leniency to this infidel. Who knows? Not even Bob, to go by the quotes you give on the podcast.