By now, everyone on the planet knows about the famous Harvard professor who got himself pinched by the Cambridge Cops for mouthing off while they were answering a report of suspicious activity. But the coverage of an eerily similar episode that took place a few days later in New Jersey seems to have garnered negligible coverage.
As described HERE by abc news, A mere forty years after Woodstock, where he did not perform, and fifteen years after Woodstock 94, where he did, Bob Dylan apparently needed a few hours of down time from his current tour stop at the Jersey Shore and took a walk around a nearby neighborhood. Seeking anonymity, he disguised himself as a mental hospital escapee as he tromped around in the rain checking out local real estate listings. The neighbors knew a weirdo when they saw one and called the cops. Just like Skip Gates, Dylan was asked for ID to prove he really was Bob Dylan. The cop, twenty-something Kristie Buble, recognized the name Bob Dylan, but didn't see how the soaking-wet reprobate in the back of her squad car could possibly be someone who was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, as he claimed. Nor was he recognized by any of the other cops who eventually came on the scene. Maybe if he had been wearing his harmonica?
Unlike the dust up in Cambridge, however, the situation was quickly de-fused when the cops brought Dylan back to the hotel where the tour was staying and someone finally produced an ID. Dylan, apparently, took it in stride with no hard feelings.
To some extent, that's the end of the story, but many are asking difficult questions. Is there a double standard that a national flap erupts when a black man is arrested breaking into a (ok, his own) house, but when a 68 year old white man (who is still a celebrity in the minds of many aging music fans) is arrested for merely dressing funny and walking around in broad daylight (and the rain), there is no reaction from the White House, or (with the exception of one abc news article) from the media. Why weren't Bob Dylan and the cop, invited to the White House for a beer? What does this say about America? How is it that we can read about the Dylan bust and smile, while the Gates fiasco brought the world to a standstill?
At least Bob Dylan's travails provide a small break from the never-ending health care debate and shouting match.
2 comments:
If Dylan had asked to speak to the officer's mama. The mother probably would have recognized him.
Maybe Dylan should invite Obama backstage to share a joint?
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