Dylan a Sith Lord?

[The Great Quail]

Kelber writes,

> Bob Dylan's renouncing his role as spokesperson for a generation in
> favor of his role as an underwear huckster, etc., etc.

Wow! You speak from a very high tower, don't you? First of all, I don't
think Dylan was ever comfortable with the label of "spokesperson for a
generation." I'd warrant that's a title more accurate in your imagination
than in his reality. Secondly, how does one "renounce" a role almost half a
century old? The 60s are long over, my friend. Dylan's moved on -- his last
few albums have him more in the American folk/tin pan alley/medicine show
huckster tradition. And lastly, I've read -- and this may be apocryphal --
that back in the 60s, a reporter asked Dylan if he'd ever sell out, and he
joked, "Maybe for ladies panties." If that is true, I think the VS ads take
on a new light.

Mind you, I'm not happy that Dylan made those ads; but I am not going to sit
back in my glass house and toss stones at one of the few veritable American
icons left on the landscape because of a potential commercial misstep. (I'd
rather toss a few rocks at his born-again Christian phase, but even that
gave us a few great songs...)

--Quail