{"id":72627,"date":"2019-08-20T17:05:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T15:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=72627"},"modified":"2019-08-20T07:51:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T05:51:28","slug":"24-05-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=72627","title":{"rendered":"Louis Kemp Memoir Pulls Back the Curtain on Bob Dylan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish Journal<\/h2>\n

Louis Kemp Memoir Pulls Back the Curtain on Bob Dylan<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

STEVEN MIRKIN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the recently released concert documentary by Martin Scorsese chronicling Bob Dylan\u2019s 1975 \u201cRolling Thunder Revue\u201d tour, Dylan says, \u201cIf someone\u2019s wearing a mask, they\u2019re going to tell you the truth.\u201d But some have argued Dylan has been wearing a mask ever since he legally changed his name to Bob Dylan from Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1962.<\/span><\/p>\n

There have been a library\u2019s worth of books trying to explain what\u2019s behind that Bob Dylan mask \u2014 even his trash was deemed worthy of study \u2014 but large swaths of Dylan\u2019s life remain unkown. How serious was his 1966 motorcycle accident? What led him to embrace evangelical Christianity in the late 1970s? What brought him back to Judaism a few years later, and what was behind his appearances on the 1989 Chabad telethon?<\/span><\/p>\n

If few people know Bob Dylan, even fewer can lay claim to knowing Robert Zimmerman. But Louie Kemp may come close. Dylan\u2019s best friend since the duo met at summer camp in 1953, and also the producer of his \u201cRolling Thunder Revue\u201d tour, Kemp has just released his memoir, \u201cDylan & Me: 50 Years of Adventures\u201d (Westrose Press).<\/span><\/p>\n

In it, Kemp provides readers with glimpses into the unguarded Dylan \u2014 the good friend, family man and Jewish seeker. Opening with how he met Dylan at the Wisconsin summer camp, Kemp portrays the teenage Zimmerman as polite and well-spoken but mischievous. He\u2019s the guy who shows up for a school formal in a leather jacket, black jeans and a pink ruffled shirt. But he\u2019s also a nice Jewish boy. When Dylan\u2019s friend Larry Kegan is paralyzed in a diving accident, Dylan regularly shows up in his hospital room with his guitar and, in 1981, invites him onstage for a song.<\/span><\/p>\n

After high school, Kemp and Dylan drifted apart. Dylan spent a year in college before heading to New York, while Kemp stayed in school and eventually took over his family\u2019s successful fish business. They reconnected in 1972 (after Mrs. Zimmerman told Kemp he should look up her son the next time he\u2019s in New \u2013York). The duo picked up right where they left off as teens \u2014 engaging in horseplay and making a crank call to Kemp\u2019s girlfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friendship rekindled, the book hits its stride as Dylan invites Kemp to the set of the 1973 film \u201cPat Garrett and Billy the Kid,\u201d for which Dylan composed the music; asks him to tag along on his 1974 comeback tour with the roots rock group the Band; and asks him to produce \u201cRolling Thunder Revue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kemp initially demurred, but Dylan insisted, \u201cLouis, you can sell fish; you can sell tickets.\u201d It was a smart move. \u201cRolling Thunder\u201d was an improvised caravan starring Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and the Byrds\u2019 Roger McGuinn. It would play small rooms without any advance promotion, the show announced by handbills. Any music business professional would have rejected the idea. But Kemp not only was someone Dylan trusted, he was unimpressed by the whole rock \u2019n\u2019 roll milieu. He could walk into Columbia Records and demand $100,000 in tour support, and when someone threatened he\u2019d never work in rock \u2019n\u2019 roll again, Kemp shrugged and said he had a successful fish business, \u201cand the fish don\u2019t talk back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the book, Kemp comes off as a grounding force on the tour, keeping the ballooning troupe and overly aggressive members of the press in line. He even manages to puncture Dylan\u2019s aura. While vacationing on a Mexican beach, Dylan constantly wears a heavy leather jacket. Someone assumes it\u2019s because he \u201cmust feel a chill nobody else can feel.\u201d Kemp says, \u201cMaybe he just liked wearing the jacket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After \u201cRolling Thunder,\u201d Kemp and Dylan settled in Los Angeles to live the bachelor life. As Dylan began embracing evangelical Christianity in 1979, Kemp became a more observant Jew, eventually becoming a Chabadnik, determined to \u201cbring Bobby home.\u201d For Kemp, Dylan\u2019s Judaism is key to understanding the man. \u201cThere\u2019s no question in my mind,\u201d he writes, \u201cthat Bobby\u2019s drive to write songs that mattered was born at least in part from his roots as a Jew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

recomended by: Leon Rozenbaum<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nIt must have taken. By 1983, Dylan had returned to his Jewish roots and Kemp writes a chapter about taking Dylan and Marlon Brando to a Passover seder. That same year, Dylan\u2019s album \u201cInfidels\u201d included \u201cNeighborhood Bully,\u201d a biting, pro-Israel rocker.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final chapters offer a view of Dylan that few have seen. Dylan as a doting father taking his son Jesse to the Super Bowl. Dylan interrogating Kemp\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, making sure she\u2019s worthy of his friend. And finally, Dylan attending a Yom Kippur service at the Santa Monica Chabad House in 2007, where he is asked to open the ark by Rabbi Avraham Levitansky. He\u2019s wearing his usual scruffy attire \u2014 torn jeans and a hoodie \u2014 and is mistaken by a congregant for a homeless person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kemp ends with a benediction, telling Dylan, \u201cIt\u2019s obvious God has chosen you \u2026 to bring special light and knowledge to this world \u2026 may He bless you in this world and the world to come with pleasure and peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDylan and Me\u201d is available on Amazon<\/strong><\/span><\/a> starting August 15 and online.<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Jewish Journal Louis Kemp Memoir Pulls Back the Curtain on Bob Dylan STEVEN MIRKIN In the recently released concert documentary by Martin Scorsese chronicling Bob Dylan\u2019s 1975 \u201cRolling Thunder Revue\u201d tour, Dylan says, \u201cIf someone\u2019s wearing a mask, they\u2019re going to tell you the truth.\u201d But some have argued Dylan has been wearing a mask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72627"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72639,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72627\/revisions\/72639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}