Dylan: Well, We've just started playing in Chicago. We've been off the road for about six months.
Blackmore: And how's it looking?
Dylan: Basically it's about the same. Actually, the crowds are a little bigger, this time we're playing outdoors - we haven't played outdoors in a few years so that changes the atmosphere some. Summer nights just kind of hang in the air, get kind of humid much quicker than indoors.
Blackmore: Right, well it's been three years since you were here in London and you played those devastating concerts at the Earl Court and also down at Blackbushe. Are you looking forward to coming back to London?
Dylan: Oh, sure. It seems like they appreciate different things in Europe than they do here. Here they take a lot of things for granted. We've been playing some new songs that nobody has ever heard before. I think people in England react more spontaneously to the stuff that I do than then the people here, you know, you sit here so for long and they take you for granted, you know, and anyway, I've taken lot of my earlier songs from a lot of old English ballads and Irish ballads and stuff like that, so people will probably relate to that a lot more over there than they do here. Here, I'm not really sure if people are aware of where songs like 'Master Of War' or 'Girl From The North Country', where those songs originate and come from.
Blackmore: What was particularly exciting ... When you played Earl's Court last time was, I think a lot of us who followed your music and had been with you over the years, we were, perhaps, a little worried if you'd be playing the old songs when you came last time and you came in with those tremendous new arrangements. Were you at all nervous about whether people would accept the old songs and new arrangements?
Dylan: They did in Europe and in England. They accepted them, they didn't much accept them here and they called them - you know, I think they at the time were saying "Dylan's on a new wave" or "Disco Kick" or something like that, but over there they seemed to .... I didn't think of my songs as disco or they seemed to apply meaning to them which I'd never intended and I didn't find that to be true over there.
Blackmore: Does that mean when you started this tour that you're now doing in America that you've avoided doing re-arrangements of the old songs?
Dylan: Well. I wouldn't call them re-arrangements of the old songs. I think they are really more true to their character now. The band I've got with me now are I think the best band I've ever had. Everybody seems to understand my music more than any band I've ever had - usually I put together bands that wouldn't be put together otherwise, but this time it seemed like that this band is born to be, together with me.
Blackmore: Is there anybody who was in the band that you brought over last time, who'll be coming with you this time?
Dylan: Well, there's just one girl, tha's Carolyn Dennis - she's a really fine singer, she's been with me about three or four years. She's the only one I think who's been with me - most everybody else is new this time over, but I'm sure that you'll like the band.
Blackmore: What's happened since you were here last is you've released the two albums, which really testified to your Christian faith. Are we going to hear more of those songs in your set now?
Dylan: No, you won't be hearing any more of those songs but what happens, you know, is over a period of time those songs become old songs. And we've just finished a new album that I think is really good. We just finished that in the last month and it's supposed to be ready for release now and we'll be playing some stuff off that album too, and then things that go back as far as 'Blowin In The Wind' - I'm trying to do as many songs as i can from just all kind of periods of time.
Blackmore: Is this album something you've done with Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett again?
Dylan: No, I did it by myself this time. Me and a guy named Chuck Plotkin - we just - I go tired of making records that kind of didn't turn out the way that I had planned it to be, but this time, this album, it sounds pretty much the way I hear my music. I think you'll like it.
Blackmore: Well I certainly look forward to it. Did you have any nervousness about coming here after that gap the previous time?
Dylan: Hmmm. Yes, maybe so I did have a little bit of nervousness - you always do. Usually the reception makes me nervous more than the actual performances - I don't get too nervous during the performances, but all the attention and all the media, you know, all that makes me kind of nervous. When you come in at the airport and there's photographers and people ask you questions and all that kind of makes me nervous.
Blackmore: A lot of people listening to you Bob will probably be surprised to hear you say that after what is twenty years of making music before people, that you're still nervous in front of the attention the media gives you.
Dylan: (laughs) No .. I really don't - It just makes me nervous. I just feel people put me in a position that I didn't really start out to be in. I like to perform, I like to play, but the rest of it kind of confuses me sometimes. I'm kind of camera shy. Anyway, I never did like to have my picture taken.
Blackmore: You don't seem to be microphone shy though, you're talking into this telephone very freely.
Dylan: Well, that's a different thing because you can't see me. (laughs)
Blackmore: Well, I certainly look forward to seeing you. What do you think the chances would be of you coming to see us at Capital Radio when you are in London?
Dylan: Well, I don't know - it depends if we have the time, you know. Maybe you'll come backstage at one of the shows or something and I'll get the chance to meet you.
Blackmore: Well, I'd certainly like to do that very much!
Dylan: OK Tim, well listen, I got to go catch the bus.
Blackmore: OK, Well I hope you have a good bus trip and we look forward to seeing you over here in just a couple of weeks time. Good luck with the rest of the tour over your side of the pond.
Dylan: OK, thank you. Bye.
This is one of three telephone interviews that Dylan did in Chicago June 12, 1981 to promote the up coming European tour and the new album, Shot Of Love.
The interview was broadcast by Capitol Radio in London on June 15.
Sources: transcription in Fourth Time Around #1 and tape.