Bob Dylan's Instagram Posts Part 3

The Hidden Story

I’m discovering that it’s hard to concentrate on much else when Bob Dylan is messing with you. I need to pack for a trip. I have bills to pay. But first I need to tell you about this.

Two nights ago, in response to my article on his last seven Instagram posts, Bob posted three more clips.

It really made me smile.

Why do I say these film segments are in response to my writing? Am I just another Dylan nutcase? Well, yes, but…

Please start at the very beginning, Chapter One of my book-in-process, “I Don’t Love Nobody”: Hidden Stories from Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. I’ve been drafting the tale for four years now and it’s getting close. Six chapters are up on this platform, and you’ll want to read them all for the full picture. I have just a few more to revise, and I intend to publish a paper copy this year. (If you’ve been with me through all my early, crappy drafts, thank you, you deserve a prize.)

But in brief, Bob Dylan is mirroring my manuscript on Instagram because “I Don’t Love Nobody” tells the hidden story about the poetics of his last album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, and especially about the gorgeous cut, “Key West (Philosopher Pirate).” And the central fact of that story is that the lyrical narrative of “Key West” is based on episodes in my 2011 self-published memoir, The Golden Bird. Bob Dylan is responding to my writing with pun and film allusions and song lyrics because my story is his story, and I think he wants you to know.

But he’s not going to spell it out. That’s not his way. He’s a trickster and a puzzler. So I guess it must be up to me.

You’ve heard it here before: It’s all about the mirrors.

I don’t have time today to go through Dylan’s new set of Instagram posts and show how they reflect various elements of “I Don’t Love Nobody.” I’ll be back in a few days with that. But for now, if you’re intrigued, I’ll leave you with a teaser you can check out yourself. Read my first two pieces about his Instagram posts, here and here. If you have time, read my last chapter, “Hindu Rituals and Gumbo Limbo Spirituals.” Pay attention to all the bits concerning an episode in The Golden Bird about a violent storm in the Colorado mountains, and a certain poetic incantation. I show how Dylan has already punned on this episode in his earlier Instagram posts. Then take a look at Dylan’s final post from Sunday evening, a clip from the Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn 1956 film, The Rainmaker.

Sure made me smile. See you soon.