The Truth About Bob Dylan’s Falling Out with Pete Seeger

Another Complete Unknown Is Pete Seeger’s Communism

Toward the end of A Complete Unknown, a good biopic about Bob Dylan that opened on Christmas, there is a key scene in which Dylan manager Albert Grossman barks at folk music legend Pete Seeger, “You’re pushing candles, and he’s selling lightbulbs,” to which Seeger retorts, “You’re the only one selling anything here, Albert!” The scene portrays the eve of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and it is pregnant with innuendo. They are all sitting in a …

The Truth About Bob Dylan’s Falling Out with Pete Seeger

One of Bob Dylan’s greatest tricks, in a career full of them, is his endless provocation of academic charlatans, credulous journalists, and his army of Aspergerian superfans. Those opaque lyrics and infrequent interviews—full of tall and contradictory tales, deeply entertaining and obviously false—have left a trail of breadcrumbs that lead off a cliff. Nevertheless, this has somehow managed to produce reams of overdrawn academic interpretations …