THE BRIDGE is an in-print UK magazine offered by subscription only and dedicated exclusively to all things BobDylan. In the Summer of 2016, I was honored to be interviewed and reviewed by Syd Astbury, one of their top journalists, and was granted permission to share a few excerpts. At this writing,
THE BRIDGE is now the last “printed-on-paper” Dylan fanzine in existence. I urge you to visit the website to take in the sheer enormity of this priceless body of work and consider subscribing.
The Book Review: “Educated Rap, Seeing The Real You At Last: Life and Love on the Road with Bob Dylan by Sid Astbury.” Excerpts from Volume 55 Summer 2016, p.110 – 115
“Through pursuit to fulfilment and from heartbreak to healing… there are some delicious glimpses into Dylan’s world” ~ Sid Astbury …
This is not a hatchet-job. Despite Lee Shain “being sucked dry of all my self-worth” when the night came falling from the sky, she does not repay Dylan with scorn. On this journey from silhouetted anger to manufactured peace, Dylan gets off lightly. He is a cad, a bounder, but she does not say so. Rather than traduce Dylan, she lets the story tell itself. The real Dylan is revealed through his words and deeds.
What criticism there is she reserves for herself, for being naïve, for being star-struck. She saw what was coming; she let it happen. In defiance of well-ventilated hurt and disappointment (she) vouchsafes that if she had her time all over again she would still want to be Dylan’s girl.
Lee Shain still holds the work of our flawed Song and Dance Man in high regard. We should do the same. Trust the artist, not the man.
The Bridge Interview: Britta Lee Shain By Sid Astbury Excerpts from Summer 2016, Volume 55 p. 06 – 13.
Syd Astbury: I enjoyed your memoir, Seeing The Real You At Last, which I have reviewed for The Bridge and I am very grateful that you have agreed to be interviewed for the next issue of the magazine. Has your relation with Dylan lessened your respect, your affection for Dylan’s songs?
Not at all. He is. And will forever be, the Poet Laureate of the universe. My personal favorite of his albums continues to be Blood On The Tracks with Highway 60 Revisited a close second. The last record of his that truly awed me was Time Out of Mind. One thing about Dylan that I don’t hear people discuss much is what a remarkable writer of love songs he is.
Lots of people get let down by Dylan. How have you coped?
The first draft (of the book) was started as a journal entry. It was 1998. I was living in a remote part of California, up in the mountains – with CNN on the upstairs TV to keep me company–– when I heard the breaking news that Bob Dylan had been hospitalized with a potentially fatal lung infection. I had been married for 5 years at that point, and it hit me that I was still tangled up in Bob. I knew immediately I had to write it out of me, or be tangled up in blue, forever.
Despite the hurt, you said you don’t regret getting close to Dylan and you would go through it all again. What of value did you get out of it?
Again, we are talking about Bob Dylan, the most influential writer of our times. In the end, he’s only human. But in the meantime, he’s the most brilliant hilarious whimsical, endearing and maddening creature on the planet, and as crazy as it sounds, I really did fall in love with him.
Obviously, it’s extremely validating to have someone of that stature, let alone your own personal hero, spend time with you, but I think ultimately, the most valuable thing I came away with was a certain sense of freedom. When you’ve hung out with someone who can essentially do whatever they want whenever they want to do it, and you get a taste of what that’s like, it frees you up going forward. You build a new psychological vocabulary, replacing words like, “I can’t do that, ” with words like “Why not?” Suddenly everything is possible and you realize that the only person really holding you back in life is you.
Go to The Bridge website