Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan and Ray Davies: This Is Captain America Calling
jeffcochran.substack.com
Give Jimmy Carter credit. As father to three boys coming of age in the ’60s, he’d hear their favorite recording acts — Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers Band, Simon and Garfunkel, et al, — on the stereo, and instead of screaming for them to “turn that racket down,” he decided to actually listen to the music himself. Carter took a liking to the way the Allman Brothers Band fused rock, blues and jazz. And he regarded Bob Dylan’s lyrics as poetry. Carter talked Dylan up to friends, and to those who might vote for him as he plotted a run for the presidency. He attended a concert by Bob Dylan and The Band in Atlanta’s Omni in the winter of ’74. His presence was announced just before the concert. “Hmm…., this is different,” I thought, as the announcement was made to polite applause. Generally I thought of Carter, then in his last year as Georgia’s governor, as a moderate Democrat who taught Sunday school, but never as a rock and roll fan.
Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan and Ray Davies: This Is Captain America Calling
Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan and Ray Davies: This…
Jimmy Carter, Bob Dylan and Ray Davies: This Is Captain America Calling
Give Jimmy Carter credit. As father to three boys coming of age in the ’60s, he’d hear their favorite recording acts — Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers Band, Simon and Garfunkel, et al, — on the stereo, and instead of screaming for them to “turn that racket down,” he decided to actually listen to the music himself. Carter took a liking to the way the Allman Brothers Band fused rock, blues and jazz. And he regarded Bob Dylan’s lyrics as poetry. Carter talked Dylan up to friends, and to those who might vote for him as he plotted a run for the presidency. He attended a concert by Bob Dylan and The Band in Atlanta’s Omni in the winter of ’74. His presence was announced just before the concert. “Hmm…., this is different,” I thought, as the announcement was made to polite applause. Generally I thought of Carter, then in his last year as Georgia’s governor, as a moderate Democrat who taught Sunday school, but never as a rock and roll fan.