Don't think twice, it's all right

Some thoughts on Dylan + my archive is now free for all (unlike the US)

Jan 22, 2025

Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, 1964

I have been pouring over old Bob Dylan interviews and listening to my double CD of his early hits on repeat since watching A Complete Unknown over Christmas. Dylan is from Minnesota and I used to work for someone who drove him back and forth from Duluth to the Twin Cities and called him little Bobby when he spoke about him. I would give my left and right tit to have been in that car with them during those rides.

As a life story goes, Dylan’s is not exactly inspiring in the sense that you don’t leave the theater wanting to be him. Although I am definitely going copy some of his Greenwich Village style that had him looking all cute with a little afro, pea coat, black leather blazer, and shirts buttoned up to the top. It was remarkable to follow his journey, and heartbreaking to see a talented artist trying to hold onto his creative spark with both hands, all tangled up in blue in the face of a quick rise to fame that he handles by digging into his addiction and alienating himself from his friends. Although I can’t imagine anyone would be prepared to be the voice of their generation the way that title was thrust upon him.

One of the songs shown being recorded is “Like A Rolling Stone.” I have since listened to that song a bunch trying to notice each of the jangly instruments as distinctive parts, but all I can hear is the “More Cowbell”-levels of the tambourine. Mr. Tambourine Man on this original 1965 recording was played by folk session musician and icon as far as I’m concerned Bruce Langhorne. I am putting in a request right now that if Timothee Chalamet ever comes back to host SNL, they do a reprise of that iconic skit only with Will Ferrel as Langhorne, if his ghost allows.

But back to the movie - one of the crucial moments in this scene in the movie is when guitar player Al Kooper gets cold feet after seeing how talented the other musicians are. At the last minute he jumps in and starts playing the organ even though he had been told to sit on the sidelines. I’m not sure if that was the case in real life, but in the movie, it’s very dramatic - as if it might not have happened except for a simple twist of fate.

This scene came up in a mediation today. As you probably wish you didn’t know, Trump took office yesterday and signed into law 50 Executive Orders and the times they are a changin’. Among them was an EO that said the federal government would no longer acknowledge anything but cis-gender identities in an effort to “protect women.” Since when did the federal government care so much about women? Certainly not Trump or his picks for cabinet who have been charged with or accused of sexual assault, or Elon Musk who has been charged with spousal abuse.

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I was wondering in my mediation how to process this. I wondered, should I try to be more zen and identify less with any gender at all because aren’t we all just meatsuits having a spiritual experience? It certainly would be easier to believe that even if I identify more as a dude on the inside, it’s ok if people treat me just like a woman, specifically people who work for the federal agencies that hold my fate in their hands like a small bird. But what I was shown is that no, like Al Kooper we all have our part to play. Sometimes it takes standing up for what you believe in to make magic happen. And if you don’t show up, everyone misses out on the genius that you bring to the table - like the surprising inclusion of the organ accompaniment in Dylan’s recording that makes it so iconic compared to future covers.

And so I came out of my mediation with a sense of renewed urgency to follow the call that I am hearing to keep going on my gender journey. I hope for those reading that may be going on a similar or parallel transformation in whatever capacity, even if your daily choices feel insignificant or small in the face of the incoming changes, don’t think twice, it’s all right. What you do matters.

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Don't think twice, it's all right

Some thoughts on Dylan + my archive is now free for all (unlike the US)

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