Entertainment
BOB AND RATSO
Larry Sloman goes On the Road with Bob Dylan.
Mon, Jan 27, 2003 12:00 am
Interview by David Bienenstock
Larry Sloman started out covering Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue for Rolling Stone, but got himself fired somewhere along the way. The unorthodox tour was Dylan’s attempt to create a modern-day traveling minstrel show—eschewing larger venues and advance publicity, while featuring an ensemble cast that included Joan Baez, Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell, Allen Ginsberg, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
BOOK EXCERPT: Ratso Earns His Name Ratso stuck it out on the road, eventually weaving the tale into his first book, On the Road with Bob Dylan. Best known for collaborating with Howard Stern on Private Parts and Miss America, Larry Sloman has written over half-a-dozen books, including Steal This Dream, an oral biography of Abbie Hoffman; and Reefer Madness, one of the definitive works on marijuana. Although he’s never been a big toker himself, Ratso earned his Ph.D in herb during his tenure as editor-in-chief of HIGH TIMES (1980-84).
BOOK EXCERPT: Ratso Gets “Access”
On the Road with Bob Dylan eventually fell out of print, but has been resuscitated to coincide with the release of Bob Dylan Live 1975, a two-disc set of live recordings from the Rolling Thunder Revue. Sloman spoke with HIGH TIMES at a studio space in Manhattan, where he was busy editing Vegas Girls Exposed, a “tongue-in-cheek” take on Girls Gone Wild, and the first venture of his new company Shallow Media.
HIGH TIMES REVIEW: Bob Dylan Live 1975
You start out the book writing in first person, then switch to third person. Why?
I moved into third person when Joan Baez called me “Ratso,” because that was a kind of crystallization. I asked her, “Do you call me Ratso because I remind you of Dustin Hoffman?” She said, “No, because you remind me of Ratso Rizzo.” [Hoffman portrayed the character Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy.]
I was this crazed New Yorker. You know, “Hey, I’m reporting here.” So I said, “Yeah, Ratso, that’s cool—it’ll give me an identity, and I can push the envelope even more.” So at that point the book shifts into third person and begins to examine Ratso, because he really became an entity distinct from Larry Sloman. Obviously, the name has stuck.
How did you get the gig covering the Dylan tour?
I did a preview of Blood on the Tracks for Rolling Stone. Dylan came back to New York [in 1975] to record [his next] album Desire, and was also planning the Rolling Thunder tour. I ran into him one night at the Other End [on Bleecker Street] when I was with Roger McGuinn. Dylan yells over to him, “Rogey, you gotta come on tour with me.” And later he said to me, “Hey Larry, you should come too. If there has to be a reporter, it might as well be you.”
Did the tour live up to Dylan’s vision?
There was a real camaraderie on that tour, some kind of alternative cultural expression that would be hard to ever capture again. You had these incredible musicians in their own right—any of them could go around and headline their own bills—but they were all together traveling on this fucking Greyhound bus. And they were smart, because every hotel had a hospitality suite for eating where you could bring friends who wanted to hang out—but it also served as an insulated cocoon to keep everyone on the tour out of trouble. There were some amazing all-night jams in the hospitality suite.
How did you put the book together?
My modus operandi was carrying around a handheld Sony tape recorder. I would just tape everything, the whole tour. It was the Andy Warhol school of book writing. As backup, I also had a small notebook, and I would fill it with notes while I was hanging out. So when the tour ended I had over 100 notebooks filled with scribbles, plus hours and hours of tape.
After the tour, I was back in my apartment on Prince Street in New York City. The magical experience was over, and I was just surrounded by raw data, which was very daunting. First, I had to type all the notes on a manual typewriter, then transcribe all of the tapes myself. And then I had to transform all that raw data into a book.
Has Dylan read it?
Sure. He called it “the War and Peace of Rock and Roll.”
Dylan has had something of an artistic rebirth with his last two albums, Love and Theft and Time Out of Mind? What do you think of his recent work?
Those are great albums. I think if you look at Bob’s career, there was a dry period in the late ’80s/early ’90s when he was just going through the motions. But there was no doubt in my mind that whatever it was, he still had it. The question was when he would be motivated enough to start doing it again.
Do you think there are any musicans today who have the cultural impact of Bob Dylan? Is that even possible today?
Yeah, it’s always possible, but I just don’t see it.
Larry Sloman started out covering Bob Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue for Rolling Stone, but got himself fired somewhere along the way. The unorthodox tour was Dylan’s attempt to create a modern-day traveling minstrel show—eschewing larger venues and advance publicity, while featuring an ensemble cast that included Joan Baez, Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell, Allen Ginsberg, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
BOOK EXCERPT: Ratso Earns His Name Ratso stuck it out on the road, eventually weaving the tale into his first book, On the Road with Bob Dylan. Best known for collaborating with Howard Stern on Private Parts and Miss America, Larry Sloman has written over half-a-dozen books, including Steal This Dream, an oral biography of Abbie Hoffman; and Reefer Madness, one of the definitive works on marijuana. Although he’s never been a big toker himself, Ratso earned his Ph.D in herb during his tenure as editor-in-chief of HIGH TIMES (1980-84).
BOOK EXCERPT: Ratso Gets “Access”
On the Road with Bob Dylan eventually fell out of print, but has been resuscitated to coincide with the release of Bob Dylan Live 1975, a two-disc set of live recordings from the Rolling Thunder Revue. Sloman spoke with HIGH TIMES at a studio space in Manhattan, where he was busy editing Vegas Girls Exposed, a “tongue-in-cheek” take on Girls Gone Wild, and the first venture of his new company Shallow Media.
HIGH TIMES REVIEW: Bob Dylan Live 1975
You start out the book writing in first person, then switch to third person. Why?
I moved into third person when Joan Baez called me “Ratso,” because that was a kind of crystallization. I asked her, “Do you call me Ratso because I remind you of Dustin Hoffman?” She said, “No, because you remind me of Ratso Rizzo.” [Hoffman portrayed the character Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy.]
I was this crazed New Yorker. You know, “Hey, I’m reporting here.” So I said, “Yeah, Ratso, that’s cool—it’ll give me an identity, and I can push the envelope even more.” So at that point the book shifts into third person and begins to examine Ratso, because he really became an entity distinct from Larry Sloman. Obviously, the name has stuck.
How did you get the gig covering the Dylan tour?
I did a preview of Blood on the Tracks for Rolling Stone. Dylan came back to New York [in 1975] to record [his next] album Desire, and was also planning the Rolling Thunder tour. I ran into him one night at the Other End [on Bleecker Street] when I was with Roger McGuinn. Dylan yells over to him, “Rogey, you gotta come on tour with me.” And later he said to me, “Hey Larry, you should come too. If there has to be a reporter, it might as well be you.”
Did the tour live up to Dylan’s vision?
There was a real camaraderie on that tour, some kind of alternative cultural expression that would be hard to ever capture again. You had these incredible musicians in their own right—any of them could go around and headline their own bills—but they were all together traveling on this fucking Greyhound bus. And they were smart, because every hotel had a hospitality suite for eating where you could bring friends who wanted to hang out—but it also served as an insulated cocoon to keep everyone on the tour out of trouble. There were some amazing all-night jams in the hospitality suite.
How did you put the book together?
My modus operandi was carrying around a handheld Sony tape recorder. I would just tape everything, the whole tour. It was the Andy Warhol school of book writing. As backup, I also had a small notebook, and I would fill it with notes while I was hanging out. So when the tour ended I had over 100 notebooks filled with scribbles, plus hours and hours of tape.
After the tour, I was back in my apartment on Prince Street in New York City. The magical experience was over, and I was just surrounded by raw data, which was very daunting. First, I had to type all the notes on a manual typewriter, then transcribe all of the tapes myself. And then I had to transform all that raw data into a book.
Has Dylan read it?
Sure. He called it “the War and Peace of Rock and Roll.”
Dylan has had something of an artistic rebirth with his last two albums, Love and Theft and Time Out of Mind? What do you think of his recent work?
Those are great albums. I think if you look at Bob’s career, there was a dry period in the late ’80s/early ’90s when he was just going through the motions. But there was no doubt in my mind that whatever it was, he still had it. The question was when he would be motivated enough to start doing it again.
Do you think there are any musicans today who have the cultural impact of Bob Dylan? Is that even possible today?
Yeah, it’s always possible, but I just don’t see it.