So the Dylan Kid would gather a small audience, people would drop money in his open guitar case, he'd give a studied cool nod and keep playing.

A few years back there was a kid on the Ave that I called the Dylan Kid. He dressed in vintage clothes to wear things that look like Bob Dylan might've worn, back in the day. He had the electric howl of hair, only red. And the sunglasses. And the aloof pose: he obviously studied hard at studied cool. Like Madonna and the British accent she sometimes has.

He would play his acoustic guitar a few storefronts down from the bar, and sing his songs, songs that sounded like Dylan songs from back in the day. Back in the day was back again, at least for him.

I remember him being pretty good, if not particularly original. But then they said that about Dylan too, early on. For awhile the Music Industry kept trying to find the New Bob Dylan: Bruce Springsteen was one of those so anointed. By the New Dylan they meant pretty much the Young Dylan, or at least up to, then stopping, at That Christian Thing. 

Maybe there were a lot of New Dylans that were doing That Christian Thing, and the Music Industry simply ignored all of them: that could've happened. Not likely, but it could have happened. And I'd rather listen to Bob Dylan do That Christian Thing than any Bruce Springsteen, but I'm not going to elaborate on that right now: maybe we can just cut it short and agree to disagree.

So the Dylan Kid would gather a small audience, people would drop money in his open guitar case, he'd give a studied cool nod and keep playing. Not much patter between songs, just his small following applauding and approximating an Experience. From Back In The Day.

There was a way to make him lose his studied cool, though: you just had to ask him to play a Dylan song. You know: a Real One. Sometimes he would say he didn't know any, which was kind of a Dylan thing to say. But sometimes he would get visibly angry: he sung his own songs. With weaving rhymes and whimsical characters and train references.

But when people see Dylan they want to hear Dylan, even if the guy really isn't Dylan. Maybe that is unfortunate, but if you dress like Seventies Elton John you should probably expect someone to ask you to play Bennie And The Jets. On acoustic guitar. I'm sure that someone, somewhere has done exactly that, and it is probably on YouTube.

The Dylan Kid left the Ave years ago. Maybe to a bigger city; maybe he is bouncing around the country, playing small bars in small towns. Where the patrons want him to sing "Like A Rolling Stone." Maybe he now plays a few Dylan songs at these small bars in small towns; people can wear you out that way.

And maybe he is accompanied by a woman who sees him as more than a Dylan facsimile, as she goes through thrift shops trying to find his vintage Dylan clothes. Maybe she understands that he needs a steam shovel, mama, to keep away the dead. Or a dump truck, baby, to unload his head. Hell, perhaps she brings him everything and more, including a blanket to put on their bed. 

I'm not sure what would make a blanket a Dylan Blanket, but I bet he has a pretty good idea on that.

- james james