Assorted Highlights From The Bob Dylan Center

Jackets, draft lyrics, and a heavy stacked woman with a smile on her face

This week, we held the first-ever Jokermen/Never Ending Stories corporate retreat in lovely Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Evan, Steve, and I all made the trek to Tulsa to catch the first show of the year on the latest round of Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Rough & Rowdy Ways Tour. You can listen to our immediate post-show debrief on Never Ending Stories already, and Steve and I also offered brief written dispatches on Ray Padgett’s essential Flagging Down The Double E’s newsletter.

In addition to the show, we finally got the chance to visit the Bob Dylan Center. I’ve been aiming to visit the BDC since its opening in May 2022, but Tulsa is a little out of the way, so the stars had yet to align—until Bob decided to kick off his latest tour right down the street, at the beautiful Tulsa Theater.

Part of the American Song Archives, the Bob Dylan Center is a small yet dense museum/cultural hub/repository of any and all Bob Dylan ephemera, from draft lyrics and personal notebooks to stage-worn garments and instruments. During our visit, we spoke to Steve Jenkins, Director of the BDC, who told us that Dylan chose Tulsa in part due to the presence of the Woody Guthrie Archive, which lives just next door in the Woody Guthrie Center.

That Bob would select a such a far-flung locale as the home of his archives just to situate them near those of one of his earliest, greatest idols is deeply touching. It speaks to the senses of history and legacy and communitarianism that run clear through Dylan’s entire discography, from “You’re No Good” to “Murder Most Foul.” It reflects the folk tradition that gave Bob his start, and that he carries on to this day. It’s all one song.

Anyway: I was absolutely delighted by all the weird, wonderful shit on view at the BDC. Ahead of my visit, I was worried the place would cater more to the legions of Timothée Chalamet fans than to freaks like me. Turns out it satisfy those on both ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between. What a miracle.

What follows is an incomplete index of some of the very best shit I saw.

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Tour ‘78 Crew Jacket

A beautiful black satin jacket issued to members of the 1978 tour crew. “Blonde babe riding bareback on a Pegasus” is as apt a visual metaphor for the 1978 sound as anything I can imagine.

Letterman ‘84 BTS Photos

Various prints of photos taken backstage at Late Night With David Letterman in 1984, occasion of the infamous punk-rock “Jokerman”. A formative text for me and many others. Between Dylan, Dave, Paul Shaffer, Liberace, and The Plugz, an overdose of swag. Dig saucy, sassy Bob middle-bottom.

Unused Planet Waves Reissue Cover Art

In 1974, Bob left Columbia Records, the only label he’d ever known, for David Geffen’s recently-founded Asylum. That year he released both Before The Flood and Planet Waves through Asylum, but by the time Blood On The Tracks was due in 1975, Bob had fled back to Columbia, where he’s been ever since.

In 1981, in preparation for a Planet Waves reissue, the A&R folks at Columbia considered replacing the original sketch Bob had done for the cover (“Cast Iron Songs & Torch Ballads”) with a pensive photo of the artist himself. Wisely, they decided against doing so.

“Love And Theft” Promo

Sky full of fire, pain pourin’ down…

Lenny Bruce’s Phone Number & Address

As recorded on a page in one of Bob’s pocket notebooks circa 1964.

It’s surreal enough that people used to carry around little pieces of paper with phone numbers and addresses in their pockets, much less that this person—Bob Dylan—carried around these people’s numbers and addresses. Supposedly, Nico’s deets appear in this notebook too (which makes sense).

Bob Dylan (1962) Reproduction

One of several iconic album covers recreated as a prop for use in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, and by far the worst: an uncanny himbo-fied Timmy washed with a heavy dose of the noise removal Photoshop filter. Elicited a legitimate laugh out loud from me when I saw it.

Newport ‘65 Leather Jacket

The jacket Dylan wore when he became Dylan. Patch pockets, skinny lapels, simple, unadorned design—a classic through and through. It’s in surprisingly good shape; guess he had a wide enough wardrobe by this point that he didn’t need to wear the hell out of it.

Congratulatory Telegrams from Billy Joel & Willie Nelson

You’re telling me that people were still sending telegrams in 1998???

Bob In Studio, 1985

The most interesting things here are the sketches behind Bob, including an in-progress illustration of what appears to be a woman’s ass and pussy, as well as several cheesecake depictions of a bare-breasted bombshell (Carolyn Dennis?).

These won’t be the last tits to appear in this post.

Scratch Rehearsal Script

As anyone who’s read Chronicles knows, some songs that ended up on New Morning were initially written by Bob as part of a collaboration with poet and playwright Archibald Macleish. Dylan wisely backed out of the effort after Macleish tried to rewrite the lyrics to songs like “Father of Night.”

Scratch went on to open on Broadway as a straight play, no music. Roundly criticized as didactic and outmoded, it closed after three performances.

Bob, Lou, Randy, and Tom

The dudes. The boys. The fellas. The lads.

If you look up “Jokermen Mindset” in the dictionary, this is the photo you see.

Blood On The Tracks Notebook

This thing is tiny. The man’s characters can’t be more than a few millimeters tall, yet they’re somehow fully legible. Seems to be open to a page of “Simple Twist of Fate” lyrics (“He woke up, she was gone / He got out of bed, put his clothes back on”). I can only imagine what else is in there.

Infidels Credits Draft

Scratched out by Bob on Ritz-Carlton New York stationary back when the record was known as Surviving In a Ruthless World. I’m deeply amused by the phrase “Hip White Boy,” which appears at least twice—as perfect a description of Bob himself as I’ve ever read.

Various “Jokerman” 45s

Different packaging on the outside, same great “Jokerman” flavor on the inside.

“Not Dark Yet” CD Single

Just a piece of plastic with a few megabytes of music burnt onto its surface. One of the less-remarkable items in the Center’s collection, but a delightful memento of the halcyon days of the compact disc. There’s an undeniable je ne sais quoi to it.

Infidels Promo Poster

An excellent specimen of the impressionistic sketch style Bob was pursuing as a visual artist in the early/mid-80s. The same illustration is featured on the back cover of the Infidels LP, but the poster doesn’t even bother to say whose dang record it is. Iconic.

Bob At Leo Tolstoy’s Estate, 1985

At the invitation of Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Bob visited Russia in 1985 to attend a poetry festival. While he was there, he toured the estate formerly owned by one Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, better known to western audiences as Leo.

If you’ve never read them, I highly recommend The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Hadji Murat, both of which are competitors (along with Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and Joyce’s “The Dead”) for greatest short story/novella ever written. Presumably, Bob would recommend them, too.

Mexican Issue “Tangled Up In Blue” 45

Enredado En El Azul, indeed.

Slow Train Coming Concept Art

A striking take on the cover art for the first release of the Christian era. Clearly, they had the title and the font down, but this illustration bears zero resemblance to the final result. It doesn’t particularly suit the record’s mean, mendacious mood (“When He Returns” excepted), but I dig it nonetheless.

Untitled by Bob Dylan

To quote the man himself: “I got a heavy stacked woman with a smile on her face / And she’s crowned my soul with grace.”

Though he wouldn’t write those lyrics for nearly 50 years, this 1968 painting makes it clear that he was interested in big bosoms and big grins from a young age. Who among us?