It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to…
Wait a minute…if you recognize the above lyric as having been written by Bob Dylan and happened to be at the Midland last night for actress/singer Katey Sagal and the “Sons of Anarchy” tour, chances are those words will never sound the same.
Not after Sagal made it clear that the then 33 year-old seminal folk-rock singer tried to force himself upon the 19 year-old Segal and then fired her butt as backup singer after she refused to sleep with him.
That’s right, even at his hippest point in 1973, Dylan was a dirtbag.
Midway through last night’s performance, Sagal reminisced about touring and singing backup with Etta James and Bette Midler and – prior to getting fired before going on tour – a certain well-known artist because she refused to thrash him.
“I just couldn’t go there,” Sagal told the crowd. “When you figure out who wrote this song, you’ll know why. I just couldn’t go there, he wasn’t my type.”
Whereupon Sagal launched into the Dylan penned, “It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry.”
“She should have fucked him,” quipped the artist known as Stretch. “It would have helped her music career.”
Sagal later agreed…that it would have helped her career, that is.
Speaking with fan Shauna Swanson while posing for pictures at a post show meet-and-greet, Sagal laughed and described Dylan as having a “little penis.”
“She said, ‘I was a teenager and he was this big star,” Swanson says. “‘My career would have gone further, but what are you going to do?'”
Interestingly, in John Hinchey‘s book “Like a Complete Unknown: The Poetry of Bob Dylan’s Songs, 1961-1969,” the author says the song can be interpreted as “an allegory of someone who is sexually frustrated.”
Making Sagal’s decision to include it in her set last night along with the anecdote all the more apropos.
And how is this news, most of Hollyweird and the recording industry would be scumbags under this definition.
Stretch has been blowing Guy Fieri. Hasn’t helped his career too much.
Still waiting for the comedy drama Nuns of Anarchy to debut on Comedy Central.
Bobby D must have mellowed in the last two decades because every time I’ve seen him live from Sprit Fest at liberty to the old Midland to the Electric factory in Philly he had “large” black ladies (who were awesome in their backup singing).
Nothing like a Cyclops scorned.
You might want to get out more, pal. Dylan hasn’t had back-up singers in many years.
I was lucky enough to see Bob last year in Cincy, and when he came back out for his encore, he was joined by the McCrary sisters and they sang Blowin in the wind.That was exciting and historic. I was so excited I forgot to take a picture . But other than that ,he hasnt had backup singers for years .
Who is Bob Dylan?
sounds like someone from yesteryear that no one cares about anymore.
But I don’t blame him, Peggy Bundy was hot in the day.
Oh really, Jess. Go back to watching “American Idol”. Sounds like that’s your style.
Like the LA waitress who was asked by John Lennon, wearing a Kotex on his head, Do you know who I am. She replied, yeah an asshole with a Kotex on his head.
Dylan was playing a song, George Jackson, at a party in Carly Simon’s NYC apartment. Really bad song but those in attendance were in awe.
‘Cept for Steve Goodman who said as he passed by Dylan and his hangers-on, well Bob,they can’t all be Masters of War, eh?
Who is Bob Dylan? Just as I thought this generation couldn’t be any more stupid.
You will all be old before you know or understand. Too bad you won’t have any music that means anything when you (or anyone else)then. Have fun kids.
You mad Bro?
You must love some Bob.
Nah, i’m not mad “bro”.
Just laughing at you “know it alls” who have it all figured out before you can shave. Life’s a bitch (as you’ll soon find out)and I’m a bit respectful of someone who’s been making records for 50 years.
(records-definition long laying albums played on a turntable).
Love Bob? Nah, not my type. I’m more of the John Prine/ Steve Goodman type. (wikipedia is a wonderful thing)
But I am smart enough to know he’s the most prolific song writer of any generation.
Me thinks you need some help with music history.
“‘Me thinks you need some help with music history”
Why in the hell would I want to know anything about Bob Dylan?
Listen, Jess. Bob Dylan is one of the greatest
songwriters of all time, you know, you need to know quite a bit of information of this great artist. He`s not just someone from yesteryear for whom nobody cares anymore. Only stupid people who don`t know anything about music
would make such a superficial remark.
OR Chuck Berry or Beethoven. Its easy to see that music ain’t worth much anymore……..Everythings Broken!!!!
“he’s the most prolific song writer of any generation.”
Not sure, but I think Charles Aznavour and King Solomon might’ve bested him in prolificacy. Top honors possibly go to some unknown.
Yeah, guess you’re not supposed to mess with Superman’s cape.
My favorite Bob Dylan story is when he was detained in NJ by cops because they thought he was a mentally ill homeless person.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/jersey-homeowner-calls-cops-bob-dylan/story?id=8331830#.UXGeuLXU9DU
It is even better that the officer who failed to recognize him shares the last name of the worst lounge singer/crooner in Las Vegas, Buble.
I think the point Sagal was trying to make – and that I got – is that even at his hippest point, Dylan was no more than the stereotypical dirty old(er) man.
A 19 year-old girl with pipes wouldn’t eff him and so he fires her butt?
That certainly is not the image Dylan crafted so carefully back in the day.
Disappointing.
Dylan wasn’t touring in 1973. How could she be singing back up with no band?
OK, if she didn’t do the dirty with him, how did she know he had a tiny penis?
Touche!
admin …… the nobility of your cause is awesome – not at all trying to dish the dirt in a lowdown kind of way, but performin’ yer public dooty jes like a sheriff in the ole Wild West!!
As Katy Sagal told a newspaper earlier this month (http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/202610951.html), she was fired by Bob Dylan — along with several other back-up singers — in 1978. (Or rather, they were replaced after six weeks of rehearsals when he decided to use other singers for an upcoming tour.) In the story above, she says Dylan hit on her when she was 19 — that is, in 1973, five years before her tryout with his band didn’t work out. Yet the gossipy story here (which is based on a second-hand report from a ‘fan’ who is said to have talked with Sagal after the show) is that she turned down his sexual advances and so he fired her. This is simply not true. He might have well have come on to her in 1973, in a sleazy way or not, but since she was not working with him in 1973 (no one was; he didn’t have a band and wasn’t touring then), he could not have ‘fired’ her for not sleeping with him. In fact, far from ‘punishing’ her for turning him down, five years later he gave her an extended try-out with his band. For all I know, Dylan may well be sleazy as hell; but the twist on this particular story is untrue and non-factual.
Spot on. I was wondering the same thing. The only sleaze I can find is Mr. Hearne’s haste to print a story with glaring problems in it.
chris floyd (unlike Bob) nailed it.
wow, was there any fact checking at all done for this article???? Dylan didnt tour in 1973, and his next tour was 1974…with legendary The Band. Katey sang in rehearsals in 1978. and not that I care to discuss…but she didnt “go there” with Dylan, yet knows his penis size? ok. great. funny that Katey was also quoted in an interview yesterday saying it was amazing standing next to Dylan singing Just Like A Woman. again, this article is utter trash.
http://m.startribune.com/?id=202610951
I was wondering if anyone was going to catch the fact that this article has more unchecked “facts” than a Glenn Beck broadcast. Sloppy, sloppy.
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The quote attributed to me is not anything I ever wrote. Rather, it is a sentence (one of two, in fact) from a wikipedia article that completely misrepresents what I did have to say about the song.
Can’t believe these headlines make NEWS. Cool perspective, but it’s just a perspective. So, by having sex w/Bob Dylan makes you a star, huh? That’s not true. Ask Jewell. Ask Joni Mitchell, ask Patti Smith…you’ll get a different Dylan. I think like me he gave up on Love on this Middle Earth a long time ago and was so hurt and at a loss that he couldn’t be a great personal love AND be the greatest living poet, artist, Troubadour, whatever he is….and whatever he is, we haven’t figured it out yet. But the Seagall data is of little (pardon the pun) importance. I like Katey Seagall a lot and even know get through a friend in LA. And I always felt Peg was under rated as a kid.