Sunday, October 2, 2005

The “Judas!” guy

I taped No Direction Home the other night but have yet to watch it. So I'm wondering, does Scorsese track down the dude who yelled "Judas!" during the Manchester show in '66? This guy is immortalized. For all I know, the entire documentary is a conversation with him…

Scorsese: "Wow, almost forty years since the infamous 'Judas!' performance! What are your thoughts? How should the world remember you?"

Judas Guy: "I went to the doctor the next morning for a regular physical, and he told me I had aged fifty years in the previous twenty-four hours. That sums up my legacy, alright… standing there with a man's finger up my ass as the world passes by."

MS: "I understand. I mean, it really makes you look foolish in hindsight. But why did you feel so betrayed? Isn't it a performer's right to do what he wants instead of catering to an audience? Besides, he'd been playing electric sets for almost a year at that point—it wasn't shocking like it might have been at Newport. All you had to do was leave after 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and you would have been all set."

JG: "Part of me hoped Bob's artistic and adventurous expression would whither against a collective fear. In the larger scheme we were trying to affect change in society, but by our rules—once someone challenged us with a different set of rules, or, rather, with no rules at all, it wasn't as satisfying. Especially Bob, who would've been nowhere without us. He wanted to go in strange new directions, directions we couldn't control. That integrity really freaked us out."

MS: [Considers this.] "I see." [Pauses.] "Sounds like a mob of short-sighted goons, if you ask me."

JG: [Silence.]

MS: [Notices a stack of records.] "Hey, you still have
Bringing It All Back Home! Mind if I play 'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream'? That shit is funny."

JG: [Silence.] [Eats own poop.]

MS: "Nasty!"

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