Was That Bob Dylan’s Real Oscar Onstage?
Mailbag: Funeral songs, Dylan collectables, "No Time to Think"
I haven’t done a mailbag in a while, but in my recent reader survey (thanks to everyone who filled it out) a number of people expressed interest in another one. And I still had some unanswered questions remaining from the last round, so here are a few!
I’m curious about Bob’s display of his Oscar in concert. Has he ever addressed it in any way? When did he start displaying it at shows? When did he stop? Why did he stop? Was there an Oscar wrangler? Was there special security for the Oscar? Where’s the Oscar now?
— John Averill
The Academy Award showed up on his amplifier almost immediately after Dylan won it—the first sightings come from Australia in Spring 2001, the very tour he was on when he won it (hence him beaming in a remote performance and speech rather than appearing in person). He kept that Oscar statue on stage every night for nearly 18 years! The latest photo I found with it up there came from Fall 2018. I believe it went out when the on-stage mannequins came in in 2019.
Dylan has, to my knowledge, never commented on the Oscar’s night-after-night appearances. But there it sat, on an amp right near him (in later years paired with a Greco-Roman bust and some beads), for almost two full decades.
My big question: Was it Bob’s real Oscar? I texted Larry Campbell, the guitarist when it first showed up, to ask. Larry told me: No, it was not. He added:
“I think the crew guys found this toy store Oscar somewhere. He seemed pretty bemused by it and it just became part of the stage set up. Knowing Bob, that may have meant more to him than the real one.”
Where was that “somewhere” the crew guys found it? They might have found it lying on the stage! Tim Edgeworth pointed me to a fan report that someone tossed a plastic Oscar onstage at one of those Australia shows. Maybe that’s where it came from, or maybe there were several Oscars in rotation. Surely a cheap plastic statue couldn’t survive 18 years worth of wear and tear on the road right? I wonder how many fake Oscars came and went during that time.
Are you a collector of artifacts or memorabilia? If so what are your favorite Dylan items? What’s the white whale you have yet to locate?
— Caryn Rose
Sort of. I don’t have anything that’s worth much money that I’m aware of, but I do like old/obscure printed material. I have a ton of old fanzines I get a kick out of paging through (they’re also quite useful for newsletter research) as well as various fan-made booklets, guides, essays, etc.
The most special are the things people send me. That’s usually readers—one guy gifted me, among other things, an old Tarantula promo standee that now hangs on my office wall—but occasionally they’ve come from people I’ve interviewed. After I interviewed him for my book, Rolling Thunder 1976 percussionist Gary Burke* mailed his actual day-by-day tour itinerary, the stapled booklet the tour distributed to everyone in the band and crew. It contains the key basic info the participants would have needed for each date: What hotel are they staying at, what time’s soundcheck, when’s lunch, etc. Some might not find this minutiae super interesting, but to me it’s a piece of history, and getting it directly from one of the band members makes it extra special.
I don’t really have a white whale. I’m always interested in more old fanzines or other paper ephemera from the past (Trying to downsize and want to give your collection a good home? Hit me up) but there’s no one specific thing.
* Update: After I had already drafted and scheduled this post, word came that Gary Burke passed away over the weekend. Rest in peace Gary.
What music piece do you think Dylan would want to have played at his own funeral?
— Alois Vontobel
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