Bob Dylan talking to the press, 1965

Thanks to some YouTube algorithm or other, I watched this hour-long Bob Dylan press conference taped at the public station KQED, Bob Dylan San Francisco Press Conference 1965 (12/03/1965):

This was at a point in his career where he was widening his marketing beyond his original folk emphasis with his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home. There are references here to the controversy he caused at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965 when he used an electric guitar, which some of the audience considered shocking. I remember thinking of him as being arrogant and flip in responding to questions.

He comes across here as a little quirky but basically friendly, funny, and maybe a little shy, or at least hot in his preferred public element. It's also a glimpse at a different era in media. Compared to 2020, TV was still in the toddler stage in 1965. And audiences were used to absorbing information in somewhat longer intervals than 15-second soundbites.

The press in this group seem to be a mixture of earnest, post-beatnik artsy types, fan magazines, arts and entertainment reporters and a few news reporters who were maybe irritated they were assigned to cover a local concert-promotion event. But once he gets into the swing, he actually seems to be enjoying himself.

There are a few times where he responds to a dumb question with a kind of flip retort. But he doesn't come off as churlish or mean. He seems comfortable talking about his music business generally, including his song writing. He also smokes what must have been at least half a pack of cigarettes during the press conference. But he comes off a friendly and patient for the most part. And he seems to actually enjoy the fact that people find various meanings or significance in his songs that may not have occurred to him.

He was already very popular and famous at this point. His fame as a folk music star gave him a reputation as kind of a popular philosopher, which he doesn't seem to have aspired to be.