Exhibit Review
Get to know Bob Dylan as a young man

By Patrick MacDonald
Seattle Times music critic

SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT A photo of Bob Dylan in 1963, part of EMP's exhibit "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966," which also features many personal objects.

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Five years into its existence, Experience Music Project has produced its masterpiece.

"Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966," which opens Saturday, stands alongside the museum's permanent Jimi Hendrix exhibit — literally and figuratively — as the finest work ever done by EMP.

But unlike the Hendrix exhibit, this one will tour the world, including a stay at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The traveling exhibit is sure to enhance the museum's image and entice more visitors from throughout the world.

EMP's timing is perfect. When Robert Santelli, director of EMP programs, proposed the exhibit several years ago, he had no idea it would open at a time when Dylan himself would be revisiting his artistic roots through his brilliant new book, "Chronicles: Volume One," and several interviews he has granted in conjunction with it. Santelli himself will soon interview him, which will be part of a documentary on Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese, to be broadcast next July as part of PBS' "American Masters" series.

Surprises for Dylan fans

Coming up "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966," opens Saturday and continues through Sept. 5, 2005, at Experience Music Project, Seattle Center. Included with museum admission: $19.95, $15.95 seniors, $14.95 youth 7-17; open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays (closes 4 p.m. Thanksgiving eve; closed Thanksgiving); 206-EMP-LIVE, www.emplive.com.

Even those who think they know Dylan well will be surprised by the exhibit, because it contains many things never before seen or heard, including a 24-minute excerpt from his first concert in New York, attended by 53 people at Carnegie Chapter Hall on Nov. 4, 1961. He's heard conversing with the crowd, because there were so few there, and singing some of his earliest original songs.

A large, untitled painting, measuring 5 feet by 3 feet, will make fans forget Dylan's crude artwork for the "Self Portrait" album and the few other small paintings that have surfaced. This one, a Chagall-like, bright, colorful portrait of a woman that is also filled with symbolism, will have Dylanologists deciphering it for years to come.

In keeping with EMP's hands-on approach, the exhibit includes listening and visual booths where concertgoers can hear and see Dylan performing, along with music from others that shows his influence, especially on folk-rock. Four 10-minute films are part of the exhibit, and a 22-minute concert film is shown continually at JBL Theater. All were made at EMP.

Of all the material collected for the exhibit, probably the strangest was 1,500 pounds of iron ore. It makes up a wall at the beginning of the exhibit, which traces Dylan's childhood as Robert Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minn., where mining iron ore is the main industry.

"We wanted the exhibit to have a tactile feel," explained curator Jasen Emmons. That's also why a concrete wall is used in the section about Dylan's days in Greenwich Village. The concrete is supposed to represent the gritty streets of New York — but it doesn't quite work, Emmons admits, because the photos and other visuals superimposed onto it came out grainy and hard to read.

A huge tambourine

Small delights pop up throughout the exhibit. In a high-school yearbook Dylan writes to a classmate: "You've got the most beautifulist hair in the school," and "My head's going round 'n' round," signed "Bobby Zimmerman."

A book report by Zimmerman titled "Does John Steinbeck Sympathize With His Characters?" was obtained by Emmons when he visited Dylan's high-school English teacher in Hibbing. The teacher told Emmons that he is, of course, thrilled that one of his students became a major American literary figure, whose poetry is taught in college courses. But "Bobby," as the teacher calls him, didn't get a very good grade on the paper.

Dylan's habit of signing copies of his early albums with lyrics from his own songs is represented by several such album covers. Sometimes he also put the year after his signature. Handwritten lyrics for "Blowin' in the Wind," "Like a Rolling Stone," "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Ballad in Plain D" are on exhibit, as well as several of his typewritten lyrics, some with notations.

There is a very funny letter he wrote as and signed "Joan Baez" to her mother, as well as a letter from the real Baez telling her mom not to show it to her dad — because she and Dylan obviously are lovers. Biographers who suspect Dylan never loved Baez but merely used her (she was more popular at the time) should take a good look at that letter.

When you see the tambourine that inspired "Mr. Tambourine Man" you can see how a song could be played on it. It's huge.

Other delights are around every corner. There is much to see and learn, even for those young enough to be unaware of Dylan, because his early history is intertwined with that of America at the time, especially the civil-rights struggle.

Santelli said Dylan plans to tour the exhibit himself. Dylan's manager, other associates and friends cooperated with EMP on the project, which is why it has so many personal objects.

"It humanizes Dylan," Emmons said. "It shows the biggest evolution of him as an artist. It adds to his appeal. But it doesn't undermine the mystique."

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312

or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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