We've had no shortage of reports of what will appear on Bob Dylan's next album, Tempest, from Mexican instruments to a 14-minute epic about the Titanic. Now, the man himself has shed some light on what to expect when the album drops on September 11 via Columbia Records.
He spoke with Rolling Stone about the Titanic song, which is called "Tempest" and was inspired by the Carter Family's "The Titanic." Apparently, the song takes liberties with the true historical events surrounding the shipwreck, since it tells of vicious on-deck fighting and -- most amazingly -- Titanic film star Leonardo DiCaprio factors in somehow. We're not quite sure what Leo's role in the song is, but we're envisioning something like Tim Heidecker's parody tune.
"People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful,'" Dylan told the publication. "But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name."
As for the content of the rest of the album, Dylan explained, "I wanted to make something more religious. I just didn't have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off ten times with the same thread -- than it does with a record like I ended up with."
In other words, the final product isn't jam-packed with gospel tunes. Rather, it concerns love, revenge, and even the death of John Lennon; the late Beatle is the subject of the tribute tune "Roll On, John."
In other Bob Dylan news, the bestselling book Imagine: How Creativity Works is going off the market after author Jonah Lehrer, a writer for The New Yorker, admitted to fabricating quotes from Dylan for the tome. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called the the incident a "serious misuse of quotations" and is stopping shipments in addition to withdrawing electronic copies.
Dylan is touring North America this month and again in October. See his schedule here.
He spoke with Rolling Stone about the Titanic song, which is called "Tempest" and was inspired by the Carter Family's "The Titanic." Apparently, the song takes liberties with the true historical events surrounding the shipwreck, since it tells of vicious on-deck fighting and -- most amazingly -- Titanic film star Leonardo DiCaprio factors in somehow. We're not quite sure what Leo's role in the song is, but we're envisioning something like Tim Heidecker's parody tune.
"People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful,'" Dylan told the publication. "But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name."
As for the content of the rest of the album, Dylan explained, "I wanted to make something more religious. I just didn't have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off ten times with the same thread -- than it does with a record like I ended up with."
In other words, the final product isn't jam-packed with gospel tunes. Rather, it concerns love, revenge, and even the death of John Lennon; the late Beatle is the subject of the tribute tune "Roll On, John."
In other Bob Dylan news, the bestselling book Imagine: How Creativity Works is going off the market after author Jonah Lehrer, a writer for The New Yorker, admitted to fabricating quotes from Dylan for the tome. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called the the incident a "serious misuse of quotations" and is stopping shipments in addition to withdrawing electronic copies.
Dylan is touring North America this month and again in October. See his schedule here.
Bob Dylan's Titanic by Tim Heidecker from Tim Heidecker on Vimeo.
