How does it feel? To Not Be Recognized, Bob Dylan?

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To be on your own…Bob_Dylan Like a complete unknown.
   
That’s how rock legend Bob Dylan was treated by police in one New Jersey shore community last month when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.
   
Dylan was in Long Branch, N.J., on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in Lakewood that night.
   
Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley says a 24-year-old police officer was apparently unaware of who Dylan was and asked him for identification.
   
The singer wasn’t carrying any, so police took him back to his hotel, where tour staff vouched for him. No charges were filed.
   
How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

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24 thoughts on “How does it feel? To Not Be Recognized, Bob Dylan?”

  2. He was racially profiled?

    Larry King: Were you ever racially profiled?

    Colin Powell: Yes, many times.

    Larry King: And didn’t you ever bring anger to it.

    Colin Powell: Of course. But, you know, anger is best controlled. And sure I got mad.I got mad when I, as a national security adviser to the president of the United States, I went down to meet somebody at Reagan National Airport and nobody recognized — nobody thought I could possibly be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy at Reagan National Airport.

  3. Uh, X, I think Dylan is white.

    Oh god, how bad is it when people don’t even remember your race?

    By the way, who gets a damn if he’s famous? He ought to be treated like everyone else.

  4. Richard, I was thinking the same thing, except I was wondering about Dylan and Kinky Friedman. From your tax and beer post after “Volunteers”, what is an oner?

  5. Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to recognize Bob Dylan if he was walking down the road. Keith Richards, that’s a different story… hard not to make out that guy.

  8. Sorry, X, I missed that. I thought you were making fun of Dylan.

    I mean, look at him…..

    I think we both ought to just start all over and go with something easier, like Keith Richard. The cops are going to stop him one day and wonder if he’s really still alive.

  9. i read this this morning on cnn, and i don’t find it that strange. i’m 25 and a cop. i know/reconginze who bob dylan is (could probably even sing a few of his songs) but i would still ask for an id….how do you know it’s not a look a like?!

  10. The worrying thing here (for me, at least) is that he was apparently arrested for “wandering around” a neighbourhood.
    Christ, is that a crime in the US now? Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh.

  11. He was never arrested for this “incident”. Dylan cooperated fully with the police. There were no handcuffs used, no Miranda rights read. It was not an arrest.

  14. They took away his liberty and transported him to somewhere else until he was identified by hotel staff – for walking down the street. Substitute ‘arrested’ with ‘detained’ you like but that’s still harsh.

  16. In this day and age of serial killers and street punks its just STUPID for anyone, let alone a ‘celebrity’ to not be carrying ID around.

    He’s lucky he didnt end up in a mental hospital or drunk tank, disappearing into the system tagged as a mentally-ill homeless crack-head.

  17. He wasn’t detained! He willingly got into the back of the police cruiser. He willingly went along with the police. There was nothing about this that hints of anything other than the police acting accordingly when people of a neighborhood see someone suspiciously in the backyard of their neighbor. Granted, by the time the police arrived, he was no longer in the backyard of the house for sale, but he was identified as the person who was in that yard. The police asked for ID, which could not be provided; however, the “unknown” person (Dylan) told police that, if they were to take him to the hotel where his touring group was staying, someone there would be able to identify him.
    Think about it, Maffu…if someone you didn’t know was hanging out in the yard of your neighbor (or, even your house), but then started walking down the street…you’d want the police to find out who this person is and what they’re up to, wouldn’t you?

    This is not an arrest. This is not “detaining”…if anything, it’s “giving a ride to someone who should have had identification on him”. He was probably heading back to his hotel anyway, so the police helped him on his way. He wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t inconvenienced. He was given a ride.

  18. Cop – Are you ok, sir?
    Dylan – “There must be some way out of here”
    Cop – I said, are you ok, sir?
    Dylan – “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.”
    Cop – Sir, I think I need some id”
    Dylan – “No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke,
    “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
    But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate,
    So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”
    Cop – “Ummmmm….oooookkkkkkk”

  19. What I read was that
    “a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood”
    which is an odd call to make and an alarming thing to be picked up for.
    I didn’t see anything about him being in a back yard. If that was the case then fair enough – I would have made the call too.
    You obviously have a different source for the story with more info than the one reproduced and linked here.

  22. Have you guys ever heard this guy talk!?

    Officer: Good evening sir
    Dylan: Muha-do-fo nvening off-yourself
    Officer: Let’s see some ID

  24. The part of Long Branch,NJ he was walking around in is a low income,predominatly black neighborhood with a fair amount of drug activity. So a 60+ jewish guy in a cowboy hat would seem a little out of place.

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