New East Village Exhibit Offers New Yorkers A Glimpse At Rare Bob Dylan Images
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After 50 years on stage, singer/songwriter Bob Dylan continues to be one of the most prolific musicians of our time. While some of his most famous handwritten lyrics recently sold for $400,000, you can see some rare images for free, and even take one home for much less than six figures. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.Bob Dylan is considered one of the most original voices in American music. But despite sometimes being aloof on stage, a new exhibit of Dylan photographs by his former stage manager Bill Scheele offers a very personal glimpse of the legendary singer-songwriter.
“I hope they're a little more personal than other people because these are my buddies, these are my friends,” says Bill Scheele, former stage manager for Bob Dylan. “And, as you can see here, Bob's probably wondering what am I doing shooting a picture of him at that time, you know?”
There are about a two-dozen of these images now on display at the 14th Street Y. Scheele took them during Dylan’s tour with The Band in 1974, when they returned to the stage after eight years.
“In ‘65 and ‘66, The Band and Bob were booed heavily for doing all their electric music,” says Scheele. “From the very beginning here, there were just roaring crowds. So you had, like, 20,000 people just going absolutely bonkers and they loved it.”
Many of these very-intimate photos have never been shown publically before.
“[Record executive David Geffen] just happened to be going out with Cher at the time. So, during the party, Cher got to play with Bob and The Band,” Scheele explains of one of the photos.
“This is the only time that Bob sat down at the piano and played,” he says of another. “This is when he played ‘Ballad of a Thin Man.’”
The photographs are being sold as limited-edition prints as a fundraiser for the Jewish community center. Despite Dylan's complicated relationship with Judaism, including converting to Christianity and then back to Judaism, the center’s executive Director Stephen Hazan Arnoff says this exhibit belongs in the building.
“We really care about the arts. And we do care about spirituality,” says Arnoff. “And we do care about identity. And so a great artist has a way of asking questions that maybe some of us are shyer to ask or don't have the ability to ask. And so, to be able to put a great artist like Bob Dylan front and center in this way is actually very inspiring for all of our programs.”
Scheele says after he took photographs, he didn't look at them again for decades. But, once he finally did, he realized he had something very special.
In fact, Scheele says he was so often on the stage, he doesn’t really know how the music sounded in the audience.
“But I heard they were pretty good,” he jokes.
For more information on the exhibit, go to 14StreetY.org.