Dear God! I have come full circle. I never thought I would live to see the day when Bob Dylan advertised for America. Yes, Bob Dylan was the unofficial, self-appointed poet laureate of the 60’s. He marshaled in protest and protest music like no one else. He stood for defiance and what was wrong with America’s youth. He stood against all our parents had fought for. Or did he?
The bad boy of the 60’s, that gravel-throated young man who had most American parents screaming “turn that commie pinko bastard off!!!” to their kids is now the grand spokesman for America. Pool hall, suit, and somewhere, an American flag.
Bob Dylan, you have made me proud.
Chrysler is now fully owned by Fiat, an Italian company. And of course, the federal government had previously sold the Chrysler shares it received for the bailout at a loss. So the ad is almost false advertising since Chrysler is no longer an American company.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/01/news/companies/fiat-chrysler/
He was always part of that folk music scene, that post Woody Guthrie scene – always into and about Americana. The things he railed about were class inequity, exploitation of the working class, and the Vietnam War. But I think it’s fair to say he always came across as loving America and proud to be American.
As a person who came of age during that time, I never got the opinion that he was America first. Our parents all thought he was a pinko commie. I suppose it was how one defined America in those days. At best, the old ‘parent’ America was out. The times they were a changing.
I think it would be very fair to say that he was anti establishment and all it represented. To many folks, that meant anti-American.