Yes, you read that right — I’ve had two messages from Bob Dylan. The man himself.
But before we get there, here’s the full story of how it all began — with a little satire, a bit of protest, and a song called Mr. Tangerine Man.
The Birth of Mr. Tangerine Man
When Donald Trump first ran for the U.S. presidency, my old friend Roger Hogan — a Neath boy originally, now a magazine editor and journalist living in Sydney, Australia — was, shall we say, less than impressed.
In the heat of the moment, we decided to write an alternative version of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man. Our version? Mr. Tangerine Man. It was a full-blown, tongue-in-cheek rage against Donald.
Roger wrote most of the lyrics; I recorded the vocals and filmed the video. He uploaded it to YouTube and even put some sponsorship behind it. Within days, it had tens of thousands of views — plenty of positive comments, plenty of negative ones, and, unbelievably, three death threats.
What surprised me most was that Dylan’s record label didn’t slap us with a copyright strike. They’re famously strict. I took their silence as a kind of passive endorsement from the great man himself.
Enter Barbara Dane
A few weeks later, I got an email from a lady named Barbara Dane. She said she was an 89-year-old singer-songwriter from the U.S. East Coast and wanted to cover our version of the song, but couldn’t quite make out all the lyrics. Could I email them to her?
I thought, Ah, bless her, and was about to reply when I noticed her email address: barbara@barbaradane.net.
Curious, I looked up her website — and my jaw dropped.
There was Barbara, both as she is now and as she was back in her heyday: performing with Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, and Pete Seeger, even marching arm-in-arm with Martin Luther King Jr.
There was even a quote from Dylan himself, calling her “the ultimate protest singer.”
I told Roger, and soon he struck up a correspondence with Barbara. They became close friends. He helped promote her biography and documentary in Australia.
When Barbara turned 90, she performed a concert in New York — I think it was at the Stable Theatre — and Bob Dylan himself was going to be there. Barbara planned to perform Mr. Tangerine Man.
Roger and I sent a bouquet of flowers to the stage door. Barbara was deeply touched and sent us a lovely thank-you message afterward.
A Message from Bob
Some time later, I heard an interview with Jack Savoretti, who said he’d collaborated on a song with Dylan — purely through Instagram messages. They’d never even met.
That got me thinking: maybe Dylan might respond to me, too.
So I sent him a message on Instagram, saying I hoped he’d enjoyed Barbara’s concert — and that I also hoped he didn’t mind our version of his song.
To my amazement, I got a reply:
“Very good and appropriate for the times.”
Short. Direct. So Dylan.
I thought, if this had come from some PR flunky, it would’ve read: “Thank you for reaching out. Bob appreciates your kind words…” — all that stuff. But this was brief. Too brief to be anything but genuine.
Still, I wasn’t completely sure. So I messaged Barbara and asked if she thought it was really him.
Minutes later she replied:
“I’ll phone Bob now and ask him.”
(Like you do!)
Half an hour later, she wrote again:
“Yes, Bob said it was him.”
One Last Message
Barbara passed away last year at 97. Roger suggested I write a tribute song for her, which I did, and uploaded it to YouTube. Roger sent it to Barbara’s daughter, who posted it on Barbara’s website and Facebook page.
A couple of weeks later, I got another email — from Bob Dylan’s personal account:
“I like your song for Barbara.”
It had that same trademark brevity.
Barbara’s not here to phone him this time, but I’m pretty confident it was him.
Two messages from Bob Dylan. I’ll take that.
