He used to not care, but things have changed.
Bob Dylan, who since the early 60s has rarely spoken about politics and almost never about political candidates, yesterday weighed on the election in an impromptu newspaper interview outside his Denmark hotel.
The singer-songwriter, whose last of many "protest" songs was the 1976 classic "Hurricane" (which followed a decade of mostly non-political material), weighed in with his usual round of cryptic metaphors:
Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor.
But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama.
He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.
You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future...
For more from this wise old sage and teller of corny jokes on satellite radio: Masters of War, Chimes of Freedom, Hurricane, The Times They Are A-Changin'... and more...
Via The Times of London.