I was 12 years old when I first saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It being a seminal film about high school rebelliousness, it was all a little over my head at the time, particularly the concept that you could just skip class. (I would perfect the art myself by my junior year of high school, with no need for an elaborate scheme involving a mannequin in my bed. There were benefits to being a latchkey kid!)
One thing that stuck with me was just how good a singer Ferris was, particularly his electric and mesmerizing howls as he belted out a refrain that sounded like “Twist it out” on a parade float. At that point in my life, most of my musical tastes were informed by what I saw on MTV or heard on the radio in the car with my parents — I’d never heard anything like the song. I immediately told my mom about it and asked her to buy me the “Ferris Bueller” album.
She had no idea what I was talking about and asked me what song I was so enamored of. Dutifully, I did my best attempt at singing the song I thought was called “Twist It Out” by Ferris Bueller, which sent her into peals of laughter.
“That’s the Beatles, Chris,” she told me, and few sentences have had a bigger impact on my life. Once I realized the Beatles were, in fact, not a fictional suburban kid played by Matthew Broderick, I walked out of a music store with a copy of Please Please Me, and a lifelong love affair with the Fab Four was born.
(Interestingly enough, I’ve met several other people who fell in love with the Beatles after seeing the movie. I once told this to a therapist as if I had just attained a major breakthrough, and she sighed and asked me to please, please stop referencing ’80s films. After I shifted to the ’90s and used Point Break to explain my distrust of surfers, our professional relationship came to a sad end.)
We all have that one artist or band. Maybe we don’t say silly terms like “favorite band,” but deep down, we know whom we’d name as our favorite if there were a gun to our heads. For Ray Padgett, it’s the music of one Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan.
Padgett has written books about Leonard Cohen and obsesses over the work of “Weird Al” Yankovic (a yin/yang of musicians if there ever was one), but no musician has had a bigger effect on him than Dylan. The Chicago native and Burlington-based writer became obsessed with Dylan’s music in high school, after his father took him to see the famously mysterious singer-songwriter play live in Chicago in 2004. “Very different than the oldies-type act I expected,” Padgett recalled.
While at Dartmouth College, Padgett started a Dylan blog and a radio show. These days, he writes a Dylan Substack, “Flagging Down the Double E’s,” which traces the history of Dylan’s concerts over his decades-long career. With more than 10,000 subscribers, the newsletter is essential reading for fellow Dylan obsessives. It also features fascinating interviews with some of Dylan’s key collaborators and backing musicians over the years, from drummer Jim Keltner to 92-year-old singer-songwriter Ramblin’ Jack Elliott to Benmont Tench, a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Around 2020, Padgett contemplated turning those interviews into a book.
“I really thought this would only interest the Dylan superfans,” Padgett told me over lunch in downtown Burlington last week. “It was COVID, I had nothing but time on my hands, obviously, and I figured, Hey, I already have all these subscribers. I know at least these people will buy the thing.”
Thus Pledging My Time: Conversations With Bob Dylan Band Members was born. Released in early June to stellar reviews in and out of the Dylan world, the book features interviews with more than 40 sources, covering a period from the earliest days of Dylan’s career in the 1960s to his most recent tours.
It’s a fascinating and at times heartwarming read. Dylan has always been a tough nut for writers to crack, keeping a locked door on his inner circle. Using anecdotes from those who moved in and out of that circle, Padgett shows us a rare version of Dylan that few other writers, if any, have managed to capture on the page.
“I really liked talking to all these people, because … Dylan can really be this normal, funny, warm guy if you’re on the inside,” Padgett said. “I mean, it’s not like Dylan was ever going to talk to me, but it almost works better without him, because you can get such a cool portrait of what he’s like once his guard is down.”
Padgett’s previous books — Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time (2017) and his 33 1/3 series entry, I’m Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (2020) — were released by publishers. With Pledging My Time, Padgett decided to self-publish.
“It just made a lot of sense, really,” he said. “I already had this built-in audience that read the newsletter, which takes some pressure off. It’s a lot more work as a writer, but you definitely keep more of the money, so it’s a bit of a trade-off.”
Promoting the book has been different as well, with Padgett largely focusing on reaching out to fellow Dylan obsessives. He made a virtual appearance with the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., in August and has done interviews here and there. For the most part, though, he has put the book out into the world and sat back and watched.
He’ll make his first local promotional appearance on Friday, September 22, at the Phoenix in Waterbury. After a moderated Q&A with Padgett, Eastern Mountain Time singer-songwriter Sean Hood will play a 45-minute set of Dylan songs.
“I kept coming up with dream set lists for Sean,” Padgett said as he leaned across the table with a mischievous smile. “At some point he had to say, ‘You know, just because I can play Dylan songs doesn’t mean I can play them all equally good.’ That’s when I realized it’s best to let the musician work out their own set.”
I pointed out that Dylan would have hated that, which got a laugh from Padgett.
“Oh, he’d have fired my ass on the spot.”
To order a copy of Pledging My Time: Conversations With Bob Dylan Band Members, visit substack.com/@raypadgett.
This article appears in The Performing Arts Preview 2023.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
