Brian McManusLast week it was revealed that New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author Jonah Lehrer made up a few Bob Dylan quotes in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. “It's a hard thing to describe. It's just this sense that you have something to say,” Lehrer fake quotes Dylan about the writing of “Like A Rolling Stone,” following a lengthy anecdote (which he also invented).
Since these sins have been exposed, he's gotten lots of flack; his publisher yanked the book, and Lehrer resigned his New Yorker post. But we should feel bad for the guy, because it turns out fake Dylan quotes are everywhere! We've spent a week combing through the annals of written history, and here are ten even more egregious ones.
10. “I went HAM at Newport.”
-From the 2011 Newport News article, “The Bobby Electric: Looking Back Once Again at the Time That Guy Who Played an Acoustic Didn't Play an Acoustic”
9. “I like these guys. They remind me a lot of a young me.”
-From the liner notes of LMFAO's 2009 album Party Rock
8. “So many people are, like, 'Bob, how does it feel to be on your own? To be without a home? Like a complete unknown? With no direction home?' And I'm, like, DUH, I don't know. THAT'S WHY I ASKED!“
-From 15-year-old Becky Tinsely's 2006 LiveJournal entry “I hung out with this old guy named Bob and he smelled.”
7. “I'm chillin' like a villain on penicillin listenin' to Bob … well, me. Listenin' to me. My name rhymes.”
-From the transcripts of Dylan's 1986 interview with Houston's 101 KLOL
6. “People call me a poet. I'm not. Know who is? That lead singer of Cake. That guy can really spin a yarn.”
-From the 1997 SPIN article “Is Bob Dylan God?”
5. “Folk music is powerful. It can put you to sleep.”
-From Stephen Glass' New Republic article “Big Pharma's Big Secret: Music's Power To Cure All That Ails”
4. “You're a goddamn swagger-jacker, Waters! You know I had this mustache first!”
-From John Waters' 2003 biography Let Them Eat Shit
3. “Let them eat shit!”
-From the 1968 Marie Antoinette biography Let Them Eat Cake
2. “You guys are going to have a very long, very fulfilling career.”
-From Jakob Dylan's 1999 biography The Perks Of Being In The Wallflowers
1. “Hey, I just met you. And this is crazy. But here's my number. Call me Tuesday. That's when I'll be home. I don't have a cell phone.”
-From the forthcoming Carly Rae Jepsen E! True Hollywood Story Ebook, How A Hit Gets Made
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