| 13th November 2007 09:44 PM |
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| Lazy Bones |
Bob Dylan muse, RIT prof dies at 63
Jeff Spevak
Staff writer
(November 13, 2007) — Jeffrey Owen Jones, a film professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and, inadvertently, the featured metaphor in Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man," has died.
The 63-year-old Pittsford resident died of lung cancer on Sunday, just five days after delivering his final lecture at RIT. And four decades after inspiring Dylan to write these words, delivered over spooky organ and minor-key piano:
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you'll say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
What was happening was the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and Jones, a summer intern at Time magazine, convinced his editor to allow him to do a story on the harmonica's folk-music renaissance. He was introduced to Dylan by Peter, Paul and Mary, and led to a truck, where a five-minute interview was conducted as Dylan groupies pounded on the sides of the vehicle.
As it turned out, the harmonica was irrelevant: The following night, Dylan electrified the folk-music world by plugging in his guitar, creating one of the most talked-about events in popular music.
And that fall, when "Ballad of a Thin Man" was included on the Highway 61 Revisited album, Jones recognized Mister Jones, who Dylan fingered as representing an overly smug academic world, and over-educated to the point of naiveté.
"I was thrilled — in the tainted way I suppose a felon is thrilled to see his name in the newspaper," Jones wrote in a story for Rolling Stone magazine some years later. "I was awed too that Dylan had so accurately read my mind. I resented the caricature but had to admit that there was something happening there at Newport in the summer of 1965, and I didn't know what it was."
"It wasn't a big thing in his life," said his brother, Christopher Jones of New York City. "He was amused by it."
Indeed, much more happened to Jones in the ensuing years. He had been born in Manhattan and raised in Westport, Conn., going on to become a star athlete and Rhodes Scholar finalist at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. He spent time in Uruguay on a Fulbright Scholarship, earned a master's degree at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., and lived in Spain for a while, writing and directing films.
He returned to Williams College to teach Spanish and take on the post of dean of freshmen, moved on to become editor of Psychology Today magazine, worked for CBS, produced promotional and educational videos and won a New York Emmy in 1997 for Outstanding Fine Arts Programming.
He was 54 when he and his wife, Ellen, had a son, Eli. They moved to Pittsford where he had several jobs before settling in at RIT to teach film and animation. With pencil still in hand, he even worked at the Democrat and Chronicle as a copy editor several years ago.
"He just loved Rochester, loved Pittsford, loved his friends here," said Christopher Jones. "He had a 9-year-old son, that's the real tragedy, and he didn't want to spend his last days in some kind of experimental program and not be with his son."
Jones was diagnosed with lung cancer just two months ago, but it quickly spread throughout his body. Besides his wife, Ellen Hyman Jones, son Eli Owen Jones and brother Christopher Jones, he is survived by his brother Robert Haydon Jones of Westport, Conn., and sisters Jeremy Jones of Philadelphia and Jude Anne Jones and Pamela Cathlyn Jones, both of Westport.
A memorial service will be held at 12:30 p.m. today at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 26 Mendon-Ionia Road, Mendon.
"He was a loving person with a tremendous personality," Christopher Jones said. "It's a cliché, but he never had a bad word to say about anyone. People came from literally all over the world — Spain, California, Indianapolis, I mean everywhere — to say goodbye to him."
"Dylan didn't paint a vignette of my brother that one would necessarily be proud of," said his sister Pamela Cathlyn Jones. "But I think my brother was in the middle of history making. As my brother Christopher said, he was highly educated, but full of soul himself, and played the harmonica himself. And he drove a VW."
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007711130327
(via expectingrain.com) |
| 14th November 2007 08:44 AM |
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| jostorm |
Very interestingt read, thanks for posting. |
| 14th November 2007 10:57 AM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
jostorm wrote:
Very interestingt read, thanks for posting.
I thought so, too.
Pleasure... |
| 14th November 2007 11:15 AM |
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| Gazza |
quote:
Lazy Bones wrote:
(November 13, 2007) — Jeffrey Owen Jones, a film professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and, inadvertently, the featured metaphor in Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man," has died.
The 63-year-old Pittsford resident died of lung cancer on Sunday, just five days after delivering his final lecture at RIT. And four decades after inspiring Dylan to write these words, delivered over spooky organ and minor-key piano:
[
have to say its the first time i've heard thats who the inspiration was....although i always found the assertion by some that it was Brian Jones pretty laughable |
| 14th November 2007 11:53 AM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
have to say its the first time i've heard thats who the inspiration was....although i always found the assertion by some that it was Brian Jones pretty laughable
Gary, I thought this to be a fine place to get your attention and ask...do you know if the 2nd Nashville (Ryman) show has circulated? Although, at times delayed, there's no LB entry for that show on jokerman...
cheers! |
| 14th November 2007 11:59 AM |
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| Gazza |
I've only seen one of them (the one with Meet me In the Morning) - and it was incomplete, with the encores missing.
been looking for complete versions of both shows on dime and hungercity. |
| 14th November 2007 12:06 PM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
I've only seen one of them (the one with Meet me In the Morning) - and it was incomplete, with the encores missing.
been looking for complete versions of both shows on dime and hungercity.
Ya, that's the first one. The start of hwy 61 is cut, too.
Thanks... |
| 14th November 2007 12:08 PM |
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Interesting read..always wondered who Mr. Jones was...
And LazyBones..only torrent I've seen from the Ryman show was the Zimmer one on dime, I think...but I lost it in my latest computer meltdown..
Always interesting how we get a Dylan thread going one way or another.  |
| 14th November 2007 12:09 PM |
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| steel driving hammer |
Everybody movin' if they ain't already there...
Everybody got to move, somewhere... |
| 14th November 2007 12:20 PM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
PartyDoll MEG wrote:
Interesting read..always wondered who Mr. Jones was...
And LazyBones..only torrent I've seen from the Ryman show was the Zimmer one on dime, I think...but I lost it in my latest computer meltdown..
Always interesting how we get a Dylan thread going one way or another.
Thanks, Meg! That show is listed as LB-5397 -
http://jokerman.org.uk/lb/detail/LB-05397.html
The taper's deck quit on him.
anxious for Ryman 2 with the live debut of Outlaw Blues and a rare One More Cup of Coffee...
thanks again, guys! |
| 14th November 2007 02:19 PM |
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| Gazza |
quote:
Lazy Bones wrote:
Thanks, Meg! That show is listed as LB-5397 -
http://jokerman.org.uk/lb/detail/LB-05397.html
The taper's deck quit on him.
anxious for Ryman 2 with the live debut of Outlaw Blues and a rare One More Cup of Coffee...
thanks again, guys!
That "Lossless Bob" site is pretty good, although on looking through it one time I was surprised at how many Dylan shows I have in my own collection from years ago that AREN'T listed. |
| 14th November 2007 02:31 PM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
That "Lossless Bob" site is pretty good, although on looking through it one time I was surprised at how many Dylan shows I have in my own collection from years ago that AREN'T listed.
...perhaps your collection is too big, no?
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| 14th November 2007 04:16 PM |
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| Gazza |
There's a double entendre in there straining to be unleashed.... |
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