Want still more Bob Dylan?

Is "Chronicles, Vol. 2" headed our way? Tubi's got plenty for you

If Bob Dylan was still living in Hibbing, we could check the library. Did he check out books by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway and especially Henry Rollins? What was he up to?

Since he hasn’t put out a record for a while, can we assume he’s culling some really cool sentences he likes from all these writers — especially Rollins — since, it’s Bob Dylan. I mean, he has nothing to say himself, right. How could he write something himself? That Nobel Prize for Literature, well, he got that with Sparknotes, didn’t he?

People do have their hobbies. Some collect two-dollar bills, others collect stamps. Some pour through a paragraph that appeared in Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles, Vol. 1” to see if some words he used were the same words some other writer, particularly Henry Rollins, used. And that’s fine, I suppose but they never talk about punctuation! Did Dylan steal some periods, some dashes, some apostrophes, too? The thief!

If Sean Penn, obviously before he got his $4 haircut at Sport Clips, lets the proverbial cat out of the proverbial bag, letting us know he’s about to record the audiobook for “Chronicles, Vol. 2,” why aren’t we celebrating?

Sean Penn, sporting a $4 Sport Clips haircut, says Chronicles Vol. 2 is next. Check out Tubi!

If, approaching 84, ol’ Bob has saddled up to a keyboard again and is ready to toss us yet another book, why aren’t we over the moon about it? Sure, “The Philosophy of Modern Song” was a bit odd — even for Bob. Have you ever seen someone write a whole book in the second person?

As far as sales go, friends of mine who work in bookstores said it was a dog but hey, it certainly was different and unless I missed it, nobody was claiming he copied Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau or Ellen Willis, breaking down a most unusual array of songs.

No, there weren’t enough women’s songs in there, according to the New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich and he could have had a lot more Capricorn’s in there, too, but you know, as he sang on stage the other night, “If you can’t please everyone, you have to please yourself.”

So, if what Penn is telling us is true — and there’s so many Led Zeppelin reunion posts out there that I know some people don’t believe — I think it’s pretty exciting to see what Bob comes up with. Unless he raided Henry Thoreau, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Gore Vidal and Joseph Heller. I will NOT be checking that, I can tell you.

In the meantime, if you need some more Bob and can’t catch him on tour — or don’t dare — if you have cable, go check out Tubi, an ad-supported streaming service from Fox Corporation that has a slew of Bob Dylan material on there, including “Masked And Anonymous” which I labored through recently and wrote a new assessment with some eerie overtones and all sorts of Bob Dylan-related videos. (See the photo.)

I’ve wandered through some of them; nothing I haven’t seen before, really but it’s always fun to see what they can cook up on Uncle Bob. I counted 13, plus “The Last Waltz,” which is always fun to see. Some are without actual Dylan music, which costs money. But there are a few clips you might like. And if you’re a Dylan fan — which you probably are if you read this far — there might be something you haven’t seen, something you didn’t know.

And if you’ve seen “The Last Waltz” — and if you haven’t, my goodness, get to it —I’ve always wondered who it is Bob points to during “Forever Young.” Some people have suggested it’s his kids, some think it might be a friend or a girlfriend. Or girlfriends (plural.)

I have a different theory. I think it’s Henry Rollins, Bob signaling to him that he was going to be stealing some lines, ideas, phrases from him in a few years when it’s time to write “Chronicles, Vol. 1.” I haven’t found any evidence, of course, but who needs evidence for something like that?

To quote Patrick Henry, I know not what course others may take but as for me, I’m waiting for “Chronicles, Vol. 2.” Bring it on, Uncle Bob.

HERE’S ANOTHER LOOK AT “MASKED AND ANONYMOUS” (in case you missed it)