Writer and musician Richard Strange insists “If you don’t want to be Bob Dylan, you shouldn’t be writing songs”. He takes us on a journey that starts in his Brixton comprehensive (“I was always bunking off, going to art galleries and the haunted, dingy Soho flesh-pot folk clubs”). He discovers “the boy band of Beat literature: Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg”. And he reminds us that Another Side of Bob Dylan still provides “an embarrassment of riches, lyrically and emotionally”. From witnessing a 1964 Kinks concert (“it blew my mind and changed my life”) to eventually working with Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, Mr Strange proudly concludes that “Bob Dylan still haunts me”.

Richard Strange is a writer, musician, composer, nightclub host, curator, actor and adventurer. His proto-punk rock band Doctors of Madness first performed in 1975 (supported by the Sex Pistols). He founded the influential mixed-media Cabaret Futura in 1980 and has subsequently worked as an actor, appearing extensively in films (Batman, Mona Lisa, Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, Gangs of New York and Harry Potter) and on television. His many stage appearances include Tom Waits’ musical fable The Black Rider. His memoir, Strange - Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks was published in 2005. Richard currently presents the weekly radio show Dark Times Radio and is recording again with Doctors of Madness.

Recorded 10th November 2021

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Richard Strange

Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan