Dylan In The Name Of

“The Sixties, if not quite the paradise they’re often painted in hindsight, was an exciting era to grow through, a time for questioning everyone and everything, especially the establishments and its defenders,” declares Jackie Hayden.

Probably most famous as the man who first signed the teenage U2 to a record deal, former CBS music executive Hayden – general manager of Hot Press for many years - is also a bestselling author. He came of age in Sandyford, Dublin, utterly unimpressed by the authority figures attempting to govern his life.
“It was as if we’d collectively grown up surrounded by authority figures, parents, older relatives, adult neighbours, teachers, priests and assorted others, all coming on to us like they had it all sussed and all we had to do was whatever they told us to do, no questions asked. Then we looked around at the world and realised that if this was the best they could do with all their supposed know-how, maybe they didn’t know so much after all. These were emperor’s new clothes moments.”
One of the international artists who first helped open Hayden’s eyes to this fact was Bob Dylan. On September 19th, as part of Culture Night, Hayden will deliver a free talk entitled Dylan, Dylan and Me at the Seamus Ennis Centre in Naul. It will explore his lifelong obsession with Bob Dylan, and how it ultimately led to an equal fascination with Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (about whom he has written a book, A Map of Love – Around Wales with Dylan Thomas).
“I discovered Bob Dylan around about the time that I was discovering The Beatles, and I became interested in both his life and his work,” he explains. “Dylan Thomas’ name cropped up a few times. He was featured on the cover of the Sergeant Pepper album, and I was a huge fan of The Beatles. He got mentioned in a Paul Simon song – and I was a big fan of Simon & Garfunkel – and then there was the rumour that Bob Zimmerman had changed his name to Bob Dylan because of his fascination with Dylan Thomas.
“Obviously the name Dylan Thomas was kind of in the air around anyway about the mid to late ‘60s,” he continues. “At some point I came across a book called Miscellany One, which had a selection of Dylan Thomas poems and stories and things. And somehow, reading Dylan Thomas’ poems, I did at least imagine a connection in the way they were both not only fascinated by words, but actually used words and the sound of words, and sort of exulted in that, as if, on their own, the words had a power or a force.
“So from that I became very interested in Dylan Thomas’ work. I started going to Wales, and I’d visit all the places associated with Dylan Thomas’ work or his life. I became fascinated with the man and his poetry, and obviously in the meantime, I was equally fascinated by the work of Bob Dylan.”
Hayden is keen not to be seen as an academic. So who does he feel his Culture Night talk will appeal to?
“I see myself as a fan and an admirer of both men, rather than somebody making some kind of academic link between the two,” he explains. “So I would expect it to appeal to people who are fans of either Bob Dylan or Dylan Thomas – but also to people who might be interested in the way you can go from one act to another, or one artist to another.
“For example, I know somebody who discovered the blues artist J B Lenoir through John Mayall, from an album he did. I’m interested in those kinds of cultural links, and the way you expand your own cultural horizons by going from one thing to another, drawn by a sense of curiosity. You say to yourself ‘who is this Dylan Thomas person? I want to know more’. I think it should appeal to people who approach culture on that basis, in a way that’s open and loose, rather than being too closely academic or too heavily defined.”

Jackie Hayden presents Dylan, Dylan And Me at the Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, on September 19. Admission is free.