Bob Dylan Lost a Civil Liberties Organization ‘a Lot of Money’ After a Disastrous Speech

In the early 1960s, Bob Dylan gave a speech while accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee that went over poorly. Not only did Dylan not want to be there, but the crowd booed him as he spoke. The moment made Dylan want to avoid involvement with any political groups. Looking back, though, he did feel bad about the moment. He explained that he inadvertently lost the organization money.

Bob Dylan’s speech at an event for a civil liberties committee didn’t go over well

In the early 1960s, just as Dylan’s career was taking off, he received an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. He didn’t feel comfortable at the ceremony.

“Inside the ballroom, I really got up tight. I began to drink,” he told The New Yorker in 1964, noting, “I looked down from the platform and saw a bunch of people who had nothing to do with my kind of politics. I looked down and I got scared. They were supposed to be on my side, but I didn’t feel any connection with them.”

He tried to leave before accepting the award but was coaxed into giving a speech. It didn’t go over well. People had been discussing Lee Harvey Oswald, so Dylan talked about him in the speech.

“I had to say something about Lee Oswald,” he said. “I told them I’d read a lot of his feelings in the papers, and I knew he was up tight. Said I’d been up tight, too, so I’d got a lot of his feelings. I saw a lot of myself in Oswald, I said, and I saw in him a lot of the times we’re all living in. And, you know, they started booing. They looked at me like I was an animal. They actually thought I was saying it was a good thing Kennedy had been killed. That’s how far out they are.”

Bob Dylan said he lost the civil liberties committee money because of his speech

Dylan resented the fact that he felt so alone that night. Still, he felt bad about how badly the speech went. 

“The only thing I’m sorry about is that I guess I hurt the collection at the dinner,” he said. “I didn’t know they were going to try to collect money after my speech. I guess I lost them a lot of money.”

To make up for it, he offered to pay them.

“Well, I offered to pay them whatever it was they figured they’d lost because of the way I talked,” he said. “I told them I didn’t care how much it was. I hate debts, especially moral debts. They’re worse than money debts.”

He said that he didn’t want to be involved with any more political organizations 

Though his music was highly political at the start of his career, Dylan wanted to step away from any political messaging after just a few years.

“I tell you, I’m never going to have anything to do with any political organization again in my life,” he said. “Oh, I might help a friend if he was campaigning for office. But I’m not going to be part of any organization. Those people at that dinner were the same as everybody else. They’re doing their time. They’re chained to what they’re doing.”

He said he didn’t like any part of the award ceremony.

“The only thing is, they’re trying to put morals and great deeds on their chains, but basically they don’t want to jeopardize their positions,” he said. “They got their jobs to keep. There’s nothing there for me, and there’s nothing there for the kind of people I hang around with.”