What more than anything gives me confidence regarding Obama’s presidency is the fact that he’s such a great Dylan fan.  According to an interview he gave to Rolling Stone, Obama’s iPod contains 30 Dylan songs, including the entire Blood on the Tracks album. He mentions “Maggie’s Farm” as a particular favorite:

Well, I wake up in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin’ me insane.

What a great way to start the day in the White House!

This is an interesting twist: If you listened to Obama’s victory speech from Chicago on election night, you remember phrases like: “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight … change has come to America.”  Great as Barack’s oratory is, these were lines pinched off Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” from 1964 — a classic statement of the hopes as well as the desperation of the African American community.

Interestingly, Sam Cooke was inspired to write these lyrics after he heard Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind.”

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?

Cooke just couldn’t believe that a white man had written those lines.   Not to be outdone, however, he sat down and wrote “A Change is Gonna Come.”  So there you have it.  Who can we thank for Obama’s great campaign theme?  Why Dylan of course.

And what does Dylan think of Obama?  As he put it to The Times in June this year:

[Obama’s] redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I’m hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.

Maybe we can look forward to Bob playing at the inauguration party?