Bob Dylan’s reluctance to be part of any establishment manifests itself again and again in the songs that he’s written throughout the years. In particular, Dylan has proven to be highly suspicious of higher education in several sets of lyrics over the years.
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Perhaps that’s why it seemed so wildly out of character when Dylan showed up at Princeton University one summer day in 1970 to receive an honorary degree. Predictably, it didn’t go well, at least from Dylan’s perspective. But at least he ended up with a memorable song out of it.
The Persuasive Power of The Croz
Bob Dylan was busy recording music for what would turn out to be a pair of 1970 albums. He remained largely out of the public eye in terms of public appearances. He hadn’t toured since 1966. Instead, he mostly focused on family life at home in Woodstock, New York, with his wife, Sara, and their kids.
Dylan originally had no intent of heading to New Jersey to pick up an honorary doctorate being offered by Princeton University. But Sara thought it was a fitting honor. So too did his buddy David Crosby. He happened to be visiting Dylan on June 9, 1970, the day of the ceremony.
The two eventually prevailed upon Dylan to make an appearance. But he apparently wasn’t happy about it from the start. Crosby came bearing marijuana. But the pot only seemed to make Dylan agitated and paranoid during the trip to Princeton in the limo that Crosby provided for the occasion.
Once he reached the university, things didn’t get much better. Dylan didn’t like the idea of wearing the gown and mortar board for the ceremony. Though, he eventually agreed to the gown. He also blanched at the language used in his introduction, the kind of “spokesman of a generation” mumbo-jumbo that always rankled him.
Bob Gets Bugged
Dylan wasn’t required to make a speech when handed the degree, a good thing, since most reports contend that he was uncommunicative. Pictures of the day include one of Bob briefly hanging with Coretta Scott King, another honoree.
While the ceremony was happening, the Princeton campus was in the midst of infestation by cicadas, the insects that only appear in swarms once a decade or so. Dylan may not have been talking, but he was certainly listening, and the hum of the cicadas made an impression on him.
Dylan and company hightailed it out of there after the ceremony. He briefly mentioned the day in his Chronicles: Volume 1 memoir. But the clearest recollection of the events came in his song “Day Of The Locusts”, which he released on his New Morning album later that year.
“Locusts” Swarm
You can count with the fingers of one hand the number of times that Bob Dylan has written a song as nakedly autobiographical as “Day Of The Locusts”. Although he dresses it up with artistic license and a sense of whimsical weirdness, the song is pretty much a blow-by-blow of his day at Princeton.
The guy whose “head was explodin’” was Crosby. Dylan labeled the university officials, with their imposing robes, “judges.” And the cicada became “locusts,” which suggested that the whole day was a kind of Biblical plague that Dylan had to endure.
One wonders if Dylan regrets going that day. He seems to have mostly despised the experience. Considering the wonderful song that emanated from it, it wasn’t a total waste.
Photo by ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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