It has got to be the accusation against legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. A woman alleged he had sexually abused her when she was just a teenager and Dylan in his early twenties. She gave a time and location for when the assault took place, and people got mighty worked up over the whole thing.
People were preparing their pitchforks, media got their panties in a bunch, surely some tabloids were smelling blood! Can we still listen to his songs, do we need to petition radio stations to stop playing them? You know, the usual questions one needs to confront when a legendary icon falls out of favor with the world. Do we cancel the man, do we cancel the art of the man, how can we best erase his entire existence from the face of the earth?
I was a bit scared for a moment. Like, legit ‘heart jumping up in my chest’ levels of scared, because to see Bob Dylan getting accused of something so heinous is rough. He’s a man I admire. The injustice of it also struck me… why on earth is there anyone alive today who would ‘cancel’ Dylan, in a world that has failed to cancel the likes of Andy Dick?
Then, finally, words of relief came! Wisely and in typical Bob Dylan fashion, he did not immediately reply. He likes to leave people guessing a bit; like when he won a Nobel Prize for literature and sort of just… ignored the whole thing, for a while. When he did decide to finally dignify the accusation with a response? The whole story instantly died… because at the time of the supposed assault, Bob Dylan was not in the same country as the alleged victim, who claims the indecent attack happened in her parental home in America.
Bob Dylan had been in England, the girl in America. He was filming a documentary, for which he was being filmed pretty much 24/7. Rock solid alibi. Bob Dylan was lucky enough to avoid cancellation, or worse. And the world is a better place for it.
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