Bob Dylan and Steve Allen

(Columbia Records, 1956)

Steve Allen was a talk show host, comedian, writer, and actor. He was born on December 26, 1921, and died on October 30, 2000.  He wrote the popular song, "This Could Be The Start Of Something (Big)."

In the 1950s, he hosted The Steve Allen Show, on NBC, scheduled opposite CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show. Allen had Elvis Presley as a guest before Sullivan.  From 1962 to 1964, he hosted a different Steve Allen Show, this time syndicated by  Westinghouse TV. Among his guests were Frank Zappa (playing a bicycle), Lenny Bruce (not aired until 1998), and Bob Dylan. 

On February 25, 1964, at NBC Studios, Los Angeles, Dylan appeared on The Steve Allen Show.  Before Dylan's segment, Allen , sitting at his desk, said the young folk singer was an "unusual performer," then shared some biographical details.  While showing two Dylan album covers, Allen said, "He has somehow been taken to the hearts of young people." After a commercial break, Dylan and Allen appeared on screen, sitting on stools. Allen realized that Dylan needed something different than a typical showbiz introduction. He called Dylan "a poet," and read a review by Ralph J. Gleason, who "was not an easy man to please." Dylan smiled sheepishly while hearing Gleason's praise.

Allen then tried to interview a fidgeting Dylan. He asked the singer how he wrote his songs. Dylan seemed to purposefully be obtuse, giving circular answers to fairly straightforward questions, even cracking himself up after one of his own responses.  Allen then quoted from the liner notes of Dylan's then-new album, The Times They Are A-Changin'. 

Dylan was asked about the story in the song,  "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll." Dylan's answers did not help to clarify anything other than it was based on a true story , taken from the newspapers. "I could have used a made-up story, " Dylan said. Allen hung in there, trying to understand, until Dylan saying that singing the song might be more useful than talking about it.

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