Flagging Down The Double Es : Being Bob Dylan's Stand-In (at the secret 20117 Nobel taping) | RAY PADGETT

 

Being Bob Dylan's Stand-In

Conor Lumsden, who stood in for Bob Dylan at the secret 2017 Nobel taping, shares his surreal story

RAY PADGETT JUN 20

When I interviewed director John Hillcoat a couple months ago about his work with Bob Dylan, he sent me a bunch of photos from his various shoots with Bob. One you can see above, from the secret 2017 Nobel performance-video taping outside Dublin. When I looked at this photo, though, something seemed off. That guy standing by the piano sort of looks like Dylan, but not quite, right? Then I noticed Hillcoat had typed a caption: “Stand-ins.”

A stand-in is someone who, as the term says, stands in for someone else. It’s common in the film world. You don’t want to make a famous actor just stand there for hours while the crew adjusts the lighting, so you find someone roughly the same height and build to do it. In Hillcoat’s photo, you see a bunch of other people standing in for Dylan and the band—people who are roughly the same size, wearing roughly the same clothes. In addition to fake Bob Dylan, you’ve got, from left, fake Donnie Herron, fake Charlie Sexton, fake Tony Garnier, and fake George Receli. (And, looking more closely now, I think that “piano” is a stand-in too.)

When I posted my Hillcoat interview on Instagram, one comment caught my eye. @music.city.conor posted: “Being Bob’s stand in was the best job I ever had!”

You know I had to find out more. So today, we hear from the guy standing in for Dylan in that photo.

When he’s not standing behind a fake piano, Conor Lumsden records under the name Music City (his new power-pop album Welcome To Music City just got a rave in Mojo). But, for a few days in 2017, he played a different role: Bob Dylan

This is a delightful entry from Ray and interviews with Conor and John and both well worth the read I thought. At once fascinating and funny at the same time what a life Conor and John H have had . . . subscribe and read on 

There are links to Conor’s own music too  

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Conor Lumsden (Music City)

Note: Read the John Hillcoat interview for more context on what this shoot actually was for and for Conor follow the link

Flagging Down the Double E’s is an email newsletter exploring Bob Dylan performances throughout history. Some installments are free, some are for paid subscribers only. 

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