Any reservations I may have had about Barack Obama -- ok, ok, shut up. But if I had had any reservations at this point, they would be gone, after I read this:
The Democratic presidential candidate discusses the music he listened to while growing up -- Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Elton John, the Rolling Stones -- and the music on his iPod -- all of the above plus Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Howlin' Wolf, Yo-Yo Ma, Sheryl Crow, the Grateful Dead and others.
But perhaps Obama's most intriguing response came when he was asked to name his favorite Dylan songs.
"Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is 'Maggie's Farm,' " he replied. "It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."
MAGGIE'S FARM. What a classic. Most people know that when Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he played the revolutionary "Like A Rolling Stone" -- but fewer people know that the first song he played, the shot heard round the world, was "Maggie's Farm." Picture yourself at a folk festival, listening to placid acoustic songs, and then suddenly you're facing this (actual 1965 footage):
That right there is one of the most historic moments in rock music. Make sure you watch all the way through so you can hear the booing at the end. (There's a better version on DVD -- The Other Side of the Mirror, which I had the privilege to watch in its entirety during a PBS pledge drive -- that captures the boos and shouting from the crowd right from the first notes on that guitar.) Good choice, Sen. Obama; good choice.