Um...er...God... No, I'm not going to sit here and do that. I've been up all night, I've taken some pills and I've eaten bad food and I've read the wrong things and I've been out for 100mph car rides and let's not sit here and talk about myself as a protest singer or anything like that.

The first things you did which got really famous, for example in England "The Times They Are A-Changin'," that was supposed to be a protest song, no?

Oh my God, how long ago was that?

A year ago.

Yeah, well, I mean, c'mon, a year ago...I'm not trying to be a bad fellow or anything but I'd just be a liar or a fool to go along with all this business. I mean,I just can't help it if you're a year behind you know.

No, but that's the style you had then, and you changed to "Subterranean Homesick Blues" with the electric guitars and things. Is there any special reason?

No.

No?

No.

What would you call yourself? A poet? Or a singer? Or do you write poems and then you put music to them?

No, I don't know. It's so silly. I mean, you wouldn't ask these questions of a carpenter would you? Or a plumber?

It wouldn't be interesting the same way, would it?

I guess it would be, I mean, it's interesting to me; it should be just as interesting to you.

Well, not as a disc jockey, anyhow.

What do you think Mozart would say to you if you ever came up to him and asked him the questions that you've asked? What kind of questions would you ask him? Tell me, Mr. Mozart, er...

Well, first of all I wouldn't interview him.

Well, how come you do it to me?

Well, because I'm interested in your records and I think the Swedish audience is also.

Well, I'm interested in the Swedish audiences too and Swedish people and all that kind of stuff, but I'm sure they don't want to know all these dumb things, you know.

No, well they've read a lot of dumb things about you in the papers and I suppose you could straighten them out yourself.

I can't straighten them out, I don't think they have to be straightened out. I believe that they know. Don't you know the Swedish people? They don't have to be told, they don't have to be explained to. You should know that. You can't tell Swedish people something which is self-explanatory. Swedish people are smarter than that.

You think so?

Oh, of course.

You know many Swedes?

I know plenty, I happen to be a Swede myself.

Oh yeah, certainly.

In fact I come from not too far away from here, my friend.

Shall we try to listen to a song, then?

You can try.

Yeah. Which one would you suggest then?

Oh, you pick it out, any one you say. You realise I'm not trying to be a bad fellow. I'm just tryin' to make it along, to get everything to be straight, you realise that?

Yeah, and that's why I asked you and you had a chance to do it yourself. No, I don't want the chance to do it myself.

OK.

I don't want to do anything by myself.

(Tape lapse)

For what or against what?

Well, you know what it's against and what it's for, I'm not going to tell you that... My songs are all mathematical songs, now you know what that means, so I'm not going to have to go into that. So this specific one here happens to be a protest songs and it borders on the mathematical, you know, ideas of sayings, and this specific one, "Rainy Day Women," happens to deal with, er, a minority of, you know, cripples and Orientals and the world in which they live, you realise and you understand. It's sort of a Mexican kind fo thing, very protest, very, very protest and of the pro testiest of all things I've ever protested against in the protest years.

You really believe it? Do I believe it?

Yeah.

I don't have to believe it, I know it. I mean I'm telling you I wrote it, I should know.

So why that title? It's never mentioned in the song.

Well, we never mention things that we love. Where I come from that's blasphemy, blas-puffer-me, you know that word? It has to do with God.

Shall we have a listen to the song? OK.

...Which is selling quite well in the States and how do you feel about that?

It's horrible, because it is a protest song. People shouldn't really listen to protest songs.

A lot of people buy the record and listen to it on radio stations. So a lot of people could get the message.

Yeah, they do get the message. I'm glad they're getting the message. That was a good record, too, huh?

How do you feel about earning a lot of money if you're not really concerned about it all?

I like earning a lot of money.

In the start you didn't have much but now you've got a lot. What do you do with it?

Nothing.

Not concerned?

No, somebody else handles it for me, you know. I just do the same old things.

When you write a song, do you write the melody or the words first?

I write it all, the melody and the words.

At the same time?

The melody is sort of unimportant, really. It comes naturally, you know.

At the very start, other artists used your songs and recorded them and got hits. How did you feel about that?

Well, I didn't feel anything really. I felt happy, you know.

Did you like to suddenly get famous, first as the songwriter, and then afterwards as the singer?

Er, yeah, it's sort of all over, though. I don't have any interest anymore. I did have interest when I was 13, 14, 15, to be a famous star and all that kind of stuff, but I've been playing on the stage and following tent shows around ever since I've been 10 years old. That's 15 years I've been doing what I've been doing. I know what I'm doing better than anybody else does.

Nowadays what is it you want to do?

Nothing.

Nothing?

No.

Do you enjoy travelling? Performing?

Yeah, I like performing. I don't care to travel though.

What about recording?

I like to record.

You've got a group now which you didn't have at the very start.

Yes, I had a group at the very start, but you must realize I come from the United States. I don't know if you know what the United States is like. It's not like England at all, you know. People at my age now, 25 to 26, everybody has grown up playing rock'n'roll music, you know.

Did you do that?

Yes, because it's the only kind of music you heard. Everybody has done it because all you heard was rock'n'roll and country and western and rhythm and blues music. At a certain time the whole field got taken over into milk, you know, to Frankie Avalon, Fabian, this kind of thing. Now that's not bad or anything, but there was nobody that you could look at, and really want anything that they had, or want to be like them, so everybody got out of it. But nobody really lost that whole thing, and folk music came in and was some kind of substitute for a while, but it was only a substitute, that's all it was.

Now it's different again because of the English thing, and what the English thing did was that they proved that you could make money at playing the same old kind of music that you used to play. And that's the truth, that's not a lie, it's not a come-on or anything, but the English people can't play rock'n'roll.

Well, what do you feel about The Beatles then?

Oh, The Beatles are great but they don't rock'n'roll.

You met them quite a few times as well? In the States and in England.

Yeah, I know The Beatles.

You don't think they play rock'n'roll?

No, they're not rock'n'roll. Rock'n'roll is just four beats, and extension of 12-bar blues. And rock'n'roll is white, 17-year-old kid music, that's all it is. Rock'n'roll is a fake attempt at sex, you know.

But what do you call your style, then?

Well, I never heard anybody that plays and sings like me, so I don't know.

There's no name you would try to put on it yourself?

Mathematical music.