Would you buy a used car from this man?

I have no problem with this. Not surprisingly Dylan is taking a bit of a hammering for appearing in this new ad for Cadillac. Cue lots of commentators bleating about selling-out. As if he didn't do that years and years ago. The fact that he's doing it to promote his own radio show too doesn't seem to be buying him much slack. I dunno - does Dylan's position as the most signifcant artist of the last 50 years (I know that's debatable but who else comes close?) suffer because he does a commercial for a car? Is his credibility really at risk because he appeared in a commercial for Victoria's Secret?

In this longer version of the ad, which is more of a tie-in with his radio show than a commerical, Dylan claims, "You know what's even better than a great road tune? Not having some DJ talking all over it. Unless, of course, that DJ is me." Now, I just think that's funny.

Is doing an ad for a car company more or less an act of artistic bankruptcy than releasing yet another cash-in compilation album, as Dylan did recently? Or several terrible live albums of barely recognisable old songs? Or performing hundreds of lousy shows under the influence of booze, drugs or with contempt for your audience? I'm not so sure any of these things are influenced by artistic pursuits as much as they are by financial pursuits. And as long as people are prepared to hand over cash for them I've no problem with that either..

As far as I know, there's no sponsorship of his radio shows. There's certainly no ads during it a from those vintage ads he sometimes plays for products that no longer exist) so why shouldn't the producers try to make a bit of cash to keep the show on the air and pay for a few mint juleps? The shows are so good that Dylan could start making ads for Cillit Bang and I still wouldn't care.. "Hi I'm Bob Dylan..."

Ultiamtely it's all about making a buck. Salvador Dali went on What's My Line and Orson Wells did commericals for frozen food but nobody seems to mind now. When Dylan dies, do you think anyone will care about a Cadillac commercial? By the way, if you've never listened to this clip of Orson Wells recording a frozen peas commerical, you really should. Who'd want to be the writer or director dealing with him that day..

And while we're at it I've got no problem with these either.. Although Bob's is way cooler than Macca's..