Bob Dylan likes to have enjoyable on social media. There’s his X account, residence to musings about Nick Cave, A Complete Unknown, and, most lately, the late bluegrass and nation musician Don Reno. Or you may go to his TikTok page, which he launched simply earlier than the platform was (very briefly) banned in the United States. Then there’s the Bob Dylan Instagram account, that includes tour promos and, these days, assorted video clips, principally of outdated films.
Tonight, nevertheless, the Instagram is residence to a really totally different sort of video. Dylan, or whoever runs his Instagram web page, posted a 2016 video of the Cleveland rapper-turned-rocker MGK (then referred to as Machine Gun Kelly) performing on the Orlando, Florida, file store Park Ave CDs. Why did he publish it? Who is aware of—as a result of he didn’t caption it. You’ll be able to watch the video beneath. Pitchfork has reached out to MGK’s representatives for remark.
You may be questioning: Is there a connection between Bob Dylan and MGK that I’m lacking? Not likely. It’s potential that Dylan is taking part in on the musician’s former stage identify, as a fascination with the Prohibition-era gangster Machine Gun Kelly appears extra up the Nobel laureate’s alley.
One other risk is that Timothée Chalamet launched Dylan to MGK and his music—even when that’s additionally unlikely because the star of A Full Unknown has not yet met the person he embodied in the Academy Award–nominated film. However, Chalamet, whereas portraying Troye Sivan on Saturday Night Live, in 2023, referred to himself as “a moisturized Machine Gun Kelly.”
Previous to tonight, just one individual was courageous sufficient to attach Bob Dylan and MGK. That individual, it ought to come as no shock, is none aside from the inimitable Bristol musician and former Portishead and Beak> member Geoff Barrow. In 2023, Barrow thought to convey collectively Dylan and MGK whereas taking a swipe at his eternal nemesis the Weeknd. After the Weeknd paid tribute to the late MF Doom, Barrow compared the act to “machine Gun Kelly dressing as Bob Dylan.”
So, there you’ve it. Bob Dylan and MGK, now perpetually intwined. To atone for extra goings-on within the realm of Dylan, learn Madison Bloom’s review of A Complete Unknown.
