I've been an admirer of both Dylan and Beethoven since I was a kid (in the mid-60s, when I was a musician in training in both popular and classical realms). I think there are some real similarities there, in their relationship with their audience. Both were (and in Bob's case, continue to be) castigated for years for not being what they were before, and hence for not living up to their audience's expectations, and both were/are accused of being rude performers.

In fact, I think a lot of performers, particularly very successful performers, have a real love/hate relationship with their audiences. On the one hand, the audience is what keeps you working, and you disregard that at your peril. On the other hand, the audience's expectations can be very confining -- and the more successful you have been with past works, the more their expectations will restrict your future efforts. A lot of artists will eventually surrender to this dynamic, particularly if they are running short on new ideas anyway. That's why the Stones (to pick just one of many examples) still play basically the same set list year in and year out, and do their best to replicate their earlier incarnations in other respects as well (Mick Jagger trying desperately to come off as the same prancing bad-boy that we all grew to know and love forty years ago).

For artists who still aspire to be creative -- like Bob Dylan -- it must be terribly frustrating to feel bound by the nostalgic expectations of so many in their audience. In fact, I think Bob tries harder than many acknowledge to walk a middle line in this; he still plays many of his Golden Oldies for the crowd, often in arrangements that mimic the original recordings. The fact that this isn't ALL that he does bugs some people, but I think it is far more disturbing that other people (like the Stones) have given up on the creativity that originally made them significant, and now just give the crowd what it wants.

As for Bob isolating himself from the crowd, I imagine that is what I would do if I had achieved his level of success and almost-deification. People are passionate, to the point of derangement, about Bob Dylan. That kind of passion can get you killed, and you would have to be a fool not to be aware of that. John Lennon -- who ultimately suffered that fate -- was quoted as saying "the bigger you get, the more unreality you have to face." For the vast majority of us who have never been the focus of that kind of attention, it is probably hard to appreciate just how bizarre, and terrifying, it must be. I don't blame Bob for being a little reserved, as he has been dealing with a fairly unique level of that kind of attention for forty years now.