DougR - Dylan became a "leader" of the protest movement by default, not by intention. He simply wrote what he instinctively was inspired to write, and for a while that took him into social and political issues. Then the more personal issues in his own life began to come to the fore, and he wrote about those instead.

He never was comfortable with being made an icon or a leader, and clearly felt that the protest movement was using him for its own purposes...which it was. He didn't want to be used, so he distanced himself from singing those songs for quite some time.

He was also acutely aware of the hypocrisy of many of the protestors themselves. So was I at the time. I knew hundreds of people who had all the leftist opinions and jargon down pat, and all they were doing was being "cool", and probably trying to get laid (to put it somewhat crudely). I also knew some who were entirely sincere. Joan Baez was one of the latter, and I admire her for that. I was one of those too...I was serious about it and still am to this day.

Dylan has bitterly resisted the attempts of any number of people to use him for their own purposes...people such as: the recording industry, the new left, the religious right, the weathermen, the media (!!!), A.J. Weberman (whom Bob punched out one day for rooting through his garbage, and frightening his wife, Sara), and a host of other fools and fanatics who have projected their own illusory demons upon him.

Bob is his own man, period. And that is as it should be.