a077  0512  18 Apr 75
$Adv 21
Adv Mon PMs April 21
Radio-TV 490
By JAY SHARBUTT
AP Television Writer
    NEW YORK (AP) - It may sound odd, but Bob Dylan, the young guru of
social comment in song in the early 1960s, complains that it's tough
to write that kind of song now. He says ''it's hard to find a
frontier.''
    The reclusive songsmith and singer made the comment in a taped
interview with singer Mary Travers - once of the Peter, Paul and Mary
trio - for her syndicated ''Mary Travers and Friend'' radio show.
    The program is being broadcast this week on about 80 stations.
    Dylan, who lists the late Woody Guthrie as a major influence in his
songwriting career, was asked if he felt social comment in song is
sort of an unreasonable position to take these days.
    ''No, it's a very reasonable position to take now,'' he said. ''It's
just . . . hard to be specific about what we're even talking about
here, let alone try to write a song . . . or make some kind of art
form out of these big situations which are happening in the world.''
    He didn't elaborate on which situations he had in mind.
    The rarely interviewed performer, whose hit compositions include
''The Times, They Are A-Changin','' complained to Miss Travers that
the changes seem to be coming too briskly nowadays.
    ''From day to day, they're just rolling over too fast to keep your
eye on,'' he said. ''Whereas back then (in the 1930s), when Woody
(Guthrie) was doing all his writing things, the media wasn't so
powerful.''
    Dylan didn't make clear if he was putting the blame for swift
changes on the media. But he agreed with Miss Travers that whatever
was in need of changing took longer to change back in the Guthrie era.
    Now, he said, ''it can be confusing if you want to write what they
call topical songs. It's hard to find a frontier.''
    Dylan, who of late hasn't written what you'd call protest songs,
said he was writing that kind of song well before they came into
vogue, but called a halt when other performers and writers got into
the act.
    ''Everybody gets on your case,'' he groused. ''You just don't want
to do it anymore.''
    And, in an apparent reference to recording executives who wanted him
to stay in the protest bag as long as hits resulted, he said that
''you don't want to do what you're told to do.
    ''It's discouraging, plus you're just running over the same ground
. . . 'say it again, say it again.' That's what they want.''
    Dylan, who last year came out of near-total seclusion to make a
successful concert tour of the United States, didn't discuss his
personal life or future plans during the interview, taped early this
month in Oakland, Calif. But he did offer his method of recording an
album.
    ''I just play what I want to play, and what comes out comes out,''
he said. ''I don't plan albums. All that pressure's off. I don't have
to go in and make an album every six months. I don't think of it that
way.
    ''I just continue to play my gee-tar and if there's a song that's in
my heart to do, I'll do it.''
    End Adv Mon PMs April 21. Sent April 18.
    
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a005  2120  20 Apr 75
AP ADVANCES ADVISORY
 
    These advances moved for Monday PMs:
 
    NEW YORK - After three years of trying to raise capital and meet
state requirements, the First Women's Bank says it will be certified
soon and will begin full operation in the fall. a087 and Wirephoto
NY18 April 18.
 
    LONDON - Two interlocking issues threaten British Primier Minister
Harold Wilson's Labor government this summer - Britain's future with
the Common Market and the nation's galloping economic crisis. a093,102
April 18.
 
    SACRAMENTO, Calif. - One of California's first highway patrolwomen
says she's had to deal with kisses as well as speeders during her
first weeks on the job. a106 and Wirephoto LA8 April 18.
 
    LOS ANGELES - While the ''Jaws'' company was battling with a
mechanical shark off Martha's Vineyard, director-star Cornel Wilde
found himself nose-to-nose with real, live sharks in the depths of the
Coral sea. a078,079 and Wirephoto LA4 April 18.
 
    WASHINGTON - Feed the dog. Go to school. Being the President's
daughter doesn't let 17-year-old Susan Ford escape the daily routine
faced by millions of teen-agers across the country. An AP News-Picture
Package. a112 and Wirephotos WX6,7,8,9,10 April 17.
 
    CHUMNS - Radio-TV: Bob Dylan, the young guru of social comment in
song in the early 1960s, complains it's tough to write that kind of
song now. a077 April 18. Business Mirror will move spot.
 
    The AP
    
0022aED 04-21
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