Dylan and the Ferry

Available for over a year

New Generation Thinker and Bob Dylan fan Dafydd Mills Daniel investigates the story behind the iconic image of the singer/songwriter that appeared on the poster for the documentary No Direction Home. It's a black and white photo of Dylan on a small car ferry. The ferry was called The Severn Princess and it transported drivers across the River Severn, between England and Wales. Dylan was using the Aust Ferry to convey his new electric guitar and sound into Wales – a sound that for audiences at the end of that ferry ride was perceived as new and destructive, signalling the end of traditional folk music and culture – just as, ironically, the old ferry Dylan was travelling on was itself under threat from something new that was about to replace it: a new bridge and roadway that would make it and its ethos obsolete. Dafydd returns to the scene of the photograph in the company of Tim Ryan and Sue Kingdom who are running a campaign to preserve the Princess, which is now docked on a beach near Chepstow. He also talks to Richard F. Thomas, author of Why Dylan Matters, about the so-called "Judas Tour".