“PERMISSION TO LAND, TOM”
During his disastrous 1966 European tour—the one where fans branded him a traitor for “going electric”—Dylan filmed a documentary called Eat This Document .
The scattered, disorienting film was never officially released but some versions that have gotten out have a scene in which a very drunk/stoned Dylan, and a seemingly high/definitely annoyed John Lennon take a really, really, really awkward car ride. It’s an amazing clip—especially since it’s so hard to figure out what Lennon is thinking. Is he embarrassed for Dylan? Does he loathe him? Or taken in a totally different way, does he feel uptight, rigid and uncool? You decide. Above is the first part and click here for the second part.
Someone typed up a transcript , which is helpful, since it’s super hard to hear what they’re saying….
The backstory of course is that that in 1964, Dylan met the Beatles for the first time at a hotel in New York. As legend has it, they got high together, marking the first time the Beatles smoked jazz cigarettes. This may or may not be true. What is for sure true is that Lennon was a huge fan of Dylan’s at the time. (He’d later say that he stopped listening to him after he went electric, again, perhaps not true). But after their fateful meeting, the Beatles went from making bubble gum music (albeit great bubble gum music) to grittier, weightier, more personal songs. And Dylan went electric. So who knows what happened in the two years that passed, between that meeting and this moment, when Lennon seems like he wants to get the fuck out of the car…a feeling he tried to convey to Dylan with sarcastic quips and to the driver with…”Permission to land, Tom.”
