Bob Dylan Teaches Art Class at Logan High School
As an elective, Art History is chosen by many a college freshman, but for Jeff Ashcroft’s art class at Logan High School it was a gift from Bob Dylan and George Lois.
Bob Dylan -- troubadour, wandering minstrel, voice of a generation -- artist, poet, musician, rock star, folk hero -- winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
George Lois -- artist, art director, mass media communication guru -- art collector, historian, teacher, mentor, advertising legend -- reputed role model for the infamous Don Draper in AMC’s ‘Mad Men’, an image Lois openly criticizes. “I’m not Don Draper.”
Put the two together and you have a music video for the ages, ‘Jokerman’, the first cut, a 6:14 ballad on Dylan’s ‘Infidels’ album circa 1984. It was this unique music video that Logan High art teacher, Jeff Ashcroft, used to test and teach his young art students an art history lesson they will never forget.
Here’s the story.
In 1984 I was working as a junior producer for adman George Lois at his boutique NewYork City, 5th Avenue location ad agency, Lois, Pitts, Gershon. We were right down the street from Trump Tower, in fact, The Donald was a client. But that’s another story. “Boutique” is probably the wrong word to describe our agency, “Rogue” might be a better description. We took on communication jobs other agencies couldn’t or wouldn’t touch. Sometimes we worked on results not commission. We were sure of our work, took risks, and usually won big. That was George’s style. He took no prisoners.
George Lois used many movie stars, sports figures, politicians and celebrities in his ad campaigns. Muhammad Ali, Joe Namath, Andy Warhol, Senator Howard Baker, jut to name a few, and he worked for political figures in whom he believed including Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. He used many more in his decades long, iconic, feature covers for Esquire Magazine. Muhammad Ali as the arrow pierced St. Sebastian, and Andy Warhol drowning in his pop culture gigantic can of Campbell’s tomato soup immediately come to mind. My favorite, however, is the Esquire cover featuring St. Patrick’s Cathedral with a movie marquee attached in front displaying the film, ‘Easy Rider’.
George Lois, like Bob Dylan, is true to his core nature as an artist with an acute sense of observation and an unyielding social conscience. If they sense something is wrong, they will speak out, protest, and use their powerful artistry and considerable talents to do it. So, it is no surprise that the two would meet and become friends. They would come together, predictably, surrounding a social cause in 1975. Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a middleweight professional boxer wrongly accused of a crime, a murder, in 1966. The circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear to this day. However, Carter was convicted and sentenced to prison. He served 20 years before his conviction was overturned and he was released following a petition of habeas corpus. He died a free man in 2014.
Lois had organized a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1975 to petition for the ultimate release of Carter. It worked, and the public outcry was heard. Bob Dylan performed there and his protest song ‘Hurricane‘ was also heard and is still being heard today.
Dylan and Lois remained friends over the years and ten years later, in 1984, Dylan’s record label company, Columbia, was pressing him to do more music videos with the burgeoning MTV now on the music scene. Dylan came to Lois to produce a video for his ‘Jokerman’. He figured if his friend George could produce television commercials he could produce a music video. Besides, MTV was a Lois, Pitts, Gershon account at the time ...”I WANT MY MTV!”
We had several creative sessions at the agency trying to figure out just what ‘Jokerman‘ was about and how to approach it from a visual perspective. Dylan and his colleague at the time, rock promoter Bill Graham (killed in an air crash in 1991) came to the agency for an initial meeting. We asked Dylan what ‘Jokerman‘ was about, but got an indiscernible answer. Dylan is an idiosyncratic artist and talks in a different spectrum of language. We were all just fascinated being in the same room and looking at him.
He was taller than I had imagined.
So, we were left to do the creative on our own, which was probably what Dylan wanted in the first place.
George asked us all for input, for a creative approach. We came up with all sorts of ideas, like using the Joker from a deck of cards, or using the infamous, demonic joker smile. Someone wanted to shoot the video using Coney Island as a background featuring the iconic Steeplechase Park entrance with the gigantic Joker figurehead. Most of these ideas didn’t quite hit the mark, but everyone agreed that the choruses of the song should show Dylan, live, performing, and we used very close-up shots of Dylan for these segments.
Then, George presented his idea. I think he had this in mind from the beginning. It was perfect. He called us into the conference room where he had each verse of the song pinned up on the wall going round the room superimposed over a graphic of famous works of art through the ages ...paintings, sculptures, statures ...all combined with more contemporary photos, pop art, movie clips, animation. Soon ‘Jokerman‘ was taking form and meaning. It was a, “the”, classic protest song ...from the two masters of protest, Bob Dylan and George Lois.
Dylan loved it, but he was uneasy about the close-ups of himself performing. We shot the close-up choruses very eye-to-camera close up. He’s a private person and kind of introverted. Understandable, but George convinced him it would be okay. It was. It was the #1 music video on MTV the week it aired. It made the cover of Rolling Stone.
The art, composition, and intellect of ‘Jokerman’ struck us, and America, apparently, as a classic for the ages. It’s not your typical shouting, purple smoke and mirrors music video. It tells a story, a history, and teaches a lesson on many levels as you look and listen to it. Every video we sent out contained a detailed list of the art shown.
It’s a protest song. It has substance. To this day, music aficionados are still trying to ascertain the meaning of ‘Jokerman’, some even think they have. Nu-uh. It’s personal, like all music is. To me, it’s about a journey of learning and realization. It’s about mendacity. Hypocrisy. Life. Yeah, it’s a protest song. Protesting everything that needs to be protested whenever and wherever it needs protesting. It’s the in-your-face reality show of life, love, good, evil, politics and power, foolish stupidity and imposing intellect.
‘Jokerman‘ may be a warning. So, look at it, listen to it, be entertained buy it, learn some art history from it ...and be warned.
Who is Jokerman? Is it you?
In the long run, ‘Jokerman‘ may mean more to Bob Dylan than his Nobel Prize, and certainly more to George Lois than his infamous alter ego, Don Draper. It definitely means more now to Jeff Ashcroft’s art class at Logan High.
‘Jokerman’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSvsFgvWr0
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
