Bob Dylan's best work

Playing status games near the end of the line

It is rumored that when you're backstage at a Bob Dylan concert, no one is allowed to look him in the eye before the show. Bob has been playing a status game for a while. Most of the time, the story in his head tells him that he’s winning.

He’s given himself special status. He’s won a lot of status games. In order to satisfy his needs for more status, he has had to create more games. “Don’t look Bob in the eyes before a show” is a status game. It doesn’t matter if poor Bob has a panic disorder or whatever reason for this game. It’s merely a game. It’s a game set up for Bob to win.

Conform to the game and you get status. You get to be backstage at Bob’s show. Ignore the game and be banished to the great unwashed crowd on the concert floor.

When we constantly win at status games, our demands for more status can become absurd. Steve Tyler from Aerosmith apparently wanted m&ms but with no red ones. So some poor backstage slob would have to go through a kilo of m&ms, picking out the red on…