Jewish summer camp is a crucial partof the American Jewish experience. Many Jewish adults, even in their lateryears, often remember the names of kids in their cabins from when they were 11years old.
More than six decades ago, one ofthose cabins contained a couple of interesting young Jewish boys. Louie Kempwould eventually head his family’s seafood company and played a key role inintroducing imitation king crab to America.
Robert “Bobby” Zimmerman went on tobecome Bob Dylan.
Kemp has now written a memoir called “Dylan & Me: 50Years of Adventures” (WestRose Press), detailing hislong friendship with the iconic singer-songwriter, who will perform at the UMBCEvents Center on Nov. 12.
The journey begins when they werepreteen campers at the Jewish Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisc., from 1953 through1957. In 1954, Kemp witnessed a cabin rooftop concert that he considers Dylan’sfirst public performance.
Following the stories of summer campconcerts and hijinks, the book chronicles Dylan and Kemp’s time together asteenagers in Kemp’s hometown of Duluth, Minn., where Dylan was born, and laterin Minneapolis, where both attended college.
Even after Dylan went to New York andbecame one of America’s most famous individuals, they continued theirfriendship. Kemp frequently stepped away from his lucrative business to hangout with Dylan for weeks at a time in the city, Malibu, Mexico or wherever thesinger was on the road. Dylan was even the best man at Kemp’s wedding.
RollingThunder Revelry
Kemp said he hadn’t always intended towrite a book about his friendship with Dylan, but he had been telling thestories at parties and Shabbatdinners for years and was told frequently he should collect them.
“After a while, it dawned on me —these were special stories,” Kemp said.
A close friend of Kemp’s — a formertelevision producer who was dying of cancer — made him promise to write thebook, so he agreed. Kemp didn’t want to break the promise once the friendpassed away.
Kemp produced Dylan’s famous RollingThunder Revue in 1975 and 1976. His memories of that fabled tour — thenon-traditional lineups and promotional structure, and concerts featuringseveral famous guest musicians — take up much of the book’s middle section.
The tour was the subject of a slightlyfaux-documentary, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story” by MartinScorsese, which debuted on Netflix earlier this year.
Kemp appears a few times in vintagefootage in the film. A talking head describes him as “a longtime friend ofBob’s and a fishmonger” before declaring that Kemp was “out of his element,unprepared and wasn’t too well-liked on the tour.”
However, the person who says that, JimGianopulos, playing the part of “The Promoter,” wasn’t actually involved withthe tour — he was one of several fictional characters Scorsese invented forthe movie.
Kemp said he enjoyed the documentary,especially the live footage of the musical performances, which feature what hedescribed as “Bob in his prime.” But like a lot of people, he noticed, “Bobbyand Marty decided to spice it up a little bit and be tricksters. So they put infour bogus talking heads. When I saw it, [he wondered], ‘Who are these people? They weren’t on thetour!’”
He also challenged the film’simplication that the Rolling Thunder Revue tour was a money-losing endeavor.
Brando,Canter’s and Huck Finn
Kemp lived with Dylan for a time inLos Angeles in the early 1980s during the period in which Dylan briefly becamea fundamentalist Christian. Kemp, who at the time was beginning to become amore observant Jew (which he remains to this day), claims credit — along withsome rabbis — for bringing Dylan back into the Jewish fold a couple of yearslater.
The book is full of delightful,specifically Jewish details, such as the time Kemp and Dylan attended a seder at a Los Angeles synagogue withMarlon Brando. There were also Dylan’s years of participation in Chabad telethons;the time he opened the ark on Yom Kippur while being mistaken fora homeless man; and the story of how Kemparranged for Kaddish to be recitedfor Allen Ginsburg each year on his yahrtzeit.
All that, and many, many visits to Canter’s Deli in L.A.
In the book, Kemp talks specificallyabout how he believes Dylan’s Jewish background informed his success andworldview.
“[Jews] have a passion to seek outmeaning and give it new expression, morally and artistically,” Kemp wrote.“That drive — along with another Jewish trait known as chutzpah — have always been strong in Bobby, and his gifts havemade his expression worthy of the ages.”
“Growing up in a Jewish household kindof instills in you a tendency to be pro-underdog because for so many years wewere suppressed,” Kemp said.
While the two men, now in their late70s, have known each other for more than 60 years, the book’s subtitle is “50years of adventures,” and it’s notably missing any stories from after 2001.Kemp admits he and Dylan have lost touch as of late, although he said it wasn’tdue to any particular falling-out, and he did send Dylan a copy of the book.
“I would think he’d enjoy it. It’s allpositive, fun adventures that we had together over a 50-year time period,” Kempsaid. “To me, it’s like a modern-day Jewish version of Tom Sawyer andHuckleberry Finn.”
Stephen Silver is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer. He wrote this article for the JTA global news source.
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