Why did Bob Dylan wear "white face" makeup during his 1975 tour?

“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”

 

Actually you need to read Tarantula, where he explains it all in terms a schoolchild would understand....

 

They wore blackface...it was the performers in the sedentary minstrel shows who wore whiteface...

 

Wasn`t this the time of him becoming a "born-again-christian"? Maybe a religious thing? White = innocence, returning to the state of being without sin again?

 

The “born again” phase wasn’t until 1979. There isn’t a reason - he just did it.

 

"It's such a fine line between stupid & clever."
-- David St. Hubbins

 

Cos it looked cool

 

Why did Bob Dylan ______?
Is always a pretty impossible question to answer, given that he generally makes up a new answer on the spot whenever he is asked a question in that form - if he doesnt just "answer" it with a question.

 

Bob was theatrical and never wanted to do what was expected of him. A cast of characters populated his songs.

 

theatre black and white emotion masks, vector

 

Perhaps it was a cinema, silver screen implication: Remember folks, everything you're watching is just an act.

 

"Maybe it's Maybelline!"

 

Perhaps he was just clowning around...

 

Don’t forget, the whole tour was put together with a film about it in mind.... if anything, it was more a prolonged movie shoot than a concert tour. Dylan seems to be extremely conscious he is being filmed in all the concert footage- to the point of almost over-acting - which makes it all the more compelling.
I’m sure the white face was part homage to italian and Japanese art house films, part ‘getting into character’ technique

 

I’ve always wondered the same thing about the whiteface thing. Here is the video I’ve seen on tv before

 

I also recall Boy George doing the same thing during his darkest drug days in the 80s, was it maybe during Live Aid? He had white makeup powder all over his face

 

It was just part of the whole traveling circus thing he perceived rolling thunder to be. That and a renaldo and Clara related thing

 

I'm not sure it was restricted to the Rolling Thunder tour was it? I saw him twice in 1978 (Seattle & Vancouver), and I'm fairly sure he had the white make up on for those shows too.

 

It was probably so he could go on stage every night without having to worry about cleaning the coke off his face -just let it blend in.

 

Bowie.

 

Verfremdungseffekt

 

It was inspired by Jean-Louis Barrault 's character in the film Les Enfants du Paradis. Or so it's said.

Bob Dylan And The Children Of Paradise | Untold Dylan

 

I was trying to find out when Bob had this look and came across this thread. I started thinking how much this look reminds me of Leon Russell, the white face on Carney and then those hats. Leon wore
some crazy top hats and some other styles, with all these flowers in the early 70's. I was trying to figure how to upload a photo but if you are curious, search Leon Russell Carney. Here is a link to the mural
recently completed in Tulsa, with him wearing a hat that he had on for his first solo concert, in Anaheim, with the Who.

Honoring Leon | Oklahoma Magazine

 

Since I had only ever seen it on the cover of Budokan for most of my youth/young adulthood, and the music of that recording is so light and lively, I just assumed he was doing something totally different because, duh, life on the road.