Dylan as Chaplin

I'd like to write more about this, but it seems to me that Bob Dylan has been wearing his Charlie Chaplin mask for a couple of years now. Besides the fact that his latest album is called Modern Times (Chaplin had a classic film with the same name), he is sporting a mustache and wearing outfits that look like the suits Chaplin wore in his early films - see video below (another classic, only this one has a song from Dylan's Modern Times, Beyond the Horizon). But what really struck me today, as Dylan is now on the road through America in his "Never Ending Tour" is that he doesn't speak while on stage. We've now seen enough of the concert videos from the past to know he used to speak quite a bit (and we know he can still talk up a storm because we listen to this radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour on XM and he's often hilarious). But for years now, he doesn't speak on stage (except to introduce his band) as Chaplin never spoke since his films were silent. I even recall seeing Dylan walk off the stage at one of the first concerts I went to with a little Chaplinesque walk. What's up, Bob?

Obviously, others who are on to it as well.



And obviously, it's nothing new either: