BOB DYLAN: folk-rock legend, poet-spokesman of his generation . . . and GPS voice? Maybe.
The enigmatic troubadour has said on his satellite radio show that he is in negotiations with two US car manufacturers to be the voice of their in-car navigation systems. Insert your own Dylan-lyric pun here about “no direction home” or “there must be some way out of here” or “how many roads . . .”
The wonder of this may not be that Dylan is selling out – he has already done that by appearing in ads for Victoria’s Secret, Pepsi, Cadillac and others, and he’ll be singing Here Comes Santa Claus on a Christmas album – but that his famously raspy and mumbly voice would be suited for navigation-challenged drivers.
Dylan himself isn’t even so sure about it all. On his BBC radio show, he gave listeners a preview of his would-be GPS vocals: “Left at the next street. No, right. You know what? Just go straight.”
He also noted: “I probably shouldn’t do it because whichever way I go, I always end up at one place – on Lonely Avenue. Luckily, I’m not totally alone. Ray Charles beat me there.”
As Dylan put it in his voiceover for a Cadillac commercial in 2007: “What’s life without the occasional detour?” – (Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service)