{"id":77682,"date":"2014-10-06T13:46:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T17:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=77682"},"modified":"2014-10-06T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T21:26:09","slug":"amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/","title":{"rendered":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bob-Newarth-640x426\"<\/a>

Photo: Larry Bercow<\/p><\/div>\n

In <\/em>Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted confidant to many of the great minds of his generation,\u201d who urged her to write her first song.<\/em> In a recent interview with Smith, Neil Young said that Neuwirth is \u201calmost a Biblical figure \u2026 It\u2019s just amazing that this guy has been shadowing through all these artistic communities.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Down the decades, Neuwirth, now seventy-five, has made the scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Berkeley, Paris, Nashville, Santa Monica, and Austin, stopping in at the fabled festivals of Newport, Monterey, and Woodstock and associating along the way with Janis Joplin, Lou Reed, the Coen Brothers, Brice Marden, T Bone Burnett, Joan Baez, Shel Silverstein, Elvis Costello, Sam Shepard, Kris Kristofferson, Larry Poons, The Band, and The Band\u2019s former front man, Bob Dylan. In <\/em>Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan recalled the decades when he and Neuwirth were especially close: \u201cLike Kerouac had immortalized Neal Cassady in <\/em>On the Road, somebody should have immortalized Neuwirth \u2026 If ever there was a renaissance man leaping in and out of things, he would have to be it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

For someone on the receiving end of such high praise from the famous, though, Neuwirth has a rather low view of fame itself. \u201cBeing famous is a full-time job,\u201d he told me over lunch recently in the West Village. \u201cYou can get more done being anonymous. I know how people can get famous, but they have to<\/em> want to do that \u2026 It has to tickle the G-spot of their minds, because being anonymous is so much more powerful. You can get so much more done if you\u2019re not worried about fame and fortune. You can get a <\/em>lot done.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Since he came out of Akron, Ohio, in the early sixties, Neuwirth has focused primarily on painting, but he\u2019s equally as well known for his music. He cowrote Joplin\u2019s song \u201cMercedes Benz\u201d; put out five mostly excellent solo records (including <\/em>Last Day on Earth, a collaboration with John Cale); appeared as Dylan\u2019s running buddy in D.A. Pennebaker\u2019s 1967 documentary, <\/em>Don\u2019t Look Back; had his songs recorded by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Roger McGuinn, and Peter Case; and worked with everyone from the Welsh filmmaker Sara Sugarman to rockabilly legend Rosie Flores.<\/em><\/p>\n

Later this month, Neuwirth and his small band will join the journalist David Felton for \u201cStories and Songs<\/a>\u201d at Manhattan\u2019s Dixon Place on October 15 and at McCabe\u2019s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on October 19. We spoke about these upcoming shows, among many other diversions.<\/em><\/p>\n

What can the audience expect from \u201cStories and Songs\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m interested in the living-room, intimate atmosphere of it. The whole point is, what happens when somebody shows up in a performance space without a preset agenda and has to bring something to the table, much in the way Keith Jarrett approaches a concert in which he doesn\u2019t know what the first note is going to be? It\u2019s almost unbelievable to hear his Koln Concert<\/em> and think that Jarrett just cleared his mind before he walked onto that stage\u2014it\u2019s sublime. That\u2019s our ideal. It\u2019s 95\u00a0percent improv\u2014aside from a couple of anchor songs, touchstones that I can rely on if things get too hideous.<\/p>\n

Has that backfired? Do you ever get scorched by embarrassment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daily. On or<\/em> off the stage. I\u2019m scorched by embarrassment every time I look in the mirror. Especially when I\u2019m trying on a bathing suit. <\/p>\n

How do you process that embarrassment when it happens onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the advantage of live music, live theater, live performance as opposed to scripted, canned stuff\u2014you can manipulate the audience, you can make them go the way you want. Comedians talk about bombing all the time, but they have a different approach\u2014they have a love-me-or-I\u2019ll-kill-myself vibe going on. Me, I don\u2019t give a shit. I\u2019m just there to do what I do\u2014for me. If anyone else gets enjoyment out of it, great, but I\u2019m really trying to amuse myself.<\/p>\n

I hear you\u2019ve got an interviewer onstage with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Felton got a Pulitzer for covering the Watts Riots back when the LA Times<\/em> was a real newspaper and he was dumb enough to go down there and get the story. We first crossed paths years and years ago in San Francisco. Felton is allowed to ask whatever he wants onstage, without me knowing what he wants to ask. He\u2019s allowed to throw curveballs, change-ups, fastballs\u2014or the knuckler. He\u2019s up there with a laptop\u2014that\u2019s his instrument. Felton surprised me at the last show with a question about San Francisco in the early sixties, a speech by Mario Savio of the Free Speech Movement, which was before the flower children and the acid revolution.<\/p>\n

How did you start doing this type of concert?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It started as a talk event after a painting show, as part of LA Talks\u2014\u201cThe Art of Being Interviewed\u201d\u2014and it graduated from there. I was trying to think of something to do onstage, and I was driving past Will Rogers Ranch and I thought, You know, you can have an act by having a non<\/em>-act \u2026<\/p>\n

I know you\u2019ve had periods when you stopped painting and songwriting. Even though you weren\u2019t active, were you still thinking about making art?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thinking or absorbing. If you\u2019re a painter, you\u2019re always looking at colors. When you\u2019re walking home today, you\u2019ll be writing. You don\u2019t have to have a pencil in your hand to be writing. For the first time in my life, I\u2019ve chosen pre-stretched canvases to paint on. In fact, the last hundred or so have been twelve-inch square\u2014the size of a vinyl album cover. It was a completely momentary choice\u2014I was going past an art store and it said \u201cSemi-Annual Sale\u201470 Percent Off Canvases,\u201d but you had to buy twenty of them \u2026 Everything is a matter of opportunity. What\u2019s available is what happens. Whatever art supplies are available is what the project becomes. When paintings are drying or I\u2019m taking a break in the studio, there\u2019s always a guitar lying around. Sometimes a song pops up, sometimes it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"MI0000792969\"<\/a>

Neuwirth\u2019s eponymous debut album, 1974.<\/p><\/div>\n

If one does<\/em> appear, do you write it down or record it right away?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I just make up something\u2014if there\u2019s a tape machine nearby, lucky for us. If there isn\u2019t, well, it\u2019s hard to remember them most of the time. For every jewel that goes down the drain, there\u2019s a lot of garbage that doesn\u2019t see the light of day.<\/p>\n

Someone\u2019s said, There are enough songs out there already.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. Bob Thiele, Jr. says no one wants to hear more than six or seven songs from anybody. Except maybe from John Coltrane.<\/p>\n

All the canvases of yours that I\u2019ve seen are abstract. Did you ever do representational work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, when I was a little kid. Then I started looking at modern painting. I think the real flip was when there was a Jackson Pollock story in Life<\/em> Magazine, and as soon as I saw those paintings, they resonated. They just clicked\u2014and not because they looked messy or easy. In fact, they looked impossible. They didn\u2019t look like your kid could do it. If your kid could do that<\/em>, man, go out and buy him as much paint as he can stand, because you\u2019ve got a genius on your hands. Also, I had a high school teacher who was open-minded. Even though he was constipated with ideas, he had a specific design trick that he taught us, how to break things up into smaller design exercises.<\/p>\n

So you were painting early on. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was given paint and turpentine and brushes, a paint kit, when I was seven or eight years old. My mom and my aunt were both painters. So the idea of painting, the tactile sensation, the smell of the stuff, linseed oil\u2014yeah. I was familiar with oil, too, but I was always impatient, because you can\u2019t erase it, and you can\u2019t paint over it until it dries. It made me crazy. I was impetuous\u2014and happy when I discovered acrylic paint, which dries fast.<\/p>\n

How about watercolor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always hated watercolor, because you couldn\u2019t control it, unless you were Winslow Homer. But another thing I related to with Pollock was when I read that he was using house paint, because I was already helping my grandfather to paint the house. There was always some kind of painting going on around my house, even if it was painting the screens or doors or garage, and I related the painting of a door to the painting that I saw Pollock do. I realized that paint could be a plastic entity of its own\u2014that paint and the surface it touched were a thing unto themselves, a kind of holistic, talismanic-shamanistic kind of thing. I remember painting two-by-fours as a kid and sticking them in the ground and looking at them. Nailing weird parts of wood together and coloring them. As far as I was concerned, that was making a painting.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to regard for oneself and one\u2019s work\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like if a kid draws a blue cow and some lunkheaded teacher comes along and says, What\u2019s that? And the kid says, It\u2019s a cow. And the teacher says, That can\u2019t be a cow, Johnny, there are no blue cows. Then fuck<\/em>\u2014bang-clink-twist-snap!\u2014there goes the kid\u2019s mind for the rest of his life. Whereas, yes, there is<\/em> such a thing as a blue cow\u2014there it right fucking is, in front of your eyes! Who\u2019s stupid here, the kid or the teacher?<\/p>\n

Or it\u2019s like when a kid draws on a piece of paper and he thinks he\u2019s made a mistake, it doesn\u2019t go the right way\u2014some spasm of his physicality made his hand jerk at the wrong time and he crumples up the paper and throws it away. But here comes the teacher who says, No, no, no, don\u2019t throw the paper away, turn it over and use the other side. Well, the kid\u2019s not going to use the other side\u2014that piece of paper has been scarred by his misstep. It\u2019s ruined. He crumpled it up because he wanted to get it out of his life, out of his consciousness. He needs a clean<\/em> sheet of paper to get started again. You\u2019ve got a lot of nerve to put the brakes on a kid who\u2019s on a roll like that! Give him more art supplies! The fact that they\u2019re taking art out of the schools is shockingly stupid. The fact that they would have their heads so far up their asses \u2026<\/p>\n

\"collage4\"<\/a>

Neuwirth\u2019s Collage #4<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s talk about a third form you\u2019ve worked in\u2014film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Look Back<\/em> was my first opportunity to be near filmmaking. And what a great outfit to be in proximity to, D.A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock. Wow! Most people would pay a small fortune to be tutored by those people. Pennebaker used to let me borrow a camera to shoot footage.<\/p>\n

Did you ever write scripts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I hate writing. But I used to imagine films a lot, just before I would pass out. I\u2019d always see a film in my mind then\u2014great films, too. And I\u2019d come to the next morning and not have the faintest idea what the film was about. It was brilliant<\/em> the night before.<\/p>\n

I came across a quote from Maimonides in which he says something like, If you ever hear a disembodied voice in one of your dreams\u2014if you hear someone but can\u2019t see them\u2014then that\u2019s a divine voice addressing you, and you\u2019d better pay attention to what it\u2019s saying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s scary, man. I hear those voices all the time.<\/p>\n

Gary Lippman is a lapsed lawyer and former Fodors travel writer whose play <\/em>Paradox Lust appeared off-Broadway, whose fiction has appeared in <\/em>Open City, and whose heart is in the Highlands.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted confidant to many of the great minds of his generation,\u201d who urged her to write her first song. In a recent interview with Smith, Neil Young said that Neuwirth is \u201calmost a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[35,15533,15535,79,1132,46,1378,67,852,15463,15534,13143],"class_list":["post-77682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-art","tag-bob-neuwirth","tag-david-felton","tag-film","tag-interviews","tag-music","tag-neil-young","tag-painting","tag-patti-smith","tag-recording","tag-schooling","tag-teachers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"426\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Lippman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary Lippman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gary Lippman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a7189cde5dd2d04c31785bedcbb839e1\"},\"headline\":\"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\"},\"wordCount\":2102,\"commentCount\":16,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"art\",\"Bob Neuwirth\",\"David Felton\",\"film\",\"interviews\",\"music\",\"Neil Young\",\"painting\",\"Patti Smith\",\"recording\",\"schooling\",\"teachers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"At Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\",\"name\":\"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a7189cde5dd2d04c31785bedcbb839e1\",\"name\":\"Gary Lippman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02a3cfa245351d49c9cd80e105f983c765a829d0032dffe1031659616c61d5d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02a3cfa245351d49c9cd80e105f983c765a829d0032dffe1031659616c61d5d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gary Lippman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/glippman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman","description":"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman","og_description":"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":426,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gary Lippman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gary Lippman","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/"},"author":{"name":"Gary Lippman","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a7189cde5dd2d04c31785bedcbb839e1"},"headline":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth","datePublished":"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/"},"wordCount":2102,"commentCount":16,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg","keywords":["art","Bob Neuwirth","David Felton","film","interviews","music","Neil Young","painting","Patti Smith","recording","schooling","teachers"],"articleSection":["At Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/","name":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth by Gary Lippman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-06T17:46:29+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-06T21:26:09+00:00","description":"October 6, 2014 \u2013 In Just Kids, Patti Smith calls the painter and singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth \u201ca catalyst for action,\u201d and she should know\u2014it was Neuwirth, \u201ctrusted","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bob-newarth-640x426.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/06\/amusing-myself-an-interview-with-bob-neuwirth\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Amusing Myself: An Interview with Bob Neuwirth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a7189cde5dd2d04c31785bedcbb839e1","name":"Gary Lippman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02a3cfa245351d49c9cd80e105f983c765a829d0032dffe1031659616c61d5d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02a3cfa245351d49c9cd80e105f983c765a829d0032dffe1031659616c61d5d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gary Lippman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/glippman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77682"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77709,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77682\/revisions\/77709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}