Dylan talks about new LP

WHEN THE SHIP COMES IN: The advance word on Bob Dylan’s upcoming Tempest (Columbia, Sept. 11) is tantalizingly positive, and the Bard must be psyched about the LP because he’s actually promoting it—sitting down for a rare interview. The resulting piece, by Mikal Gilmore, appears in the new issue of Rolling Stone (with Bryan Cranston on the cover), and is teased on the mag’s site. Talking about the title track, a nearly 14-minute depiction of the Titanic disaster based in part on the Carter Family's "The Titanic," Dylan explains, "I was just fooling with that one night. I liked that melody—I liked it a lot. 'Maybe I'm gonna appropriate this melody.' But where would I go with it?" The resulting song takes some liberties with fact; indeed, Leonardo DiCaprio makes an appearance. ("Yeah, Leo," says Dylan. "I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie.") "People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful,'?" Dylan admits. "But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name." (8/2a)