During the Vietnam War, the United States brought one of the most advanced military arsenals of the Cold War into a harsh and unpredictable battlefield. From helicopters and jet aircraft to tanks, artillery, river patrol boats, and infantry weapons, each machine had a specific role in America’s war effort. In this episode, we’ll look at 60 weapons and vehicles used by the US military in Vietnam.
Helicopters. The Bell UH-1 Huey became one of the most iconic machines of the Vietnam War. Introduced in the late 1950s, it was used for troop transport, medical evacuation, supply missions, and close support. Its distinctive rotor sound became a symbol of America’s air mobility strategy in Vietnam. The Bell AH-1 Cobra was one of the first dedicated attack helicopters used by the United States.
Entering service in the late 1960s, it was designed to escort troop helicopters and provide direct fire support. Its narrow fuselage, speed, and weapons made it a deadly partner to the Huey. The CH-47 Chinook was a heavy-lift helicopter with two large rotors and a powerful transport role. In Vietnam, it carried troops, artillery, supplies, and damaged vehicles across difficult terrain.
Its lifting power made it essential for moving heavy equipment where roads were limited or unsafe. The CH-54 Tarhe, also known as the Skycrane, was built for extreme heavy-lift missions. In Vietnam, it carried artillery, supplies, aircraft, vehicles, and large cargo loads. Its unusual open-frame design allowed it to lift oversized equipment that many other helicopters could not handle.
The OH-6 Cayuse was a small, fast observation helicopter used for scouting and reconnaissance. In Vietnam, it often flew low over dangerous areas to locate enemy movement. Its compact size, agility, and speed made it valuable for finding targets and guiding larger helicopters or ground forces. The OH-13 Sioux was a light observation helicopter used in the early years of the Vietnam War.
With its bubble canopy and simple frame, it offered excellent visibility for pilots and observers. It was used for reconnaissance, liaison duties, and medical evacuation before newer helicopters replaced it. The CH-46 Sea Knight was mainly used by the US Marine Corps as a medium-lift transport helicopter. Its twin-rotor design allowed it to carry troops, supplies, and equipment from ships to landing zones.
In Vietnam, it supported Marine operations in coastal and inland areas. The CH-53 Sea Stallion was a powerful heavy-lift helicopter used by the US Marine Corps. It could carry troops, vehicles, and large cargo loads over long distances. In Vietnam, it gave Marine units greater mobility and helped move heavy equipment into difficult combat zones.
>> Combat aircraft. The F-4 Phantom II was one of America’s most important fighter aircraft during the Vietnam War. It served with the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in air combat, bombing, and interception missions. Fast, powerful, and heavily armed, the Phantom became a major symbol of US air power. The F-105 Thunderchief was a large, supersonic fighter-bomber used heavily in bombing missions over North Vietnam.
Designed to fly fast and carry heavy bomb loads, it became one of the most active strike aircraft of the war. Its missions were dangerous, but its role was central to US air operations. The F-100 Super Sabre was America’s first supersonic jet fighter and was used in Vietnam mainly for close air support and ground attack.
Although it was older than later aircraft like the F-4, it remained useful for supporting troops and striking targets near the battlefield. The A-1 Skyraider was a propeller-driven attack aircraft from an earlier era, but it proved extremely valuable in Vietnam. It could fly slowly, stay over the battlefield for a long time, and carry a heavy weapon load.
It was especially known for close support and rescue escort missions. The A-4 Skyhawk was a compact carrier-based attack aircraft used by the US Navy and Marine Corps. Small, simple, and highly maneuverable, it could deliver bombs and rockets from aircraft carriers off the coast of Vietnam. Its size made it efficient, but its missions were often extremely risky.
The A-6 Intruder was a twin-engine attack aircraft designed for all-weather strike missions. In Vietnam, it could attack targets at night and in poor weather when many other aircraft had limitations. Its advanced navigation and bombing systems made it one of the Navy’s most capable strike platforms. The A-7 Corsair II was a carrier-based attack aircraft introduced during the later years of the Vietnam War.
It was designed for accurate bombing and longer range than earlier attack jets. With modern avionics and strong payload capacity, it became an important strike aircraft for the US Navy. The B-52 Stratofortress was America’s massive strategic bomber, originally designed for nuclear deterrence during the Cold War.
In Vietnam, it was used for large-scale conventional bombing missions. Its enormous range and payload made it one of the most powerful aircraft deployed in the conflict. The AC-47 Spooky was a gunship converted from the C-47 transport aircraft. Armed with side-firing machine guns, it could circle over a target area and provide continuous fire support.
In Vietnam, its night support missions made it famous among American and Allied ground forces. The AC-130 Spectre was a powerful gunship based on the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. Introduced into Vietnam in the late 1960s, it carried heavy side-firing weapons and advanced sensors. Its ability to provide accurate night fire support made it one of the most feared aircraft of its type.
The OV-10 Bronco was a light observation and attack aircraft designed for counterinsurgency warfare. In Vietnam, it was used for reconnaissance, forward air control, and light strike missions. Its twin-boom design, short takeoff ability, and excellent visibility made it useful in difficult combat environments.
The O-1 Bird Dog was a small observation aircraft used for reconnaissance, forward air control, and light strike missions. Flying low and slow, it helped spot enemy positions, direct artillery, and guide strike aircraft. Although simple and lightly built, it played a critical role in coordinating air and ground operations.
Tanks and armored vehicles. The M48 Patton was the main American tank used during the Vietnam War. Armed with a 90-mm gun and protected by thick armor, it was often used to support infantry and secure roads or bases. In Vietnam’s terrain, it was less about tank battles and more about fire support. The M551 Sheridan was a light armored vehicle designed to be mobile and air transportable.
It carried a 152-mm gun launcher system and was used in Vietnam from the late 1960s. Its lightweight helped mobility, but its protection was limited compared with heavier tanks. The M113 armored personnel carrier was one of the most widely used armored vehicles in Vietnam. Lightweight, tracked, and amphibious, it could carry soldiers through mud, fields, and rough terrain.
It became essential for mechanized infantry and convoy protection in many American and allied operations. The M113 ACAV was an upgraded combat version of the standard M113 armored carrier. It added gun shields and extra machine guns, allowing soldiers to fight more effectively from the vehicle. In Vietnam, these modifications turned the M113 into a more aggressive battlefield support platform.
The M50 Ontos was a small tracked anti-tank vehicle armed with six recoilless rifles. Although originally designed to fight tanks, in Vietnam, it was often used for direct fire support. Its compact size and heavy firepower were especially useful in Marine Corps operations. The M41 Walker Bulldog was a light tank developed after World War II.
In the Vietnam War, it was used mainly by South Vietnamese armored units with American support. Its 76-mm gun, speed, and lighter weight made it useful for regional security and armored patrolling missions. The M42 Duster was a self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle armed with twin 40-mm guns. In Vietnam, it was rarely used against aircraft, but it became highly effective in ground support roles.
Its rapid firepower was valuable for base defense, convoy escort, and infantry support. The M88 recovery vehicle was not a front-line combat vehicle, but it was essential for armored operations. It recovered damaged tanks, repaired heavy vehicles, and helped keep mechanized units moving. In Vietnam’s difficult terrain, recovery vehicles like the M88 were vital to maintaining mobility.
>> Artillery and mortars. The M101 105-mm howitzer was a proven artillery piece from World War II that continued to serve in Vietnam. Reliable and relatively light, it could be moved to fire bases and remote positions. It provided steady artillery support for infantry units across many areas of the war. The M102 105 mm howitzer was a lighter and more modern replacement for older artillery pieces.
In Vietnam, its reduced weight made it easier to move by helicopter. This allowed American forces to place artillery support in remote firebases deep in difficult terrain. The M114 155 mm howitzer provided heavier artillery fire than the 105 mm guns. Used from fixed positions and firebases, it delivered long-range support for ground operations.
Its larger shell gave American units more firepower when facing difficult terrain and extended battlefield distances. The M107 175 mm self-propelled gun was built for very long-range artillery fire. Mounted on a tracked chassis, it could move more easily than towed heavy guns. In Vietnam, it was used to strike distant targets and support large operations from major firebases.
The M110 203 mm self-propelled howitzer was one of the heaviest artillery systems used by US forces. Its massive shells delivered powerful fire support over long distances. In Vietnam, it helped provide heavy artillery coverage for bases, large operations, and difficult combat zones. The M29 81 mm mortar was a portable infantry support weapon used by American units in Vietnam.
It could deliver indirect fire over hills, jungle, and obstacles. Lighter than artillery, but more powerful than smaller mortars, it gave infantry units flexible fire support in the field. The M30 107 mm mortar, also known as the 4.2 inch mortar, provided heavier indirect fire support provision. It could fire larger rounds than the standard 81 mm mortar, making it useful for supporting bases and infantry operations.
In Vietnam, it served as a powerful >> The M55 quad mount carried four .50 caliber machine guns on a single mount. Originally designed for air defense, it was often used in Vietnam for base protection and convoy security. Its intense volume of fire made it effective against ground threats in defensive positions.
Naval and riverine vehicles. The PBR, or patrol boat river, was one of the most recognizable river craft of the Vietnam War. Fast and maneuverable, it operated in rivers, canals, and narrow waterways. It was used for patrols, inspections, and river security in the complex waterways of the Mekong Delta. The swift boat, officially called the patrol craft fast, was used by the US Navy for coastal and riverine operations.
It patrolled shorelines, rivers, and supply routes. Its speed, shallow water ability, and weapons made it important in the naval side of the Vietnam War. The monitor river gunboat was an armored river craft used by American riverine forces. Heavily armed and protected, it supported infantry, escorted convoys, and attacked positions along waterways.
In Vietnam’s river warfare, monitors brought armored firepower into places where normal vehicles could not go. The ASPB, or assault support patrol boat, was built to support river assault operations. Better protected than many smaller patrol boats, it carried weapons for escort, patrol, and fire support missions.
In Vietnam, it helped secure waterways and protect troops moving through river systems. The LCM 8 landing craft was used to move troops, vehicles, and supplies across rivers and coastal waters. In Vietnam, landing craft were valuable because many areas were connected more by waterways than roads. The LCM-8 helped support logistics, river operations, and movement of heavy equipment.
The USS New Jersey was an Iowa-class battleship brought back into service for the Vietnam War. Armed with massive 16-in guns, it provided naval gunfire support from offshore. Its firepower was far greater than most ships in the region, making it a dramatic symbol of American naval strength. >> Transport and logistics vehicles.
The M35 2 and 1/2-ton truck was one of the workhorses of American military logistics. In Vietnam, it carried troops, ammunition, food, fuel, and equipment across bases and road networks. Simple, rugged, and reliable, it helped keep US operations supplied in a demanding environment. The M151 Mutt was a lightweight military utility vehicle that replaced earlier Jeep designs.
In Vietnam, it was used for command, patrol, transport, and liaison duties. Small and easy to move, it became a common sight around bases, roads, and military installations. The C-130 Hercules was one of America’s most important transport aircraft in Vietnam. It carried troops, cargo, vehicles, and supplies to airfields across the region.
Its ability to operate from rough or short runways made it vital for military logistics and battlefield. The C-123 Provider was a medium transport aircraft used heavily in Southeast Asia. It could deliver cargo and personnel to smaller airfields that larger aircraft could not use easily. In Vietnam, it supported supply missions, troop movement, and special operations across remote areas.
>> Grenade launchers and anti-tank weapons. The M79 grenade launcher was a single-shot weapon that gave infantry soldiers explosive firepower at medium range. Nicknamed the thumper, it fired 40-mm grenades and was widely used in Vietnam. Its simple design made it reliable, but the user still needed a separate rifle or sidearm.
The M203 was a 40-mm grenade launcher mounted under a rifle barrel, most famously under the M16. Introduced near the end of the 1960s, it allowed one soldier to carry both a rifle and explosive firepower. This made infantry squads more flexible in Vietnam. The M72 LAW was a lightweight disposable rocket launcher designed for anti-armor use.
In Vietnam, it was also used against bunkers and fortified positions. Small enough for individual soldiers to carry, it gave infantry units portable firepower without the weight of older recoilless weapons. The M67 recoilless rifle was a 90-mm shoulder-fired weapon used for anti-armor and bunker-busting roles.
In Vietnam, it gave infantry units a more powerful option against hardened targets. Although heavier than disposable launchers, it delivered stronger firepower at useful battlefield ranges. The M20 super bazooka was an improved rocket launcher developed after World War II. Although older by the Vietnam era, it still appeared in limited use and influenced later portable anti-armor weapons.
It represented the transition from World War II style rockets to more modern infantry systems. The M18A1 Claymore mine was a directional anti-personnel device used for perimeter defense and ambush protection. In Vietnam, American forces used it around bases, patrol positions, and defensive lines. Its role was to provide controlled defensive firepower in areas where surprise attacks were a constant threat.
Infantry weapon. The M-16 rifle became the standard American infantry rifle during the Vietnam War. Lightweight and firing a high-velocity 5.6 mm round, it represented a major shift from older battle rifles. Despite early reliability problems, later improvements made it one of the most recognizable weapons of the conflict.
The M-14 rifle was used by American forces in the early years of the Vietnam War before being largely replaced by the M-16. Firing a powerful 7.62 mm round, it offered accuracy and stopping power, but its weight and length made it less suited to jungle fighting. The M-60 machine gun was a general-purpose machine gun widely used by American infantry and mounted units.
Firing 7.62 mm ammunition, it provided sustained automatic fire for patrols, defensive positions, and vehicles. In Vietnam, the M-60 became one of the most recognizable support weapons of the conflict. The M1911 pistol was a classic American sidearm that had served since the early 20th century. In Vietnam, it was carried by officers, vehicle crews, pilots, and many soldiers who needed a compact backup weapon.
Its .45 caliber round and rugged design gave it a lasting reputation. The M3 Grease Gun was a simple submachine gun developed during World War II. By the Vietnam era, it was older, but still used in certain roles, especially by vehicle crews and special units. Compact, inexpensive, and easy to handle, it remained useful in close-range situations.
The M2 Browning machine gun, often called the Ma Deuce, was a heavy .50 caliber weapon used on vehicles, boats, helicopters, and defensive positions. In Vietnam, its range and power made it valuable against light vehicles, structures, and enemy positions across many combat environments. >> The M40 sniper rifle was adopted by the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
Based on the Remington 700, it gave Marine snipers a precise bolt-action rifle for long-range engagements. Its use in Vietnam helped shape the future of American military sniper doctrine. The Remington Model 870 shotgun was used by American forces for close-range combat, patrols, and security duties. In Vietnam’s jungles, villages, and confined spaces, shotguns could be effective at short distances.
The 870’s reliability made it one of the most respected pump-action shotguns of the war. The Vietnam War was not only a conflict of soldiers and strategy. It was also a war shaped by machines. Helicopters changed the way troops moved. Jet aircraft expanded the reach of air power. Tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, and riverboats adapted to a battlefield of jungles, mountains, rice fields, and waterways.
Some of these weapons became icons. Others were support tools that rarely received attention, but still kept operations moving every day. Together, they show how the US military tried to combine technology, mobility, and firepower in one of the most complex wars of the 20th century. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a like, subscribe to the channel, and tell us in the comments which weapon or vehicle you think became the most iconic symbol of the Vietnam War.
QQ4 Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The friendship began on a live television program in November of 1986 in the 11 seconds after Bob Dylan called Keith Richards music derivative on camera. Keith Richard’s response to that assessment, one sentence said without anger, without performance, with the specific directness of a man who has nothing to prove and knows it made Bob Dylan laugh.
Then made Bob Dylan go quiet. then made Bob Dylan say two words that people who know Bob Dylan say he almost never said to anyone. This is the story of those 11 seconds and the 40 years that followed them. The program was a live music interview special broadcast on an American network on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The format was simple.
Two musicians, a host, an hour of conversation about music and the state of it. The producers had assembled the pairing of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards with the specific calculation of television producers who understand that two people with equally strong and potentially incompatible views about what music is and what it should do will produce better television than two people who agree about everything.
The calculation was correct, though not in the way the producers had anticipated. Bob Dylan was 45 years old in November of 1986. Bob Dylan had released Empire Burlesque the previous year and had been on the road for most of the intervening period as part of the True Confessions tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Bob Dylan was in November of 1986 in one of the most prolific and restless phases of a career that had consisted almost entirely of prolific and restless phases. A career that had moved through folk, rock, country, gospel, and back again, that had been declared finished at least six times by the music press, and at each time continued with the serene indifference of a river to the opinions of people standing on its banks.
Bob Dylan had been redefining what music could be. Since 1962, Bob Dylan had invented and reinvented himself so many times that reinvention had become his defining characteristic, not in the superficial sense of a performer changing costumes, but in the deeper sense of a musician who had never allowed his work to settle into a form that could be anticipated or categorized from the outside.
Bob Dylan understood influence and originality and the relationship between them better than almost anyone alive in 1986. Bob Dylan had spent 24 years thinking carefully and specifically about where music came from and where music was going and what it meant that those two things were always in constant conversation with each other.
Keith Richards was 42 years old in November of 1986. Keith Richards had been playing guitar professionally since 1962. Keith Richards had built a career on a foundation of American blues and rhythm and blues. A foundation that Keith Richards had studied with the systematic devotion of someone who understood that the tradition he was building on was not incidental to the music he was making, but essential to it.
that you could not understand what Keith Richards did without understanding where Keith Richards had come from and what Keith Richards had been listening to since he was a teenager in Dartford with American Import Records and a secondhand guitar and no teacher except the recordings themselves. Keith Richards had never pretended otherwise. Keith Richards had in fact spent considerable energy across his career making the lineage explicit, naming the artists, citing the recordings, insisting on the acknowledgement of influence that the mainstream music
industry had a long history of suppressing or ignoring or crediting to the wrong people. If anything, Keith Richards was more transparent about his sources than most musicians of his generation. Keith Richards had always said openly that the Rolling Stones came directly from the blues, that Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson and the specific tradition of the Mississippi Delta were not background influences, but foundational ones.
The music Keith Richards made was in direct and sustained conversation with that tradition, something Keith Richards considered not a limitation, but a responsibility and a form of respect. The interview had been running for 8 minutes when the host asked Bob Dylan about the current state of rock and roll.
Bob Dylan answered with the density and the indirection that characterized Bob Dylan’s responses to direct questions, turning the question over, approaching it from an unexpected angle, finding his way to what he actually thought through a series of observations that moved like a river rather than a road. Bob Dylan was not a straightforward interview subject.
Bob Dylan had been asked about rock and roll in hundreds of interviews across 24 years and had developed the habit of treating the question as an invitation to think out loud rather than a request for a prepared position. The producer Gerald Sherman said afterward that in the first 8 minutes of the interview, he had been slightly anxious, not because anything was going wrong, but because nothing was going anywhere in particular yet.
The interview had the feeling of two conversations happening simultaneously. Bob Dylan’s internal one and the external one visible to the cameras. And Gerald Sherman was not certain in those first eight minutes that the two conversations would converge into something. Bob Dylan talked about influence. Bob Dylan talked about originality.
Bob Dylan talked about the difference between music that absorbed a tradition and transformed it and music that absorbed a tradition and reproduced it. And then Bob Dylan made his assessment. And then Bob Dylan said with the precision of a man making a musical assessment rather than a personal judgment that the Rolling Stones work, and Bob Dylan was specific, naming Keith Richards as the guitarist whose approach he was discussing was derivative in a way that Bob Dylan found limiting.
Bob Dylan said it without hostility. Bob Dylan said it as a technical observation about the relationship between source material and the work that came from it. Bob Dylan said that Keith Richards played the blues the way the blues had already been played, rather than using the blues as a starting point for something that had not yet been played.
Keith Richards had been listening to this with the specific attention Keith Richards gave to things being said about music by people who knew music. Keith Richards did not interrupt. Keith Richards did not shift in his chair or display any of the visible signals of a person preparing a defensive response. Keith Richards listened to Bob Dylan’s complete observation all the way to its conclusion without interrupting and without displaying any visible signal of preparing a response.
Then Keith Richards said one sentence. The sentence was not a rebuttal. The sentence did not defend Keith Richards music or argue for its originality or challenge Bob Dylan’s characterization of what the blues meant in the context of rock and roll. The sentence was something else entirely, something that required a specific kind of confidence to say.
The confidence of a person who has spent long enough thinking about the same things as the person they are talking to that they can locate the exact point where their thinking diverges and say something useful about that point rather than simply defending their own position. The sentence acknowledged everything Bob Dylan had said, the assessment, the distinction Bob Dylan was drawing, the specific musical concern underlying the observation, and then turned it 90°.
Keith Richards took Bob Dylan’s own framework, the one Bob Dylan had used to analyze Keith Richards relationship to the blues tradition, and applied it back to Bob Dylan’s work with the same precision Bob Dylan had used to apply it to Keith Richards. Spare aimed. The sentence asked Bob Dylan something about Bob Dylan’s own music, about the relationship between Bob Dylan’s sources and Bob Dylan’s output that Bob Dylan had not been asked on television before.
The sentence did not attack. The sentence illuminated. Bob Dylan laughed. The laugh was not the polite laugh of someone responding to a joke. The laugh was the involuntary laugh of someone who has been genuinely surprised. The specific kind of surprise that a person of exceptional intelligence experiences when someone else’s intelligence exceeds their expectations.
Bob Dylan laughed for 4 seconds. Then Bob Dylan stopped laughing. Then Bob Dylan was quiet for 3 seconds in the way that Bob Dylan was quiet when Bob Dylan was thinking rather than performing thought. Then Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” The producer in the booth, a man named Gerald Sherman, who had been working in television for 14 years, said afterward that in 14 years of live television production, he had never heard Bob Dylan say those two words in a public forum.
Gerald Sherman said he had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions and had observed Bob Dylan in numerous other contexts and that you’re right was not a phrase that Bob Dylan deployed easily or often because Bob Dylan had spent 24 years being right about music in ways that other people eventually caught up with. And the experience of being right ahead of everyone else does not generally produce a man who says you’re right readily when someone else makes a point.
The host of the program, a journalist named Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said afterward that the 11 seconds between Bob Dylan’s assessment and Bob Dylan saying, “You’re right,” were the most extraordinary 11 seconds of television she had been present for. Patricia Wells said that what she witnessed in those 11 seconds was not a debate or a confrontation or a celebrity exchange of competing opinions.
Patricia Wells said what she witnessed was one musician recognizing another musician as an equal, which was in the specific context of Bob Dylan in 1986, not something that happened in public very often. The interview continued for another 42 minutes after those 11 seconds. The conversation between Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in the remaining 42 minutes was described by everyone who watched it as fundamentally different from the first 8 minutes.
The host, Patricia Wells, who had been conducting music interviews for 12 years and understood the difference between the performance of conversation and actual conversation, said that at approximately the 9-minute mark, something shifted in the studio. That the formal interview, architecture dissolved, and what replaced it was something less structured and more genuine.
Bob Dylan and Keith Richards talked about influence and originality and the blues and what it meant to build on a tradition without being consumed by it. They talked about specific recordings and specific musicians with the specificity of two people who had spent their entire adult lives thinking about these things and rarely found another person who had thought about them with equivalent care.
They talked about where music came from and where music was going and whether those two questions were actually one question or two. Patricia Wells said afterward that she had asked approximately four questions in the remaining 42 minutes because Bob Dylan and Keith Richards did not require questions. They required only a room and a camera and the shared understanding that what they were saying together was worth recording carefully.
She said it was the best interview she had ever conducted and that she had conducted the smallest part of it. After the program, Bob Dylan and Keith Richards were in the corridor outside the studio when the host Patricia Wells passed them. Patricia Wells said she did not stop because she did not want to interrupt.
She observed them for approximately 30 seconds from a distance. She said they were talking with the ease of people who had known each other for years rather than people who had met for the first time 2 hours earlier. She said that something had shifted between them during the broadcast that the broadcast had made permanent rather than temporary.
She continued down the corridor and did not look back. She said in her account of that evening that she had decided in that moment not to interrupt the conversation because some conversations are more valuable than any question a journalist might ask and that the conversation she had observed for 30 seconds in the corridor outside the studio was one of them.
She had been a music journalist for 12 years. She recognized the difference. Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have maintained their friendship across four decades. They have appeared together at various events, most significantly at the concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, where people who were present described them as inseparable for most of the evening, occupying the same corner of the backstage area and talking with the concentrated attention of people who only have a limited amount of time together and intend to use it
well. Bob Dylan has spoken about Keith Richards in interviews with the specific thoughtful care that Bob Dylan reserves for musicians whose work Bob Dylan considers genuinely important rather than merely culturally prominent. Keith Richards has spoken about Bob Dylan in similar terms with the specific respect of someone who recognizes in another person a commitment to music that goes deeper than career.
Neither Bob Dylan nor Keith Richards has made a public statement specifically about how the friendship began or about the November 1986 interview. Bob Dylan has not mentioned the 11 seconds. Keith Richards has not mentioned the sentence. The interview exists in the archive. The 11 seconds are there. The laugh is there. The two words are there.
What is also there for anyone who watches the interview from its beginning and pays attention to the shift that happens at the 9-minute mark is the specific moment when two people who thought they were appearing on a television program discovered they were actually talking to each other. What Keith Richards said in that one sentence has never been officially reported.
The people who were in the studio that evening, Gerald Sherman, Patricia Wells, the floor crew, the two camera operators, the makeup artist who was watching from the side of the set, have described the sentence in consistent terms. They have described its effect. They have described Bob Dylan’s laugh and Bob Dylan’s silence and Bob Dylan’s two words.
They have not repeated the sentence itself in the specific understanding that the sentence was said between two musicians on a television program and that its power resided in the specific context of that exchange and would not survive removal from it intact. What can be said is this. Keith Richards said something to Bob Dylan about Bob Dylan’s music that used Bob Dylan’s own observation about Keith Richards as its starting point and arrived somewhere that Bob Dylan had not anticipated.
Keith Richards turned Bob Dylan’s assessment 90° and showed Bob Dylan something about the music they had both spent their lives making that Bob Dylan recognized immediately as true. And Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” Two words said by Bob Dylan in public on live television in 1986 to Keith Richards in response to a single sentence Keith Richards had said about music.
Two words that Gerald Sherman, who had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions, said he had never heard Bob Dylan say in a public forum. Two words that Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said were the most significant two words she had heard in those 12 years. Not because of their content, but because of who said them and what it cost to say them and what it meant that Keith Richards had produced them in 11 seconds from a conversation that began with Bob Dylan calling Keith Richards’s music derivative. And Keith Richards and
Bob Dylan have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The sentence did its work in 11 seconds on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The work has been ongoing ever since. If this story moved you, subscribe and leave a comment below. Have you ever said something to someone that turned a potential disagreement into an unexpected and lasting connection? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Share this with someone who needs to be reminded that the right sentence said at the right moment can completely change the entire direction of a relationship. Ring the notification bell for more untold stories about the extraordinary human beings behind music’s greatest legends.
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