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ARTUR JAROSINSKI, 1978-2011

Artur Jarosinski, a collector of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen works died on
August 21, 2011, aged 32.

True artists like Bob Dylan are rare species. True fans are not easy to
find either.

To collect everything is a hell of the job. Bootlegs vary in quality so in order
to get your hands on the best quality of recordings you have to listen to
hours of concerts on end. There are countless memorabilia- t-shirts, posters,
monographs, newspaper cuts, drawings, cartoons, even curios like a cup
that was thrown from stage to the crowd. Collectors scramble for rare
editions of albums with, say, Japanese version having one track added to
the standard one issued in America and Europe. True fans want all the
artifacts big and small.

And, mind you, there is a mind-boggling technological development that
inevitably make a fan's collection obsolete - bootleg tapes of yesterday
become CDs and then turn into MP3s. Books get torn and frayed. Finally
artists have an unnerving habit of occasional going on tour so that fans
follow them around.

And follow Bob Dylan Artur did, year in year out. That was life on the road
for much of his youth. Monday -Berlin, Tuesday - Cologne, and so on.
Venues, cities, climate zones and languages spoken would change but it
slightly mattered. He was not there for the sight-seeing. There was
sufficient excitement in concerts and concert-related activities. Night train
or bus to get from one venue to the next. Hours of waiting at the
entrance to get closest to stage when they open the gates. The hope to
catch a glimpse of Dylan coming to soundcheck. And the magic moment
when lights fide out…

Everything had to be documented and filed. Each night, as Dylan played,
Artur would write down in his little notebook the setlist (like a spy who
writes coded messages to headquarters): H61R (for Highway 61 Revisited),
LARS (Like a Rolling Stone) and so on. Artur was often the first to call
Bob Links to pass the setlist to the global Dylan community. Let others
know and share the emotions.

In a way Artur came 40 years too late. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen
being clearly past their prime Artur entered a contest that was clearly
handicapped. By the time Artur was born Dylan had managed to become
a voice of his generation, be proclaimed a traitor and acquire a status of
living legend again. Similarly all those Dylan collectors had already had
established their own reputation, financial means and contacts. Artur
seemed like a newcomer from nowhere (who among the crowd of
bootleggers had heard of Eastern Europe?).

He had his moments of doubt, of course. The Internet has its share of
crooks, leeches, impostors and bigots. Bob Dylan is humiliated by the
fact that he has fans in Poland, someone told him once. It wounded
him deeply. And there is a strange case of the artist himself. Bob Dylan
is not the type of an artist to chat, shake hands with you and ask if you
want an autograph. He is immutable like some ancient god, inaccessible
and distant. Once Artur was selected for rough aggressive questioning
by some security entourage of Dylan. Why do you come to so many
concerts? Can't you move somewhere towards the back of the crowd?
As if he had been an assassin or a dangerous maniac. Maybe this was
the primary reason why towards the end of his short life he moved
away from Dylan towards Leonard Cohen. Some Dylan fatigue or
weariness has set in. He had everything there was to collect anyway.

You could wake him up in the middle of the night give him a date, say
5.5.76 or 7.8.98, and he would tell you what Dylan was doing on that
day and - if there happened to be a concert - what was played on this
particular date. Like a detective Artur would scour the lyrics for
references to literary works, biblical allusions, hidden meanings and
overlooked facts. People knew him, asked his advice, desired his
attention. Is this outtake in circulation? Is this a master tape or just a
miserable copy? He would settle disputes. This was his internet life.

It would be hard to find a starker contrast between his internet status
of a wiseman and real life figure. Gentle-mannered, slightly shy and
cheerful Artur taught English to schoolchildren of Bochnia. He invented
nursery rhymes based on Dylan songs. Imagine the amazement of kids
coming for private lessons at the stacks of records and assorted
dylanica cramped into a tiny room of the flat where he lived with his
parents. Later on he moved to Wroclaw as a translator.

Artur was a maverick. Many people did not understand his passion.
(Maybe every collector is slightly misunderstood?) Bochnia, like many
parts of southern Poland, is a curious blend between modernity and
tradition. This is a sleepy former salt-mine town where older generation
venerates John Paul II, cherishes family values and loves Polish folk music.
These parts of Poland were a bulwark against communism but it
somehow never came hand in hand with the Rolling Thunder Revue.
The younger generation that does not remember communism inevitably
slid into modern-era lowbrow entertainment. Bob Dylan has never
attracted anybody's attention. Artur was alone in Bochnia.

Kraków was a bit different, at least for a little while, when gloom of
dictatorship turned into blossom of democracy. When Dylan came to
the city in 1994 16-year-old Artur was there in an anonymous,
rain-drenched crowd ready to skip the TV broadcast of World
Champions final of Italy playing against Brazil. There was a craziness in
this audience, megatons of pent-up energy. The Iron Curtain had
just come down and people's hunger for rock music seemed insatiable.
It would not last long. Soon the rock music came to be largely forgotten
by those whose staple food became junk food of pop music. Artur stuck
with healthy food of good music.

Artur Jarosinski departed as he arrived, like a comet. He died in an
accident on his way home after a concert. I wish Bob Dylan knew and
heaved a sigh, because with every fan gone some of the artist is lost
forever. Without fans there is no artist and Artur was one of the
greatest of fans.

Jakub Wisniewski
December 2013

jarkko wrote:Without fans there is no artist and Artur was one of the
greatest of fans.

B4real wrote:I've been trying for a while now to light a candle for Artur but the contents of the original link given over the page has changed -
http://www.polski-cmentarz.com/bochnia/ ... 005&inni=0 It now seems to be a generic initial home page.
I've tried searching in the box (wyszukaj) at the top left hand corner but can't seem to get anywhere. Some info comes up in it that can't be translated into English.

Martali, maybe you can help here - thank you if you can. I would like to continue lighting a candle for Artur if possible.

B4real wrote: Maybe they are still working on it and hopefully it will go back to the same way it was before. As long as the link is available I will still continue to light a candle because I want to.