WALLFLOWER'S ROOTS IN ROCK 'N' ROLL ARE AS DEEP AS HIS DAD

3.12.93 By Gary Graff, as published in the Detroit Free Press, p. 8C

Photo Caption: Jakob Dylan, second from left with hand on face, and the Wallflowers. "If I thought about it too much, I may as well just pack it in and go away," says Dylan about being the son of a legend.

*** The term "a Young Dylan" is one of the most dreaded and overused descriptions in rock 'n' roll phraseology. It's an albatross that holds weighty and unfulfillable expectations. But when your name happens to be Jakob Dylan and you are indeed the son of Bob Dylan, it's a tough tag to avoid. So it's Jakob Dylan's lot that eyebrows rose when he emerged with his own band, the Wallflowers. He knows his lineage is a great way to woo attention to the group, but at 23, Dylan knows he's not his father -- even if much of the music on the Wallflowers' debut album sounds like it came out of the Big Pink house where his father once recorded with the Band. "It's natural for people to be curious," says Dylan, who was the inspiration for his father's hit "Forever Young." "But it doesn't do anybody any good to dwell on it. . . . If I thought about it too much, I may as well just pack it in and go away." According to Tobi Miller, the Wallflowers' lead guitarist and Dylan's boyhood pal, whatever struggle goes on within his friend is generally kept private. "Back when we became friends, it was the regular world of moms and dads. There was no distinguishing between a famous parent and somebody who wasn't famous. The only time it really comes up is in this type of situation, an interview."

Dylan and Miller met during fifth grade and shared a love of British new wave bands such as the Clash and the Jam. They started playing music together in the eighth grade -- though Dylan didn't start writing his own songs in earnest until four years ago. Raised in Southern California, Dylan has songs that are accomplished and varied, ranging from energetic explosions ("Somebody Else's Money," "Ashes to Ashes") to winding, drawn-out narratives such as "Hollywood" and "Sugarfoot." It's in the latter that the Wallflowers most recall Dylan's dad, with their vivid imagery, biting commentary and dense interplay between Dylan and Miller's guitars and Rami Jaffee's rich organ and piano fills. "We used to be a lot more of a guitar band," says Dylan, whose tousled hair also makes it easy to peg his ancestry. "We didn't have as much space in it. The organ was something I really wanted. I would write songs that had that sound in my head. It's a way of executing a lot more ideas . . . to get a really loose flow in the sound."

Hmmm . . . sounds a lot like you-know-who's approach to making music. "Yeah, (Dad) likes the record," Dylan says with a sigh. "But he's real busy. He's on his never-ending tour. "He does his work, and I do mine."

ON STAGE: The Wallflowers perform with 3 Walls Down at 9:30 tonight at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. Call 996-8555.