Long before Paul Hogan brandished this largish Mick Dundee knife on screen , dashing Melbourne university newspaper editor and anti-Vietnam war campaigner, Pete Steedman , thrust a genuine Bowie knife at the throat of visiting American counter-culture singer Bob Dylan . Steedman told this blog a lot of erroneous accounts had been written about the dramatic episode , that he would send documents , plus supply other information over the phone to clarify the famous story.
Through the post came a copy of ISIS Issue 186, published about 2016, a pic of Nobel award recipient Dylan on the front, part two of Dylan's 1966 tour of Australia , written by Zac Dadic. It said Steedman had been editor of the Monash University student newspaper , Lot's Wife,in 1965 and l966. His co-editor up until early 1966 had been Phillip Frazer , founder of Go Set , Australia's first pop music newspaper , who went to America and became involved with Ralph Nader and other activists .
The article said Steedman also edited the Melbourne University student newspaper, Farrago,and was a well known identity, elected to federal parliament in 1983.
Dealing with the knife incident, it said it had become part of Dylan folklore among Melbourne fans . An online story claimed Dylan had mistakenly knocked on Pete Steedman's door late at night , wanting to contact a person who lived nextdoor, and that Pete opened the door armed with a knife.
Steedman said a lot had been written about the episode, much of it bullshit . With Dylan had been a female reporter covering a Melbourne concert of his for the student paper, and she took him to meet editor Pete for an interview . Because he had received death threats over his opposition to the Vietnam War and conscription , Steedman had numerous weapons spread about in case of a nocturnal invasion. The ISIS article quotes him thus :
"You have to understand that at the time in l966 , I was attracting a lot of attention from ASIO , the Special Branch and a whole lot of other people, like those right wing thugs the Ustase , who were the Croatian fascists that had a secret meeting hall in Melbourne , and at that stage were sending pen bombs to people in Australia and blowing their hands off . They put me in the fix because I was publishing stories exposing them ".
Because of this , Pete said he had been " very paranoid " about his security . It was late at night , Pete, in a deep sleep, having consumed a large amount of booze , was woken by knocking on his bedroom door . On asking , in a slurred voice, who was there , Pete received a reply from a person with a American accent , " It' s me , man."
Pete responded by grabbing the said 12 inch Bowie knife , pulled open the fortress door , jumped out, grabbed the caller by the back of the head , and held the weapon up to his throat. It seems the female reporter may have saved Bob's golden vocal chords from damage when she quickly stepped forward and told Pete who it was , what he wanted .
Dylan was ushered into the fortified inner sanctum , with its array of weapons , a conversation was had, not much of which can be recalled as it was more than half a century ago and Steedman had been in a deep sleep -"half pissed "- when he had jumped out the door like a crazed Aussie Dervish .
The article said Steedman also edited the Melbourne University student newspaper, Farrago,and was a well known identity, elected to federal parliament in 1983.
Dealing with the knife incident, it said it had become part of Dylan folklore among Melbourne fans . An online story claimed Dylan had mistakenly knocked on Pete Steedman's door late at night , wanting to contact a person who lived nextdoor, and that Pete opened the door armed with a knife.
Steedman said a lot had been written about the episode, much of it bullshit . With Dylan had been a female reporter covering a Melbourne concert of his for the student paper, and she took him to meet editor Pete for an interview . Because he had received death threats over his opposition to the Vietnam War and conscription , Steedman had numerous weapons spread about in case of a nocturnal invasion. The ISIS article quotes him thus :
"You have to understand that at the time in l966 , I was attracting a lot of attention from ASIO , the Special Branch and a whole lot of other people, like those right wing thugs the Ustase , who were the Croatian fascists that had a secret meeting hall in Melbourne , and at that stage were sending pen bombs to people in Australia and blowing their hands off . They put me in the fix because I was publishing stories exposing them ".
Because of this , Pete said he had been " very paranoid " about his security . It was late at night , Pete, in a deep sleep, having consumed a large amount of booze , was woken by knocking on his bedroom door . On asking , in a slurred voice, who was there , Pete received a reply from a person with a American accent , " It' s me , man."
Pete responded by grabbing the said 12 inch Bowie knife , pulled open the fortress door , jumped out, grabbed the caller by the back of the head , and held the weapon up to his throat. It seems the female reporter may have saved Bob's golden vocal chords from damage when she quickly stepped forward and told Pete who it was , what he wanted .
Dylan was ushered into the fortified inner sanctum , with its array of weapons , a conversation was had, not much of which can be recalled as it was more than half a century ago and Steedman had been in a deep sleep -"half pissed "- when he had jumped out the door like a crazed Aussie Dervish .
Some years later , Steedman was made the head of AusMusic , which promoted music within Australia , encouraged the spread of music in schools and involvement in the industry. Recently the ABC revived the title to promote a month of Australian music . Pete received a call from a friend who said he had heard some announcer having difficulty pronouncing Aus , calling it Osmusic.
