Sunday March 16th 2025
My Dear America:
I have to confess I have been waiting for quite awhile to see "A Complete Unknown", a Biopic about the Early Days of Bob Dylan's Musical Career in the Early Sixties. Two of My Granddaughters had let me know that they would like to see the movie with me and I was thrilled with that.
Unfortunately only one of my Granddaughters made it to the theater. My Other Granddaughter had car trouble. Because My Granddaughter and I had some issues connecting at the Theater we missed the first 10 minutes of the movie. but what we did see was an excellent depiction of Bob Dylan's early rise to fame as a Folksinger and a Songwriter. My interest in seeing the movie was Bob Dylan. My Granddaughter was also interested in Dylan but certainly more interested in Timothy Chalomee, who starred as Bob Dylan and in my opinion did an outstanding job portraying Bob Dylan in the film.
Bob Dylan is, and has been since the early 1960's, An American Musical Treasure. The movie portrays very well that Bob Dylan was not always a great guy to be friends with. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie may have helped Bob to launch his musical career by singing his praises and his folk songs but in the end when Dylan went electric he seemed to want to have little to do with his Old Folky Friends.
The movie clearly shows that Bob Dylan was not the best boyfriend to have also. He clearly used Joan Baez to further his career and when he was on top and no longer needed her he dumped her like a bad habit. Joan Baez who didn't write a lot of songs did write a pretty great one with "Diamonds and Rust" which was clearly and bitterly about her relationship with Bob Dylan. In an interview with Dan Rather she has revealed that more recently she has simply recognized how important Dylan's music is and has become less bitter toward him.
First of all, Bob Dylan's name really wasn't Bob Dylan. His actual family name was Bob Zimmerman. I guess he didn't feel that Zimmerman fit his self image well enough. His girlfriend Sylvie in the Movie (Suze in real life) complained that he never talked about his background and Family. There was a reason for that. Dylan didn't want to talk about his real background. He was a Jewish boy from Minnesota who had picked up playing guitar while in high school and played rock music with a group of friends. He attended the University of Minnesota for awhile and got involved in the Folk Scene on the outskirts of the school prior to setting out for New York City to make it big as a Folksinger
That genuine background didn't fit the Bob Dylan image, however, so Bobby D. left the Bobby Z. image behind and invented a new backstory for himself. He began telling his New York City friends that he hitchhiked and road the rails around the country and spent time working as a Carny while picking up Guitar and Folksongs from Hobos. Much of it was total Bullshit but it fit much better into the Bob Dylan image.
While Bob Dylan's new Bio was short on truth certainly the fact that he was a Talented Songwriter and Guitar Player was absolutely true. While his imitation of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin Jack Elliot's nasally singing style could be annoying, his songs were so good that people hardly noticed how bad his singing voice was. After all, if it was good enough for Woody, It was good enough for Bob. Besides, There were a number of talented artists around during the Early Sixties who sang Bob Dylan songs very well. In addition to Joan Baez, There was Peter Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, Sonny and Cher, The Turtles, The Byrds and many others.
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds in a recent documentary talked about Bob Dylan coming to one of the Byrds recording session and listening to the band playing their version of "Mr. Tamborine Man". McGuinn seemed to think that it might have been at that recording session that Bob Dylan decided to go electric.
The Movie "A Complete Unknown" ends shortly after it shows Dylan playing an electric set at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 where his Rocking Set apparently did not go over well with the Folkies in attendance.
To his credit, however, and to my dismay and the dismay of countless other Folkies at the time in the Mid Sixties, Bob Dylan stuck to his guns. He kept on playing electric music for some time with "The Band". Dylan lived close to "The Band" members in Woodstock, New York where they all practiced together and for a time took their show on the road. Although Bob Dylan has never had difficulty in finding musicians willing to play with him he has, at times, inserted himself into established bands for tours including gigs with "The Grateful Dead" and "Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers".
Bob Dylan is in his eighties now and is still on "The Never Ending Tour". There have been many stops on "The Never Ending Tour" including his "Saved" Christian Music Period, His "Infidels" period of Jewish inspired music, His "Rolling Thunder Revue" period in which he gathered some of the best musical talent together for an unforgettable tour to highlight the plight of the unfair jailing of boxer, Hurricane Carter.
One of my favorite Bob Dylan incarnations was his membership in "The Traveling Wilburys", along with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne (Of The Electric Light Orchestra), George Harrison and Roy Orbison.
Getting back to the movie, I am genuinely glad to have had the experience of sharing some of what I have experienced over the years of being a Bob Dylan Fan and seeing him and some of those he provided music for in concert with My Granddaughter. She is a good judge of music and has turned me on to some very talented musicians and bands at times.
My wife, who had wanted to accompany us to the movie but was suffering from intense back pain and really didn't want to have to deal with the incredibly cold weather, has often commented about the fact that living through our time in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties we have grown up listening to Great Music that kids today don't have. She has a point but there is also another point in that todays kids are lucky to have access through Apple, Spotify and Other Online Musical Platforms the opportunity to listen to almost anything that they want at any time they want.
I would highly recommend "A Complete Unknown" to anyone who was into Folk Music in the Late 50's and Early Sixties and beyond.
This movie certainly took me back to that period of time when I was in High School and College and learning to love different kinds of music. I told my Granddaughter about how I saw Joan Baez and Bob Dylan singing together at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. I had hitchhiked to Newport from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and turned that experience into a Novel called "The Folksingers", which is still available for purchase from Amazon.com for anybody interested in it. Actually Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, the main characters in "A Complete Unknown" are also minor characters in my Novel.
I have closely followed Dylan's career over the years and still find him to be a fascinating character. I have seen him in concert a few times in addition to Newport and even though his voice sort of grates on me, his older classic songs in my opinion seem to get better with age.
At a time when Politics is uncertain, at best, I found that a trip into the past with My Granddaughter and Bob Dylan was a very pleasant experience.
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
No comments:
Post a Comment