28-05-2018, 20:52
Martin Scorses’s 2005 documentary film - No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
![[Image: 220px-Bobdylannodirectionhome.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/Bobdylannodirectionhome.jpg/220px-Bobdylannodirectionhome.jpg)
This covers the period 1961 to 1965 – his transition from ‘pure’ folk to more of a rock style, and it’s quite an eye-opener! We all know how unusual Bob Dylan is, and this documentary really reinforces that; not sure anyone has, or ever will be able to work him out, but seen from the perspective of now, what he was doing is also easier to comprehend that it would have been back then. Fascinating! He’s interviewed in the present as a sort of commentary and that’s extremely cleverly done - his face in half shadow, those eyes flashing out blue fire now and then – he’s quite relaxed too, expect toward the end when he starts getting a bit caustic - had probably had enough by then!
He was just a kid when this all started but even then, was on his own mission. He may have taken his cue from the great folk and protest singers – Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and from Billie Holiday, and the blues musicians of the time, but while undisputedly highlighting causes and general human rights, always stated that he wasn’t political. He wasn’t trying to emulate those he admired, and didn’t plan on being beholden to them either. To me, what he was trying to do with his voice was not to actually sing, in the conventional understanding of the word - he's almost disparaging of melody, in fact - that voice was fully intended as an instrument to carry his songs. From what I can tell, he didn’t really want anyone else singing his songs (although they did, and have, extensively!) – he wrote them and wanted to deliver them his way. He resisted anyone trying to understand him, or should I say, pin him down, but in all truth, there are some who really didn’t deserve to either! During a press conference one journalist asked him an inane question to which Bob responded, “Have you listened to any of my records?” - “No” responds this character. “Well then how can you ask me that question?” ripostes Bob. “I’m just doing my job” says the journo, which kinda says it all if you ask me. What right did that person have to question him? None at all. Must have been very hard for this maverick muso of obvious intelligence and wit to have to deal with a constant barrage of the banal. People simply didn’t have a clue how to handle him and nobody got off lightly.
Anyway – another comment that the present (well the year 2000) Bob made that was most telling, IMHO, was this: “I had gotten in the door when no-one was looking. I was in there now, and there was nothing anyone from then on could ever do about it.” In those few short years, he’d well and truly established himself, and that was that. I’m pretty sure that was his master plan – he wasn’t just stumbling around getting known by chance – I think he set out to do exactly (pretty much) what he did. The movie ends as he’s heading back home and shortly before he had the motorcycle accident which created a hiatus in his career; he didn’t tour for another six years. There are appearances and interviews by all sort of people, which helps to build a structure and setting (some of them since passed on) for those years – Alan Ginsberg, Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, Liam Clancy, Pete Seeger – you see clips of him with Johnny Cash, some amazing footage from the times. I’d watch it again. Really, really good. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
This covers the period 1961 to 1965 – his transition from ‘pure’ folk to more of a rock style, and it’s quite an eye-opener! We all know how unusual Bob Dylan is, and this documentary really reinforces that; not sure anyone has, or ever will be able to work him out, but seen from the perspective of now, what he was doing is also easier to comprehend that it would have been back then. Fascinating! He’s interviewed in the present as a sort of commentary and that’s extremely cleverly done - his face in half shadow, those eyes flashing out blue fire now and then – he’s quite relaxed too, expect toward the end when he starts getting a bit caustic - had probably had enough by then!
He was just a kid when this all started but even then, was on his own mission. He may have taken his cue from the great folk and protest singers – Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and from Billie Holiday, and the blues musicians of the time, but while undisputedly highlighting causes and general human rights, always stated that he wasn’t political. He wasn’t trying to emulate those he admired, and didn’t plan on being beholden to them either. To me, what he was trying to do with his voice was not to actually sing, in the conventional understanding of the word - he's almost disparaging of melody, in fact - that voice was fully intended as an instrument to carry his songs. From what I can tell, he didn’t really want anyone else singing his songs (although they did, and have, extensively!) – he wrote them and wanted to deliver them his way. He resisted anyone trying to understand him, or should I say, pin him down, but in all truth, there are some who really didn’t deserve to either! During a press conference one journalist asked him an inane question to which Bob responded, “Have you listened to any of my records?” - “No” responds this character. “Well then how can you ask me that question?” ripostes Bob. “I’m just doing my job” says the journo, which kinda says it all if you ask me. What right did that person have to question him? None at all. Must have been very hard for this maverick muso of obvious intelligence and wit to have to deal with a constant barrage of the banal. People simply didn’t have a clue how to handle him and nobody got off lightly.
Anyway – another comment that the present (well the year 2000) Bob made that was most telling, IMHO, was this: “I had gotten in the door when no-one was looking. I was in there now, and there was nothing anyone from then on could ever do about it.” In those few short years, he’d well and truly established himself, and that was that. I’m pretty sure that was his master plan – he wasn’t just stumbling around getting known by chance – I think he set out to do exactly (pretty much) what he did. The movie ends as he’s heading back home and shortly before he had the motorcycle accident which created a hiatus in his career; he didn’t tour for another six years. There are appearances and interviews by all sort of people, which helps to build a structure and setting (some of them since passed on) for those years – Alan Ginsberg, Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, Liam Clancy, Pete Seeger – you see clips of him with Johnny Cash, some amazing footage from the times. I’d watch it again. Really, really good. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson
