Dylan unknowable? People keep saying that, I don't understand why, just listen to his songs. They relate to us humans trying to make sense of the world. I saw the original of The Man Who Fell to Earth movie with David Bowie. Driving home, I heard Like a Rolling Stone, a favorite Dylan piece, on the radio, and started crying. The song supposedly was about another musician. I took it more literally how it related to me. Both the movie and the song synchronized into a moment of a three way connection along me, the alien, and the singer, trying to get home. It can be as simple as that. That's what Bob Dylan portrayed. Humans at any moment are in love, or confused, or obsessed, or shallow, or magnificent, or angry. He is so good at distilling emotions - in the moment, you own it. I have seen Dylan in concert several times, and every time the rawness fills the air. I will see the Chalamet film this weekend and cry for another reason. My grown sons' Dad, now deceased, and I were huge Bob Dylan fans. The songs will resonate, especially Lay Lady Lay. We got a brass bed thanks to those lyrics. Probably the very place my sons began.
Sonny - confession first: I've mostly skipped over your work during my year as a Bulwark member, so you're w/in rights to blow off my Comments for 11 months or so 😉
This week I've thoroughly enjoyed your review of Interstellar, which I've never seen but now will - because your review expressed your heart & how the film connected for you on that level. Visiting family in midwest for holidays, just missed its departure from Imax here tho.
Now I come to praise your positive review of Complete Unknown, which I was planning to see anyway just for the reasons you described. Here too, it's about heart connections. Amped up a bit because Music! Don't think you mentioned explicitly, but this is also why I (& I believe lotsa folks) will pay to see a copycat band play Beatles, Matthews, U2, Queen (at the last of which I had the added joy of taking my teenage grandson to rock in the aisles with me)... And I'll go to a dumpy fairgrounds to catch Three Dog Night with only one living Dog on stage, the Grateful (ones-that-still-aren't) Dead, or The Monkees down to their last banana peel.
Because it's not just about the high fidelity (or it is, in the virtue sense of that word). Music is one of the elemental forces that drives this whole shebang from quarks to the spheres, from singing whales to you'n'me. I know from personal observation more than academic reading (of which there IS a bit) that music is one of the last connections humans have as our neural pathways seize up with plaque and/or as the chemical-computer-thinking battery in our head runs down in our last moments here.
Dylan said it well in his stream of consciousness liner notes on an album (lost all my vinyl in a flood a few years back, internet tells me it was The Times They Are A-Changin'):
"There’s a reason Bohemian Rhapsody grossed more than $900 million worldwide, won a bunch of Oscars, and has a stellar IMDB rating despite being formulaic claptrap: audiences love their formulas. And they love watching simulations of their favorite musicians singing their classic songs."
Yay, a kindred spirit! I remember thinking during the Live Aid scene 'why did they spend all this time and money on a re-creation that everyone has already seen? That they can go watch on Youtube?'
I mean, it works on the big screen because the original also works on a big screen? I guess? People just love these things. It's why WALK HARD didn't make a dent: people just want to see the songs they enjoy sung in a movie!
I'll definitely see this movie at some point. Yes, Thimothee Chalamet is too pretty to play Dylan but I'll give the kid a chance. I did see a preview when I went to see Wicked and I have to say that his singing (it was "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall") was squarely in the uncanny valley for me, which is definitely a risk with a guy whose voice is so well known and who sang so many recognizable songs with just his guitar for accompaniment. All I could think was "that's Chalamet doing a party-trick style impression of Dylan." But I assume that will fade the deeper one gets into the movie. I, too, am a sucker for the genre!
As a teen in the day I recall thinking, in some pics Dylan is kinda pretty. Didn't know the word androgynous back then but that's my word today for my impression of him
Excellent review of the movie, which I'm even more eager to see now. That said, there's nothing like a little gratuitous jab at Pete Seeger to remind me I am in a center-right space. :-) (The Atlantic piece is actually pretty fair to ol' Pete. People should read it.)
Julie - thank you for that link. Huge Al Kooper fan going nearly 60 years back. In my one music class in college I did a presentation on him as an HG Wells of rock/pop music, seeing where things were headed & being present at several creations. His autobiography covers all that, got him to autograph my copy on his promo tour in 1999(?) at Wilberts in Cleveland.
I'd wager that I'm probably the biggest Dylan head that follows The Bulwark. Am super pumped about this movie and am happy to read your positive review of it.
Jesse - peace dude ✌️ Not gonna challenge you to throw down for that title. I got 60 years of listening rattling in my head, an older sister who was at one of his first electric shows in St. Louis, memories of unwrapping cellophane offa every vinyl album through New Morning (all lost decades later in basement flood), going to look for the Big Pink house while visiting a college buddy in Poughkeepsie in early '70s...
Way I see it, any amount of joy anyone gains from Dylan's music just elevates this whole damn universe
OK you beat me. I was just being cheeky too. I've 'only' been listening since the late 80s when my dad brought home the traveling wilbury's vol 1, you have me beat by quite a bit lol. He became my favorite Wilbury despite being a beatles freak at the time.) I was like "WTF are people talking about when they say he can't sing? He emotes more powerfully than anyone I've heard" and I was only 13 at the time. You have some great credentials. Are you in AZ, as your handle suggests? I am. Did you see him the last time he came through town in '22? I went to the PHX show and drove down to Tucscon the next day for that one. Both great.
Many moons ago, read that Hendrix decided to sing with his band because of Dylan - not that they talked about it: just Dylan existing and doing his thing inspired him. Why stop yourself cuz of some rules about "how it's supposed to sound"? Perhaps he'd already determined that from his guitar chops, just applied the same open-minded exploring to his vocals. Not giving a fig
Wilburys was a damn hard band to pick a favorite. Gun to my head woulda been Petty but please don't rat me out to the rest of 'em 😉
Over my life I'd sync up w/Dylan's music at some points but less of the uncritical fan I'd been my 1st 15 years or so of being enamored. In my dotage I don't go to many concerts, didn't to either of those. We're way down south of Tucson. Occasionally get up to the MIM, such a great venue, recently heard T-Bone Burnett there - stellar! Love live music in small clubs and bars, people playing on street or in a park.
Dylan unknowable? People keep saying that, I don't understand why, just listen to his songs. They relate to us humans trying to make sense of the world. I saw the original of The Man Who Fell to Earth movie with David Bowie. Driving home, I heard Like a Rolling Stone, a favorite Dylan piece, on the radio, and started crying. The song supposedly was about another musician. I took it more literally how it related to me. Both the movie and the song synchronized into a moment of a three way connection along me, the alien, and the singer, trying to get home. It can be as simple as that. That's what Bob Dylan portrayed. Humans at any moment are in love, or confused, or obsessed, or shallow, or magnificent, or angry. He is so good at distilling emotions - in the moment, you own it. I have seen Dylan in concert several times, and every time the rawness fills the air. I will see the Chalamet film this weekend and cry for another reason. My grown sons' Dad, now deceased, and I were huge Bob Dylan fans. The songs will resonate, especially Lay Lady Lay. We got a brass bed thanks to those lyrics. Probably the very place my sons began.
Sonny - confession first: I've mostly skipped over your work during my year as a Bulwark member, so you're w/in rights to blow off my Comments for 11 months or so 😉
This week I've thoroughly enjoyed your review of Interstellar, which I've never seen but now will - because your review expressed your heart & how the film connected for you on that level. Visiting family in midwest for holidays, just missed its departure from Imax here tho.
Now I come to praise your positive review of Complete Unknown, which I was planning to see anyway just for the reasons you described. Here too, it's about heart connections. Amped up a bit because Music! Don't think you mentioned explicitly, but this is also why I (& I believe lotsa folks) will pay to see a copycat band play Beatles, Matthews, U2, Queen (at the last of which I had the added joy of taking my teenage grandson to rock in the aisles with me)... And I'll go to a dumpy fairgrounds to catch Three Dog Night with only one living Dog on stage, the Grateful (ones-that-still-aren't) Dead, or The Monkees down to their last banana peel.
Because it's not just about the high fidelity (or it is, in the virtue sense of that word). Music is one of the elemental forces that drives this whole shebang from quarks to the spheres, from singing whales to you'n'me. I know from personal observation more than academic reading (of which there IS a bit) that music is one of the last connections humans have as our neural pathways seize up with plaque and/or as the chemical-computer-thinking battery in our head runs down in our last moments here.
Dylan said it well in his stream of consciousness liner notes on an album (lost all my vinyl in a flood a few years back, internet tells me it was The Times They Are A-Changin'):
there's a movie called
Shoot the Piano Player
the last line proclaimin'
"music, man, that's where it's at"
it is a religious line
outside, the chimes rung
an' they
are still ringin'
Weirdly kinda love how much David Corenswet resembles Maurice Moss at the 20-second mark in that "Superman"-trailer.
"There’s a reason Bohemian Rhapsody grossed more than $900 million worldwide, won a bunch of Oscars, and has a stellar IMDB rating despite being formulaic claptrap: audiences love their formulas. And they love watching simulations of their favorite musicians singing their classic songs."
Yay, a kindred spirit! I remember thinking during the Live Aid scene 'why did they spend all this time and money on a re-creation that everyone has already seen? That they can go watch on Youtube?'
I mean, it works on the big screen because the original also works on a big screen? I guess? People just love these things. It's why WALK HARD didn't make a dent: people just want to see the songs they enjoy sung in a movie!
Yeah, could very well be. Or, perhaps also the spectacle? Like the huge battle scenes, one is drawn to it.
Speaking of which, I have high hopes for Warfare. I'm a complete sucker for war movies. Heck, I thought Fury was great!
I'll definitely see this movie at some point. Yes, Thimothee Chalamet is too pretty to play Dylan but I'll give the kid a chance. I did see a preview when I went to see Wicked and I have to say that his singing (it was "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall") was squarely in the uncanny valley for me, which is definitely a risk with a guy whose voice is so well known and who sang so many recognizable songs with just his guitar for accompaniment. All I could think was "that's Chalamet doing a party-trick style impression of Dylan." But I assume that will fade the deeper one gets into the movie. I, too, am a sucker for the genre!
As a teen in the day I recall thinking, in some pics Dylan is kinda pretty. Didn't know the word androgynous back then but that's my word today for my impression of him
Excellent review of the movie, which I'm even more eager to see now. That said, there's nothing like a little gratuitous jab at Pete Seeger to remind me I am in a center-right space. :-) (The Atlantic piece is actually pretty fair to ol' Pete. People should read it.)
Guy is definitely the worst Earth GL.
To really get with the season, I watch Dylan's music video, "Must Be Santa."
The Hammond organ mention reminded me of this piece on NPR. It’s a great story- listen if you haven’t heard it before.
https://www.npr.org/2015/11/06/454900076/the-day-dylan-got-it-right
Julie - thank you for that link. Huge Al Kooper fan going nearly 60 years back. In my one music class in college I did a presentation on him as an HG Wells of rock/pop music, seeing where things were headed & being present at several creations. His autobiography covers all that, got him to autograph my copy on his promo tour in 1999(?) at Wilberts in Cleveland.
I'd wager that I'm probably the biggest Dylan head that follows The Bulwark. Am super pumped about this movie and am happy to read your positive review of it.
Jesse - peace dude ✌️ Not gonna challenge you to throw down for that title. I got 60 years of listening rattling in my head, an older sister who was at one of his first electric shows in St. Louis, memories of unwrapping cellophane offa every vinyl album through New Morning (all lost decades later in basement flood), going to look for the Big Pink house while visiting a college buddy in Poughkeepsie in early '70s...
Way I see it, any amount of joy anyone gains from Dylan's music just elevates this whole damn universe
OK you beat me. I was just being cheeky too. I've 'only' been listening since the late 80s when my dad brought home the traveling wilbury's vol 1, you have me beat by quite a bit lol. He became my favorite Wilbury despite being a beatles freak at the time.) I was like "WTF are people talking about when they say he can't sing? He emotes more powerfully than anyone I've heard" and I was only 13 at the time. You have some great credentials. Are you in AZ, as your handle suggests? I am. Did you see him the last time he came through town in '22? I went to the PHX show and drove down to Tucscon the next day for that one. Both great.
Many moons ago, read that Hendrix decided to sing with his band because of Dylan - not that they talked about it: just Dylan existing and doing his thing inspired him. Why stop yourself cuz of some rules about "how it's supposed to sound"? Perhaps he'd already determined that from his guitar chops, just applied the same open-minded exploring to his vocals. Not giving a fig
Wilburys was a damn hard band to pick a favorite. Gun to my head woulda been Petty but please don't rat me out to the rest of 'em 😉
Over my life I'd sync up w/Dylan's music at some points but less of the uncritical fan I'd been my 1st 15 years or so of being enamored. In my dotage I don't go to many concerts, didn't to either of those. We're way down south of Tucson. Occasionally get up to the MIM, such a great venue, recently heard T-Bone Burnett there - stellar! Love live music in small clubs and bars, people playing on street or in a park.
Paz, amigo!