I have just been watching Martin Scorseses "No Direction Home" - his Biography about Bob Dylan. First, I was sceptical, I admit. I was thinking there was too much zapping between the events in Dylans biography. I still think it's a pity, why Scorsese wanna be that postmodern, instead of just taking it easy, and try to mediate Dylans story a bit more chronological... But in the second half, my opinion changed a bit. I felt increased sympathy for his project. Well, I still think it's a shame that he's zapping so much (once we're in 1966, then we're back in 1963), but all together he manage to put together some complicated puzzle, I think. And suddenly I saw that scorsese actually has an idea. He clip in some Dylan, then some of his advocates, then some of his critics. Actually there's a dialogical, somehow organic logic in his film (but is the dialogue free, or is it steered by Scorsese?). Good insight. Young Zimmerman was popular in television at an age of 21 or something like that. Young and insecure. Thousands of grey men with grey hats in front him. One of them, with a camera telling him: "lick your sunglasses". Bob is just a boy, surprised of all that attention, so after a while he answer: "ehhmm... no, but would you like to lick them?", or something like that... after which he immediately jumped off stage to hand over his sunglasses to that moron. That was the most hard scene for me. They all considered Dylan to be a prophet and a pop-star. They didn't respect him. He didn't want to answer all those stupid questions. He just wanted to play his guitar and sing a song. All the audience laugh. They laughed if like they didn't consider Bob's reaction serious. Like if his purpose of being on stage was about playing a clown to them... They all laughed, except Bob Dylan. But what would you answer if some idiot asked you to lick your sunglasses? I think I would say "eehhmmmm, whaat you say??". So, yes, Scorseses film is indeed informative: Especially that scene was very strong to me. I was almost crying. No, I was crying. It's not funny to be selected as a prophet by the commercial popular culture. Especially, if you just wanna speak through the music you make, instead of answering stupid questions from the press. Now I understand why Bob Dylan never give interviews anylonger... love and understanding, ) / ) (""") ) * ("" @@ ’_) ("") ("”") (’’) \/_( *)_( (_ */"" @@ (_) (_(* )_( .. )<,
I mean... Lennon obviously was making thick jokes on all the stupid questions from the press. During the sixties all the popular bands were joking the grey men with grey hats. It was a game. But the press figured it out, and they started to believe that all artists were telling jokes all the time. But God save the artist who didn't wanna be funny. God save the artist who see the grotesque situation in all that asslicking. God save the artist who didn't want to be a player in the game. I can imagine how claustrophobic it feels. Wouldn't any grey man with a grey hat feel pretty paranoid on stage, if 100 Bob Dylans with cameras were pleading him to lick at his sunglasses? love and understanding, ) / ) (""") ) * ("" @@ ’_) ("") ("”") (’’) \/_( *)_( (_ */"" @@ (_) (_(* )_( .. )<,
I've only seen the first half of the documentary, as the second part aired during the concert in Stockholm (great planning huh?), and so far I agree with your sentiments on the first part. I taped the second part, so I'll try to find the time soon and see if my experience will change just like yours did. -Pat
Yeah, that was clever planning. People working at television stations, having no feeling with anything of what's going on. I wonder if they even know who the man is...
