Bob Dylan is a mysterious character who becomes even more mysterious after watching "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home." Part two of the Martin Scorsese-directed film airs tonight on PBS.
A generation projected their political ideals on Dylan, but an old friend reveals: "Bobby was not really a political person." Villified for going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan admits of his pre-fame days: "I traded in my electric equipment for an acoustic guitar."
A teenage Robert Zimmerman lied to acquaintences that the voice behind a regional hit song was his own. He befriended a folkie with a massive record collection, only to abscond with his favorites while the friend was away. He fabricated stories of growing up in New Mexico, and deceived small-time players in the music industry that he had met several famous musicians.
"He was channelling Woody Guthrie," remembered one folk musician of his early days, while another confessed: "The first time I met him, he was acting--in a way. You can go anywhere you want when you're somebody else." Dylan himself addresses the identity crisis, saying that his name change from Zimmerman to Dylan meant nothing to him because his past meant nothing.
Martin Scorsese's Dylan is Woody Allen's Zelig, a human chameleon who adapts to his surroundings. Folkie? Rock Star? Gospel musician? Protest singer? In the forty-three years since the release of his first album, Bob Dylan has been all of these things. He has created classic albums in five consecutive decades--The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, and Time Out of Mind being but a few--but do we know anything, really anything, about the man behind the songs? Perhaps in a country where we know too much about our cultural icons--the women Marilyn slept with, what Paris looks like when the lights go out, the location of Michael's blemish, the drugs Elvis did--Dylan's mystique is refreshing.
Who is Bob Dylan? I don't know. I suspect the nasal-voiced man behind the shades doesn't know either. Perhaps Martin Scorsese will tell us in part two. Don't bet on it, though.
Who is Bob Dylan? Who cares?
Dan,
If I had 'incontrovertible evidence' that Martin Scorsese could be 'honest', I'd probably have invested my entire allowance into his 'rendition' of 'The Bay of Pigs'.
But, Mr. Zimmerman also wrote:
http://orad.dent.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dylan/24SLOW_T.html.
http://orad.dent.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dylan/25SAVED.html, and
http://orad.dent.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dylan/26SHOT_O.html
