Total agreement, Lono! This was two hours well spent, with another two tonight. I was never a big Dylan fan, until last night.

I think his music has been waiting for me to mature enough to enjoy what has has to offer.

This is a wonderful thing.

Thanks for this post!

the post office is stollen... not to make sense....is no sense at all, like success.........

I taped this, sat through it, and though there were some excellent scenes, there were a lot of parts where I pressed the "fast forward" button and should have been cut. I thought as a whole DA Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" was a more enjoyable film. If you haven't yet seen it, rent it and watch it.

Scorsese's a gifted editor and it was interesting seeing some of the aspects of Dylan's early development and character revealed.

I wrote some other stuff about this on that other Bob Dylan topic, but I'm too lazy to go find it and cut and paste it.

That is all.

It was excellent of course. I wanted to hear some songs in their entirety every once in a while though. That bugged me.

I don't think we can really give Marty any directors credit here. This is a Dylan biopic put together years ago by Dylan's own people.

Still, though, it is the first time I have ever heard him speak about himself with any kind of clarity. You have seen those interviews from Don't Look Back, right? He eviscerates those poor journalists.

There is an old saying 'if you see the buddha in the road, kill him'. I told my wife while watching the documentary 'if you see Bob Dylan, don't interview him'. I think of it like meeting Hunter Thompson. It seems really neat and exciting, but the reality would probably him whipping empty glasses of scotch at your skull from across the bar on a bet from Ed Bradley.

Marty did a great job of editing.

Dylan was too insecure, akward and possibly (in my opinions) drug-addled in that footage to be truly quick on his feet, but he had a couple of funny lines at those British press conferences.

I wouldn't go as far as you do to call him an imposing speaker or intellect, however.

He did seem to have some clarity in the interview portions of the documentary and seems to have gained a lot of self-confidence and verbal ability in his old age.

That is all.

Coupla comments from someone who thinks Zimmerman is a fake, phony, intellectual/folk-rock version of Madonna (ie brilliant self-marketing):

1) I think Bobby actually recognizes the above statement -- and I blame the media and his fawning, somnabulent fans for perpetrating the 'genius' scam.

2) the film was like watching two hours of fingernails on a blackboard.

3) Zimmerman singing and playing an out-of-tune guitar is like listening to fingernails on a blackboard.

4) He was an opportunist twerp. (Didn't he "accept jesus into his heart" about the time it was "cool" to be a "jesus freak"? feh. Get off the fucking stage.)

5) Can Joan Baez possibly be less talented -- and more egotistical, obnoxious, and self-important?

6) I loved the fact that early on, Joan and Bobby BOTH recognized that they could vastly help each other's careers; she opened doors for him; he gave her some 'coolness' credibility; seemed they were surgically attached for a while there, didn't it.

7) When Joan Baez sang with that high, fast tremelo, I was reminded of a great W.C. Fields line; he walks into a room where an opera singer is wailing and he says: "Ahhh, who started this dog fight?"

8) Wonder how the filmmaker's who shot what appeared to be about 80% of "Martin Scorceses'" film felt about that? One more reason the "auteur" theory should be taken out back and choked to death.


[Note: all views of art are subjective; Shark's is only one; your's may vary depending on your ability to have some taste and discrimination.]

PS: I love Johnny Cash, but give a harmonizing DUET to two people who can barely carry a tune in a roomful of buckets:

see W.C. Fields line.

Coming very, very soon to a PBS Pledge Drive near you, is Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home, another cringe-inducing, nostalgia-encrusted, 60s-oriented piece of tripe perfectly designed to flatter the overweening egos, vanity and self-glorifying conceits of PBS' core audience: the lame baby boomer generation. The program has it all: interviews with now fat balding has-been hipsters reliving their bit parts in the Great Reawakening; the reminiscences of former consorts, all badly in need of multiple Botox treatments, imagining themselves as other than easy to be had groupies on our hero's Highway to Get Laid Revisited; and finally in the center of it all the old, grizzled conscience-of-a-generation himself, wondering how he ever got cornered into such a role when all he ever wanted to be was a "musical expeditionary." The only notable (admirable?) absence is The Band's Robbie Robertson. He, I would imagine, declined participation, with the foreboding that he most likely would be cast as the Myron Floren to Dylan's Lawrence Welk-like role in perpetuating the nonsense of boomer "classic rock." I can hardly wait for the next PBS Pledge Week broadcast, where the local yokel PBS flacks gush about the "heavy" message of No Direction Home, telling viewers that with a $100 contribution they can get the box set and thus relive their role in the epic tale (i.e., usually not much more than smoking some weed before going to the local cinema to see the movie Woodstock). I also have no doubt that the whole effusively sentimental mess will be the perfect vehicle to squeeze a few extra bucks out of the hope-I-die-before-my SUV-gets-repossessed-generation-that-changed-the-world.

Shark and the rest of you know how I feel about Dylan since I've written way too much on why he's a phony and a charlatan before, but I still found the film incredibly interesting.

I think Scorsese's work as an editor culling from hundreds of hours of footage was pretty masterful even though the film was overly positive toward Dylan.

That is all.

Shark: Can Joan Baez possibly be less talented -- and more egotistical, obnoxious, and self-important?

Yes. See Madonna.

Funny, in watching those same interviews I came away with a more positive opinion of Baez; I guess I expected her to be even more pretentious than she actually was.

man, oh man...all of this 'clever nastiness' is so tiring.

if you don't like Dylan, why the hell would you bother watching?

Because he's a fascinating character who's one of the most influential and biggest-selling artists of the century. And he's literally a self-made man who's created his own back story and biography to sell an image back to us.

Yeah, Baez comes off a lot smarter than the left-wing hippie caricature she's generally been regarded as. She comes off as somewhat more reasonable and morally superior to Dylan in the film and looks kinda decent for an old broad too.

Did Dylan ever hit that? I'm sure he did :)

That is all.

Great job, Lono -- I'm getting very hyped up indeed to see this thing!

I was 12 when my older brother brought home "the Freewheelin Bob Dylan".. Listening to "Hard Rain" changed my life. I was 12, had no idea of what the song was about, but I'd never been so moved by a song before... became a hard core dylan freak... loved all his albums through blonde on blonde, electric and acustic. Then out came Nashvile Skyline... what happened??? I have no idea, but it was gone for me.. and has been ever since. Couple of O.K. songs since, but only a couple. Watching No Direction Home remided my of the power dylan had in the 60's, he wrote and sang some increadible songs.

I thoroughly enjoyed No Direction Home. Would have been better with some of the behind scenes stuff in the production of Blonde on Blonde. This would have closed out the era that was portrayed in the documentary. A little bit of "Visions" was better than nothing. No complaints.

Best Recent Line:

Ken: "...Listening to "Hard Rain" changed my life. I was 12, had no idea of what the song was about..."

Multiply Ken times 49 million and...

a 'star' is born!

=======

Second Best Line:

Frank's "I-hope-I-die-before-my SUV-gets-repossessed-generation-that-changed-the-world."

BTW: Frank, re. pledge drives: you see a deep connection between classic rock nostalgia, 'healthy aging', and one stroke painting?

I dunno, man, the one-stroke painting thing throws me.

Hell, Rauschenberg-like assemblages from my recycling bin, maybe some Pollack-like paint flingin' on my garage floor while I'm smokin' a joint -- but painting dinner plates and shit for baby showers?!

What went wrong there???

=======

Saleski: "...man, oh man...all of this 'clever nastiness' is so tiring."

Dude, if you don't like clever nastiness, why the hell would you bother reading it?

[see how that works? : ) -- Shark]

Hey.. someone who comes out with a line..

Don't ask me nothin about nothin...
I just might tell you the truth...

deserves a martin scorsese diatribe!

Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D. Director Institute of Global Education,
Project NatureConnect



No Direction Home, Bob Dylan? The Great Omission on PBS by Martin Scorsese


Dear Reader, Editor or Coordinator,

Misleading the public, the Martin Scorsese BOB DYLAN PBS film, "NO DIRECTION HOME," fails to report an important direction to a home we each have and share.

I am the author of ten published organic psychology books as well as several recordings dedicated to folk music and I come from a folk singing family that includes my brother, John Cohen, of the New Lost City Ramblers (the Uncle John in "Uncle John's Band" who is part of the Bob Dylan PBS film).

I cordially invite you review, link to, or publish a short (1300 word) timely article I have written that shows Our Direction Home. It is entitled "Increasing Self-Esteem: Folk Songs and Our Insane World,"

The article is subtitled: "Happily, the answer is blowing in the wind. Find your answers by walking nature's path to personal, social and environmental sanity.... as illustrated in traditional songs and their stories." The article is available for your review, link or publication at http://www.ecopsych.com/folksanity.html.

The article describes a practical nature-connected path to well-being as illustrated in traditional songs and their stories. The omission of this organic path as part of contemporary folk and topical music has contributed to our continuing troubles.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1978, to promote conservation education, I was commissioned by the National Audubon Society to collect and produce an album of folk songs for them about people having sane relationships with nature.

The songs were introduced with paragraphs written by William O. Douglas, narrated by Governor Russell Peterson, President of the National Audubon Society and released by Smithsonian/Folkways where it is presently available.

The album's object was to reflect the love or respect of nature that American frontiersmen and settlers developed because they lived close to the land for long periods of time. It was to consist of non-commercial, homemade songs that were shared by common people in the folk tradition. To my chagrin, I found very few folk songs that met this requirement. Most of them were, instead, about the challenges and hardships pioneers encountered while developing the land or making a profit from it.

In contrast to the songs of the settlers, I discovered in Native American cultures (the Natural People) many songs that expressed a reverence for nature. They were sung in thankfulness for nature's rewarding gifts for survival, as we, today, similarly sing hymns to a God that we recognize.

The article explores the contrast and connections between these two different types of songs and offers a potent tool that enables us to reduce our stress and madness.

Two quotes that start the article help convey its story:

"When Columbus discovered this country it was full of nuts and berries; now most of the berries are gone."
-Uncle Dave Macon, old time folk singer

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.... I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends ... and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon, contemporary song artist .

Again, the article is located at http://www.ecopsych.com/folksanity.html

I'd appreciate hearing from you regarding this inquiry for you to publish, review or link to the article. If it is within your policy, I may be able to help with special costs, if any are incurred.

For Peace,

Michael J. Cohen

http://www.ecopsych.com/mjcohen.html

Michael, it's rather difficult to imagine John Lennon as a "contemporary" song artist anymore.

Maybe if you had said "the now-deceased contemporary song artist"...

[/cotton-headed nitpicking]

great stuff lono. i damn well adored every frame of this. like you say, it was ballyhooed beyond all sense, but god almighty, some things just NEED to be ballyhooed. this was inspirational and inspirin and had far more straight-talk than anyone had any right to expect.

as far as the soundtrack, i adore it immensely, but i think Bootleg Series Vol 1 is a far greater chunk of work, and one i return to constantly (if you're always returnin to it, are you REALLY returning?? i dunno.) whereas the new one is fascinating, but nowhere near as glorious in terms of the in's and out's of the music itself.

Duke, I agree completely. That three-disc Vol. I-III is a treasure trove, but as I've said elsewhere about the official Dylan bootlegs, it's all good -- some just more so than others. I loved the documentary, which pulled together a lot of footage I had never seen, especially all that color footage of him in the early years. It was also great to atually HEAR Suze Rotolo, who for most of us is just a mystery girl on a great album.

I tend not to think of it as Scorsese's work, really; he was just a hired hand. The real star here is the content, rather than just the (very capable) shaping of it. The film certainly doesn't have the kind of involved point of view you see in Scorsese's other documentaries.

Rodney, yeah, it's wonderful hearin Suze after all this time.

what i found kinda odd was that Caroline Hester wasn't mentioned, since Dylan first appeared on (official) vinyl by way of her debut album. he plays harmonica on a couple numbers, no singin. it's worth investigatin, actually, if you ain't ever picked it up.

I had also never seen actual footage of Odetta before. Boy there's a performer that makes you sit up and take notice.

Duke, one other thought -- a compare and contrast experiment you may enjoy. Listen to the following three versions of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" in sequence -- the one from the Vol. 1-3 box set, the one from "No Direction Home," and finally the one from Highway 61. The first two, evidently recorded in the same session, are much faster, more upbeat and frantic, while the final studio result is a slow and bluesy affair. Interesting to see the evolution of a tune, if nothing else.