I had planned an epic examination of the Martin Scorsese's nearly epic Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home which airs on American Masters on PBS Monday and Tuesday (sept. 27 & 28 with repeats on many stations), but spent the weekend immersed in Webzine 2005 (and a few other events). The documentary is also being shown on the BBC on Monday and they are doing a bunch of Dylan programs on TV and radio. There are lots of Dylan links at Expecting Rain.
So some some quick notes and observations:
- I saw the doc on a big screen at a free preview Roxie in San Francisco. I wish there had
been a theatrical release prior to the TV/DVD release. It an even better
sonic and visual experience in a movie theater with an audience (so
at least try and gather as many people together tonight and tomorrow to watch it).
And even though it is even longer than Hoop Dreams, I think it works even better as a whole than it would over two nights. Plus, Scorsese might have finally gotten a long overdue Oscar (maybe he'll win an Emmy).
- Scorsese includes extensive excerpts from other documentaries. Hopefully, people will seek out Don't Look Back and Festival (which will be out on DVD on October 18th) as well as Scorsese's own The Last Waltz. Also books like Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads by Greil Marcus which focuses on the recording of a single song (a song which opens and closes the Scorsese documentary).
- They could have put together another soundtrack of music in the film which influenced Dylan. Odetta, who is one of those influences, is interviewed. Dylan describes listening to her for the first time in Chronicles: "What I was looking for were folk music records and the first one I saw was Odetta on the Tradition label. I went into the listening booth to hear it. Odetta was great. I had never heard of her until then. She was a deep singer, powerful strumming and a hammering-on style of playing. I learned almost every song off the record right then and there, even borrowing the hammering-on style." (the hammering-on style is demonstrated in the film).
Article comments
1 - zingzing
do you know the name of the guy who showed up just before odetta? he was old, had a high voice, played his guitar flat on its back, etc. i've been trying to remember, but cannot. thanks. email me directly if you can... will look for a response here too.
2 - peter
The guy with the high voice was John Jacob Niles. Type his name into Google and you will find his website (he died in 1980).
3 - shamim
i saw this on BBC TV a few nights ago and there was an amazing song performed by Odetta - just her and a guitar and atthe end of every line she lets out a kind of guttoral "wah" sound. Does anyone happen to know the name of that piece? Its extraordinarily good.
4 - David
The Odetta song is called Waterboy
5 - Jay
Do you know the name of the song Joan Baez is singing the first time she's introduced during Part One? It sounds like a traditional folk song....very lovely. I wonder if she recorded it on one of her early albums?
6 - Coty
Jay,
I'm pretty sure the song is called "virgin Mary had one son"