At Home He's a Tourist

He fills his head with culture/ He gives himself an ulcer.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Saw the Scorcese doc. on Bob Dylan last night. Fascinating stuff for us Dylanomanes, and will probably be of interest for fans of the folk revival as well, but I doubt it has any broader appeal. Contemporary interviews with Dylan, Baez, Von Ronk, Kooper, etc., are interspersed with plenty of concert footage and photos. The juxtaposition is startling proof of Sic transit gloria mundi; these 60s hipsters are transformed before our eyes into overweight potential members of AARP with creased faces and bad fashion sense. The theme of the narrative is Dylan's transition from folkie to rock star, but surprisingly "My Back Pages," a protest song against protest songs, isn't discussed, nor is the album from which it is taken, Another Side of Bob Dylan (the title of which hints at Dylan's increasing desire to been seen as more than a left-wing prophet). I dunno, perhaps Scorcese just wanted to make the contrast more stark for dramatic purposes. A- for fans. Useless trivia: my coworker J.E. was a fellow student of Dylan's at a fundamentalist Bible school in the 70s. J. didn't actually meet His Bobness, but did see him frequently.

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