When it comes to Bob Dylan, his song:
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Mention Bob Dylan Lun, it must not fail to mention a major event in the history of rock and roll. That was at the Newport Festival in 1965, when Bob Dylan played electric guitar and appeared in front of the audience for the first time with a rock band.
The film has two clues. One is coherent, Dylan's upbringing. From the small town of Minnesota where I was born, I experienced the high school age of yearning for the outside world, and the short college life of playing and singing all night without taking a class, to Greenwich Village in New York, to signing with Columbia, until I wrote countless good songs and was Known as a singer who grasps the pulse of the times.
Another clue is a series of clips that are constantly interspersed between the interviews and narratives of the previous clue. This is the record for Dylan's 1966 world tour. Dylan's singing on the stage, the chaotic cheers off the stage, the angry abuse from the audience after the show, and the relentless pursuit of reporters at the press conference.
Two clues, one downstream and the other upstream, point to a historical moment at the Newport Music Festival in the summer of 1965.
If you put aside the historical significance of the event, if Bob Dylan is only regarded as an ordinary singer, then the debate among the people is really interesting. Why is the audience booing, why Pete Seeger is out of control, one person is telling the truth, what is the truth? The truth is in these words and beyond these words.
Similar disagreements, as well as the exploration of Bob Dylan's name change. A friend, Liam Clancy, said that he changed his name because he liked the poet Dylan Thomas; Tony Glover said that he changed his name because there was a strong anti-Semitic sentiment in Minnesota at the time. Dylan's original name was Zimmerman, a common Jewish surname; Dylan himself had a consistent attitude, Refuse to give meaning to anything. He said, don't do anything, just change it when you think about it, and think that Dylan is Dylan.
A running theme throughout the film is Dylan's dislike and rejection of any meaning or label. He has always considered himself a singer and a songwriter. At first, influenced by Pete Seeger and others, he wrote anti-war songs and sang songs in the civil rights movement, but all as a singer. When people label him theme singer, current affairs singer, protest singer, he warily refuses. That's exactly what fascinates me about Dylan. An artist, of course, inevitably has to participate in the times, but he also has to be sober and conscious enough to be able to withdraw, keep a distance from the society, and focus on his own art.
In the film, all Dylan's friends and influential predecessors, many of whom were famous in the 1960s. But I would like to see them as ordinary people, listen to them tell the story between themselves and an old friend for many years, and see how different they are when they are old and when they are young.
The Beat Generation icon, poet Alan Ginsburg, was seventy at the time of the interview, and eight years after the film's production was finally complete. He says in the film that he cried the first time he heard Dylan's song "A hard rain's a-gonna fall". Speaking of which, choking again, he said he realized that the torch of the "Beat Generation" had been passed on to a younger generation. Comparing the heroic appearance of the poet in his youth and the old state of his old age, what remains unchanged is the pair of wide-brimmed glasses and the uninhibited temperament of the poet. Although he is old, he is still a beatnik!
Even a documentary cannot lack a heroine. Dylan's heroine is singer Joan Baez. In her first appearance in the film, she sings "Virgin Mary Had One Son" on stage. Dressed in a holy white robe, with black hair hanging down his shoulders, his expression was melancholy, his singing voice was clear and high, and he wore clouds and cracked silk. Dylan saw her on TV, called her staggering, and he said the girl might need a singing partner. Later they met. At the Newport Music Festival in 1963, the girl invited him to sing "With God on our side" on the same stage, and they really became singing partners. Ironically, two years later Dylan was on tour in the UK, and the girl wanted to sing with Dylan, but Dylan firmly refused. As an artist, Dylan rarely praises others. In addition to his predecessors Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash, only Joan Baez is highly praised in the film. Interestingly, this female singer has been enthusiastic about the civil rights movement and public welfare all her life, and has never stopped recording and performing. In old age, she is neither like a singer nor a social worker. She seems to live a prosperous and comfortable life. Except for the occasional bold words in her mouth, she is completely a kind and generous mother image.
There is also a Dylan girlfriend, Suze Rotolo whom Dylan first met in New York in 1961. Her speech gestures were extremely exaggerated, and her expressions were somewhat exaggerated, but her language was not dramatic. When she spoke, she was almost careful with her words, as if she was afraid that her words would be misunderstood. Later I found out that she was a teacher. She does look like a female teacher, and she has deaf students in her class who need her to sign language to teach. Dylan didn't mention her a word, but mentioned the two girls in middle school, and let him find the poet hidden in his heart. He still remembered their names, and a picture of a girl flashed through the film, like a flower.
The filmmakers interviewed many of Dylan's young friends, mostly singers. These people are all old, some like the middle class, some like the proletariat, and some like the intellectuals. Only Maria Muldaur is still like a singer, a singer trying to catch the tail of youth. As for the publisher of that record company, after so many years, they are all businessmen.
Only Dylan, how he changed, is still an artist.
"Like the Odyssey, I'm just looking for my way home, I've been away for a long time, and I don't really remember the direction of home. I met some people and things on the way, that's all. I didn't have any ambitions."
"I The place where I was born is far from where I belong, and I'm on my way home."
This is Dylan's opening remarks in the film. The homeland in his mouth is, of course, not the town where he was born. Dylan suddenly became famous when he was very young, but he is clear-headed, he doesn't want what he wants, and he is never vague, which shows that he not only has the talent to write songs and sing, but also has a strong will. He wants to go from folk to rock, and neither fans, newspapers, nor managers can control his decision. He wants music not politics, even if Thomas Paine awards him, he doesn't care, even if his lover leaves, he can't change his direction.
However, in that turbulent era, the era with the slogan "Make Love Not War", walking in the Washington Civil Rights Parade with lovers, listening to Martin Luther King's speech, facing the boiling crowd, he Excited too? He thought about what his song was going to convey, what was it going to change? In that square, Dylan and Joan Baez sang side by side. They are all children of that era.
Only once in three and a half hours did Dylan put a smile on his face, and he couldn't help but be smug. He talks about his return to college from New York in 1961. Friends have discovered that his guitar playing and singing skills are far above everyone else, and just two months ago, his level was mediocre. There are legends that if you come to a crossroads and sell your soul, the devil can teach you to do anything. Dylan told friends that for the past two months, he had been to the crossroads. In fact, the 20-year-old was ambitious, and he wanted the whole world to hear his voice. he made it. "This train is bound for glory," as his beloved Woody Guthrie sang.
View more about No Direction Home: Bob Dylan reviews
