Last week I went to see the new Bob Dylan biopic called A Complete Unknown (see what they did there?) and it certainly was an experience. The story was set during the short period 1961 to 1965 when Bob went from being a new arrival on the Greenwich Village folk scene, to becoming a bit of a superstar.
As I was born in Scotland at the start of the 1960s, that story, very much an American one, was just before my time so I learned a lot. I’ve said around here before that I like Bob’s songs best when they are sung by other people but after watching the film I think I’m a convert to his kind of delivery. Not that we hear Bob on the soundtrack at all, as it is the actor Timothée Chalamet who does the honours. He is an actor that I admire a lot and I have it on good authority that he plays the part of Bob really well in terms of how he looks, sounds and behaves. An Oscar nomination confirms that. Here he is singing the song alluded to in the film’s title.
Joan Baez plays an important part in the film and again the actress who plays her does a fantastic job. Her voice is beautiful as I can imagine Joan’s was back in the day, when she and Bob were often paired up on stage, especially at the renowned Newport Folk Festival.
Bob and Joan
I came away wanting to listen to more Bob Dylan songs and fortunately found a fair few on my hard drive. I’m warming to this one most at the moment so here is the man himself from 1965 singing It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. Bob has never divulged who Baby Blue was so we’re still in the dark all these years later.
If you’re thinking of going to see the film, I would thoroughly recommend it. You don’t particularly warm to the character of Bob as he could be (as Joan Baez told him) a bit of an asshole but it was wonderful to see the context in which his classic songs were written, and wonderful to find out who the girl on the album cover was. Timothée does a good job of mumbling, just like Bob, but you do work out most of what he says and that was good enough for me. I think a lot of us will leave the cinema with a new appreciation for Bob Dylan, and like me, will be scouring their music library to see what they’ve got by the man, music they might not have listened to for quite some time.
Until next time…
Like A Rolling Stone
(Song by Bob Dylan)
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
Yeah, people’d call, say “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were just kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
And now you don’t walk so proud
Now you don’t talk so loud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
Come on
You went to the finest schools all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody taught you how to live out on the street
But now you’re gonna have to get used to it
You said you’d never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
That he’s not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
Yeah, the princess on the steeple all the pretty people
Drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts
Even to take that that diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags with the language that he used
Now go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
What's It All About? 
Alyson,
Glad you enjoyed the movie. I am a little bit older than you and my memory of hearing Bob Dylan for the first time was in a Grade 11 English class, where my teacher (not quite a ‘priest’ at the time) interrupted Shakespeare to play “The Time’s They are a Changing”. This was 1964 and the Beatles were in full flight. Not many of the 16 year old boys in the class were moved. Being sensitive, introspective and spiritual wasn’t likely to help you out at Friday’s dance. I wonder if Bob Dylan, himself, was coming to that same conclusion. The folk genre of the day tended to be built upon historic melodies or tunes with the lyrics updated as required to meet the times’ social issues. Bob Dylan was no Gershwin, Kern or Berlin but he sure had a way with words. Could the power of the British Invasion with the music based upon traditional American Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues seduce the Minnesota boy who played in Bobby Vee’s backing band for a while in the ’50s.
IMHO, Dylan was very ambitious young man and he had a vision of how he could ‘evolve’ into the late ’60s electrified minstrel that he became.
The movie does an excellent job of contrasting this ambitious troubadour with the significantly ‘purer’ Pete Seeger, excellently played by Ed Norton. Even Joan Baez is sanctified, as she sings accompanied by only her guitar.
If the movies sole purpose was to show how Dylan moved from folk singer to rock star in five years, it fully succeeded. The side story is the harsh reality of how Dylan treated the people (men and women, equally) that surrounded him with such disrespect.
Five Star movie*****
Damian
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Good to hear from you again Damian, and great to have all this additional insight from someone who was around at the time.
I agree with you about how the film contrasted Bob’s style with the purer Pete and Joan. He was always going to end up going down a different path and it was quite a moment when the mild-mannered Pete nearly took an axe to his electric cables at Newport!
Let’s see how many Oscars the film wins. Will be interesting.
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If you haven’t seen it, Adam at Bagging Area wrote brilliantly about the film at https://baggingarea.blogspot.com/2025/01/to-be-on-your-own.html
I also wrote about it, less well, at https://newamusements.blogspot.com/2025/02/on-dark-side-of-road.html
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I just dashed this one off quickly Martin but thanks for the heads up about other bloggers’ reviews. Your one definitely went into more depth and Swiss Adam’s even more so. I enjoyed reading both. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of Bob, and I was too young to remember his early 60s rise to fame, but having seen the film, I now understand the legend a bit more.
Sorry your comment didn’t come up immediately by the way. If there are two links or more I have to approve the comment.
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No worries at all. That’s a great photo you found of Bob and Joan, by the way.
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That photo kind of sums them up.
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Hi there. my wife and I went to see it tonight. We liked it a lot. Chalamet does a great job. Ditto for Edward Norton. A few weeks ago I read an interview with the director. He said he met with Dylan several times before the movie was filmed, and had long conversations with him. He said that Dylan read the screenplay and made various suggestions.
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Yes, my friend and I liked it a lot too. I think Chalamet is good in everything he does but it didn’t click until the end of the film that Pete was played by Ed Norton. The very different hairstyle threw me.
That’s interesting that Bob had input to the film. I heard that he had approved of it. Wonder what he thought of Chalamet’s portrayal?
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Sounds excellent and glad you enjoyed it; great to see so many glowing reviews on the blogs and elsewhere too – we’re off to see it tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll come out feeling the same way. I have orders to remind Mr SDS not to wear any of his polka dot shirts to the cinema!
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I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too. I seem to remember you watched a doc about him not that long ago and it changed your perceptions of him. The film did that for me.
Ah yes, no polka dot shirts or shades to be worn to the cinema – could cause confusion!
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Yes, we thought it was great; the music was particularly rousing (I kept getting the urge to clap after the performances as if I was really there). Superb acting from all concerned, and I loved the Johnny Cash portrayal. It was only really the rather overstated mushy bits which grated with me slightly – but not enough to affect my thorough enjoyment of it as a whole.
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Glad you enjoyed it and I agree the performances were particularly good. I’m wondering which particular “mushy” bits you took exception to!? I really liked seeing the context where we find out who the girl on the album cover was (although of course in reality she had a different name).
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Ah, I just thought a couple of moments with ‘Sylvie’ were slightly over-egged and signposted in that way that films generally tend to do – the wobbling lower lip for instance! – and but really that was minimal and I loved the whole thing. I get the feeling from reading about Suze Rotolo that she was much more of an influence and perhaps a stronger character too than Sylvie appeared here, perhaps that was in the back of my mind too.
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Thought that might have been it. Yes the Sylvie character started strong but then crumbled. Maybe not an accurate reflection of what happened with Suze but poetic licence and all that. I loved the whole thing too.
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Grumble grumble Timothy Chalamet, grumble grumble Tom Hanks in the Elvis film, grumble grumble, find some actors I like for these movies… or I could stop having such a long list of actors I dislike, I suppose.
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You’re really restricting your viewing of these great biopics, Rol, by having a hang-up (if that’s the right word) about these actors! The Robbie Williams biopic should suit you though as he’s played by a CGI chimp.
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