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? 