With new books,
CDs and a
Scorsese-directed
film, now's the time
for Bob Dylan fans
to celebrate the
former Robert Allen
Zimmerman.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
n
ow many times can a man
turn his head and see Bob
Dylan? The answer is
blowin' through the airwaves, the
bookshelves, and the music and
video stores.
Dylan, of course, was born Robert
Allen Zimmerman on May 24,
1941, in Duluth, Minn. Raised in
nearby Hibbing, he escaped to New
York City at age 19, having adopted
the surname Dylan in tribute to
poet Dylan Thomas. The
course of American musical
history would be forever
changed.
This month is a high point
of both Dylan marketing and
product, or, as it is referred to on his
official Web site,
w-ww.bobdylan.com: "The Film, The
Soundtrack, The Book."
It is a bit disconcerting for some
to see "Dylan the prophet" seeming
to become "Dylan the profit." After
all, what was that Victoria's Secret
commercial all about?
But considering some of what
passes for music and entertainment
these days, why fault Dylan for cash-
ing in, as long as he keeps providing
pleasure for so many. For most who
care, the recent proliferation of Bob
Dylan music, video and commentary
is much more than welcome. It's
Ion.- overdue.
The Film
"I was born very far from where I'm
supposed to be, so I'm on my way
home," Dylan says to the camera in
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, a
new documentary directed by
Academy Award-nominated film
director Martin Scorsese.
The three-hour film, the first fea-
ture-length film biography of Dylan,
and made with his full cooperation,
was released as a two-DVD set on
Sept. 20 and will be broadcast over
two nights, Sept. 26-27, as part of
the Public Broadcasting System's
award-winning American Masters
series.
No Direction Home, narrated in its
entirety by Dylan, includes archival,
never-seen-before footage of Dylan
concerts, recording sessions and
interviews from the time, as well as
more recent interviews with Dylan
and musicians and friends like Pete
Seeger, Joan Baez and Al
Kooper, conducted by
Dylan's manager and archive
curator, Jeff Rosen.
The film focuses on
Dylan's early music career
from 1961-1966, an incredibly pro-
lific and influential period that saw
him release seven albums — includ-
ing Bringing It All Back Home,
Highway 61 Revisited and the double
album Blonde on Blonde — during a
span of just 16 months in 1965-66.
Scorsese, better known for films
like Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The
ON THE
CO VER
RABBI AARON BERGMAN, Southfield
Favorite Album — John Wesley Harding: "The Bible,
the Apocalypse, the End of Days and the return of
God in 40 minutes of American roots music."
Favorite Song— "I Shall Be Released": "One of the
best Yom Kippur faith in redemption songs of all
time."
Dylan Memory. "The first time I was blown away
Rabbi Aaron Bergman
with Dylan was when I saw the movie about The
Band, called The Last Waltz. He showed that rock was the real folk music.
Also, my cousin Milton Glaser did the famous psychedelic poster included
with Dylan's first greatest hits album."
Gangs of New York, has told musi-
cal stories before. He served as an
assistant director for the monu-
mental film Woodstock (1970) and
directed what is often referred to
as the best concert film ever, The
Last Waltz (1977), capturing The
Band's final concert, which includ-
ed a performance by Dylan, who
had often used the group as his
back-up band.
It's not since D.A. Pennebaker's
fly-on-the-wall documentary Don't
Look Back (1967), which followed
Dylan on his 1965 tour of
England, that we've had a chance
to see and hear the early Dylan. In
fact, outside of his appearance on
The Last Waltz, there has only
been one concert film released,
Dylan's 1989 Unplugged perform-
ance for MTV that was just made
available in 2004.
The Soundtrack
Here is where we really get down to
business. The music.
No Direction Home: The
Soundtrack was released at the end of
August as Volume 7 of Dylan's "The
Bootleg Series." Not an actual
soundtrack — some songs aren't in
the film, and some are of different
versions than were included — it is
not only a worthy companion to the
film but stands solidly on its own. A
full 26 of the 28 songs on the two-
disc set had never been released or
are alternative takes laid down in
studios in New York and Nashville.
The collection starts with a histor-
ical, if not musical, highlight, the
first known Dylan recording, a 1959
home recording of the self-penned
"When I Got Troubles." The set fol-
lows Dylan on his trip from tradi-
tionals (a never-released "This Land
is Your Land) and folk ("Song to
Woody," a paean to Woody Guthrie
Dylan Best-Sellers
Multi-Platinum:
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2: 12 million
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: 10 million
Desire, Blood on the Tracks, Blonde on
Blonde. 2 million
Platinum: (1 million):
Nashville Skyline, Slow Train Coming,
Biograph, Highway 61 Revisited
Before the Flood The Freewheelin' Bob
Dylan, John Wesley Harding, Bringing
It All Back Home, Time Out of Mind
The Essential Bob Dylan
(Recording Industry Association of
America, June 2005)
from his first album) to protest (live
1963 performances of "Blowin' in
the Wind" and "Masters of War") to
his own vision, most clearly seen in
the second disc, which is heavy with
alternate studio recordings from
Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on
Blonde, all wrapped up with the pre-
viously released and very much live
and electric "Like A Rolling Stone,"
delivered to a folk-loving taunting
audience in Manchester, England, in
1966.
The Book
The Bob Dylan Scrapbook, 1956-
1966, is a slip-covered collection of
photos, interviews with Dylan and
friends, and facsimiles of memorabil-
ia and hand-written lyrics. Just
released on Sept. 13, it includes an
hour-long audio CD of early Dylan
interviews and a rare performance.
TANGLED UP from page 54
JOEL SHAYNE, Farmington. Hills
Favorite Album — Blonde on Blonde. "It could
have been someone else's greatest hits album,
but for Dylan it was just another album. Plus,
as a double album, it was highly unusual."
Favorite Song— "The Gates of Eden": "This
has been one of my favorites since I first heard
it because of the strong imagery. But picking a
favorite Dylan song is like trying to pick a
Joel Shayne
favorite diamond."
Dylan Memory. - "I took my bar mitzvah money and bought the Great White
Wonder bootleg, which later morphed into The Basement Tapes album. Seeing
him with guests Joan Baez and Roger McGuinn in St.
Petersburg, Fla., on April 20, 1976."