The Real Story of The Complete Unknown – Bob Dylan

Posted on by Opher

Interesting to see that the film The Complete Unknown covers the same ground as my two books on Dylan (except, of course, my books tell the real story).

Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track Extract

   His act involved Chaplin-esque routines, carefully orchestrated ploys, tuning and fiddling with his guitar and harmonica, all with casual glances and asides, designed to draw the audience in. From the very start, it was apparent that Bob, despite his shyness and boyish looks, possessed a great stage presence. Not only that, but he was already beginning to write his own material and what songs they were!

   There were a large number of factors that fed into this burgeoning songwriting. The exposure to a wide range of music – being able to watch, at close hand, experienced musicians applying their stage skills (most of whom recognised his talent and encouraged him), the befriending of Dave Van Ronk, who carried huge clout, and his love affair with Suze Rotolo. This young Dylan was avidly listening to a range of music, reading poetry and literature, ransacking the libraries and record collections of all and sundry.

   Suze was hugely instrumental in the development of his social sensitivities and outlook. She came from a dyed-in-the-wool communist family and already, as a young girl, had been involved in the civil rights movement.

   The early sixties were the time of civil rights, the bomb, the cold war and the beginnings of the war in Vietnam. This was the McCarthy era with its hounding of communists and unAmerican activities. The Beat generation had instigated dissent and now the folk scene, mainly due to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, was the seat of left-wing social change, a movement that was going to blossom and shape the whole sixties underground movement. Suze was steeped in it. Bob absorbed it so that it permeated much of his writing.

   Between 1961 and 1963, prompted by Suze and the folk scene in general, Dylan wrote many of his most famous socially motivated songs, songs that laid the groundwork for the sixties philosophy. His wordmanship was constantly developing and reaching new heights. Unfortunately, it saddled Dylan with being the voice of a generation, an epithet loaded on him by the media that not only irritated him no end but one which heaped tension on his shoulders.

   With his manager – the great behemoth Albert Grossman, a recording contract with Colombia Records, his adoption by Joan Baez and promotion through Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan set off on a meteoric trajectory to become a massive international star and in so doing, boosted folk music and poetic songwriting into another sphere. Inevitably, the result of such fame brought adulation, crowds of screaming fans, hangers-on and a need for safety and security that locked Bob into a bubble, away from his freewheelin’ days around Greenwich Village.

   After the breakdown of his relationship with Suze, maybe in response to being saddled with the limiting description of being a ‘protest’ singer, Bob moved away from writing songs of social import into writing songs of a more introspective nature influenced by the French symbolist poets Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Verlaine. Later, Dylan fell under the spell of the Beat poets, principally Allen Ginsberg, and began writing more complex surreal landscapes.

   The ‘folk period’ had produced a fine debut album followed by three classic acoustic albums. Ironically, even as his fame peaked he was tiring of the limitations of his acoustic songs, feeling staid and dissatisfied. He felt everything was predictable and was on the verge of completely abandoning his career: ‘I guess I was going to quit singing. I was drained. I was playing a lot of songs I did not want to play.’ ‘I was getting very bored with that.’ ‘It’s very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don’t dig you.’

   In 1964, The Beatles broke big in the USA and then the likes of The Byrds and Manfred Mann took rock ‘n’ roll versions of his songs into the charts. The Animals took the traditional ‘House of the Rising Sun’ to number one. It sparked something in Bob and rekindled his love of rock. He, with the help of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and then The Hawks, later to become The Band, turned electric.

Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home: Rock Classics: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523140: Books

The Complete Unknown – Review

Posted on by Opher

The Complete Unknown – Review

I must admit I went into this film with a great deal of apprehension. My experience of these rock music biopics is that the truth is bent to create more drama. Drama always seems to ace reality. They pay lip-service to the truth.

I find that annoying. I feel that a biopic should be a historical document as much as a dramatic invention. In my view it should be possible to create a drama without distorting the facts.

Being a big Phil Ochs fan, and having read the reviews, I was apprehensive. Having recently completed books in the On Track: Every Album, Every Song series on both Bob Dylan’s 1960s albums and Phil Ochs, I was well conversant with every aspect of both Bob and Phil’s lives. I was prepared for disappointment.

I was very pleasantly surprised. I loved the film. I thought the acting of Timothée Chalamet was outstanding. He captured both the early Dylan (even to the fluttering eyelashes) and the later polka-dotted pent-up rebel, perfectly. The atmosphere and feel of the film felt authentic.

As one might expect there was a lot of poetic licence regarding events. The characterisation of Woody, Pete Seeger and Suze was rather two-dimensional and drained of complexity. I loved the Joan character (and her voice) and thought that Albert Grossman was spot on. Probably could not expect much more in the time given – it was already 2.30 hours.

The early years between 1961 and 1964 were glossed over. I reckon they had the idea of culminating in the electrification at Newport and that guided everything. That dramatic device was a little muddied. They combined the Newport set with the Manchester gig for more dramatic impact. But I could well cope with that.

They bigged up the Johnny Cash and downplayed many other important characters – Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs, Peter La Farge, Buffy St Marie, Tom Paxton , David Blue and Richard Farina come to mind. There was a whole community of important characters.

The film was what it was. It told a story very effectively. I was very pleasantly surprised. As a historical document it was much better than most. As a drama it was superb.

I left thinking that there was another movie there that could have been told in more depth. That movie would have focussed in more detail on the 1961-1963 period. That would have featured the Phil Ochs relationship, Dave Van Ronk and the whole New York club scene – the blues guys, old folkies, new contemporary folkies,  Irish singers, the folk groups  – the intrigue, competition, rivalry, card games, drinking, smoking, sex and relationships. But that’s a whole different film.

Loved this one! Off to see it again!

Excerpt – Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track

Posted on by Opher

I’m eager to get to see the new Dylan film ‘The Complete Unknown’ as it covers exactly the period I cover in the book. It’s getting rave reviews. I hope it’s accurate. I always find that these rock biopics take liberties with the truth.

Excerpt – Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track

   Bob settled in to life in Minnesota, living hand to mouth, playing the coffee bars where baskets were passed round for change. This was the start of his freewheelin’ days; cadging meals, renting a small apartment, sleeping on friends’ floors, playing music, listening, absorbing and developing fast.

   Minnesota wasn’t big enough. He instinctively craved a bigger canvas and had heard that Woody was still alive but suffering from a chronic illness, the dreadful hereditary disease Huntingdon’s Chorea, and holed up in a sanatorium in New Jersey. There was only one place to be, where the remains of the Beat movement had morphed into a vibrant underground folk scene, and that was Greenwich Village in New York but this young man, pretending to be the wild maverick, still had to persuade his father to allow him to drop out and give it a try. His father grudgingly agreed to allow him a year in which to make it.

   In 1961, at the age of twenty, still looking like a young kid, a nascent Bob Dylan rolled into town, not on a freight, but having secured a lift in an old Buick. Stepping out into the icy blast of a New York winter Bob had little apart from a bag containing all his possessions and a guitar. He had two major aims. The first was to meet his new idol Woody Guthrie. The second was to break into the thriving new Folk scene. He set about finding a café to play in with a warm place to crash down and get out of the cold. He found it at The Café Wha?. He was allowed to back Fred Neil on harmonica and play the odd set which gave him somewhere to escape the cruel wind while earning a dollar or two and filling his stomach with a greasy burger. The Café Wha? Provided him with a base to learn and grow from.

   The Greenwich Village scene was based around a number of small clubs and overrun with a range of musicians all competing for time, money and status. Pretty cutthroat. The musicians ranged from old well-versed blues musicians like John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Jesse Fuller and Big Bill Broonzy, seasoned folk singers, Woody Guthrie acolytes, like Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger and Cisco Houston, folk groups like the Bluegrass Boys, Clancy Brothers and the new generation of up-and-coming singers Tom Paxton, Mark Spoeltra, Odetta and Richard Farina. The leading light was Dave Van Ronk, a powerful figure, nicknamed ‘The Mayor’ who presided over the whole scene like a brooding grizzly bear.

   No naive middle-class novice was going to stand a chance of breaking through into that environment. Robert Zimmerman from Hibbing morphed into Bob Dylan. He intended to drop the Zimmerman and become Bob Allen, but thought that Dylan sounded better than Allen, so he adapted it – not so much stealing his name from a notorious Welsh poet as simply preferring the sound of Dylan to Allen. Having a new name he set about creating a hard-living mythology – an orphaned past, running away numerous times, life on the road, carnivals, hard times. Bob was constructing a suitable persona and appearance. The black corduroy cap, crumpled shirt, jeans, belt and boots were a carefully choreographed image. There had to be no chink in the armour. From the nasally Woodyesque drawl, to the embroidered back story the whole package had to hang together. Dylan grew into the disguise. What helped was the huge natural talent that Bob was so obviously saturated with.

Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books