I guess blogger is scheduled to go down at 4:00 so you better get your fix of heckasac in before then. Unfortunately I'm really fucking busy today as the rat brains are not going to process themselves. Started watching that Bob Dylan doc. last night and of course as everyone has said it's totally amazing. All the folk and country performance footage is so exciting to watch. I already bought a CD of the craziest guy (John Jacob Niles). Check that Henry Miller quote on the website! I'll post a couple of rad pictures of ladies I want to check out.
This doc got me and smiller talking about the issue of "authenticity" in music and how like Devendra Banheart gets dogged for being a trust fund kid or whatever and how people bag on other new folk artists for putting on a front or being fashiony or whatever( wow that's two too many whatevers, whatever!). Not like any of these people are at the Dylan level but it's just interesting to think about in the context of watching Dylan try to style himself after Woody Guthrie so much that he's even trying to talk like him and looking at Dylan's outfits when he was young which are so rad and which he obviously put so much thought into.
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How does John Jacob Niles sing so high? That clip of Odetta they use in the movie scares me a little. :)
that dylan doc is everywhere, and dylan music is everywhere suddenly. all the coffee houses and bars i go into, at least.
i loved that movie. it made me go out and rent "don't look back", too. i never got it before. but now i get it.
i was equally tripped out about john jacob niles. i immediately found some tracks on soulseek. freaky bidness!
my favorite part in don't look back is when he shows up donovan so hardcore (even though i love donovan more than dylan). it's still pretty bad-ass
Every now and then I'll spot some mention by a journalist of Dylan's appearance in a victoria's secret ad. The writer always snidely references Dylan's "ogling" the models. I always react the same way: Why is it "ogling" when Dylan looks at sexy women? He has always written about women. He has been with some real beauties over the decades, so why should he pretend not to notice them when he's being paid to be in an ad?
Anyway, the best part of the documentary was Joan Baez. She was really funny. I met her as a kid and she didn't seem like any fun at all, so it was cool to see her so laid-back.
Ed
I love the documentary. It seems like throughout one of the themes is, Dylan was a terrible friend.
If you have a folky documentary hankering the Ballad of Ramblin Jack about Rambling Jack Elliot is great.
I like the idea of Bob Dylan, but I don't get the fanaticism. I guess I had to be there.
I think Highway 61 is one the best albums of all time. Every song on it is great.
I haven't seen the new doc because I'm such a fan of Don't Look Back. The more I hear about the new one makes me think it might be better than DLB.
But anyway, I love the part in DLB when he takes apart the cheeky Brit reporter. The dude is being such as fucking ass and Dylan just breaks him down. Its so weird to me what purists the 60's
Rock-Brits were...how they almost rioted when he went electric.
my favorite part of the new dylan doc is when joan baez (who looks exactly like my mom, or vice versa) does that impression of him talking about his own lyrics: "man, people are going to be trying to figure this shit out in 100 years!"
My impression of Dylan is that he's just kind of an asshole. There's a whole part where he's talking to the journalist who's interviewing him now and being accusatory and it's just like "Dude. You didn't need to do this. You are here by choice. Stop being a dick.". He seemed like he was just being wilfully obtuse.
The footage of the show where he goes electric is so fucking amazing that I absolutely could not believe that everyone was booing him. No amount of over-hearing Like A Rolling Stone prepared me for how rad that live version is. It was like actually seeing music take a step forward & all these people are pissed about it!
miller
I like the part where that writer keeps bugging him about the t-shirt he wears on the album cover and acknowledges that, "he's been thinking about it A LOT." Bob just kinda muppet-faces him like, "dude, I can't believe what a big dork you are, you need to get out more..." It's that kind of thing that is probably an everyday occurence in Jandek's World. Harvester did a cover of "Spanish Boots.." on Annoying the Waitress. I like Donovan more than Dylan or Jandek.
Jed
I just borrowed that documentary from Matt K last week but haven't had a chance to watch it. I'm a HUGE fan of the first 6 or so records and then I can take or leave. (I guess I'm a fanatic for the pre motorcycle accident dylan and not so much for the after.)
I love the acoustic stuff the most-- Freewheelin' is probably in my top 10 favorite albums of all time. I like his early electric stuff too, but when it comes down to it, he's a brilliant songwriter and singer but an ok arranger/musician. For me, the addition of a rock band (hey, actually The Band) doesn't make his songs any better than they would have been as acoustic numbers, and sometimes the obvious effort to 'rock' gets in the way. Blonde on Blonde is full of examples of that.
I can't even imagine what it must have been like to see him in '62-'63... those early records still (literally) give me goosebumps forty years on.
Old man is pretty right-on about post and pre bike wreck rekkids. There are a few decent ones after, like Infidels, but Highway, Bringing it and so on are totally great side-for-side. As for him being an "asshole," look at the documentary. Seems like it took all of his effort to speak about himself with any honesty at all. I think the assholishness was the only way he could speak to people. Apart from Joan's segments, the total discomfort he had was really interesting to watch.
As for real assholes, just two words: Mick Jagger.
"I think the assholishness was the only way he could speak to people."
I'm not sure what this even means. I understand he's had to deal with a lot of shit but so have a lot of people who don't act like jerks.
My mom saw him in 64' at the memorial auditorium. She said that they had to wait a long time for him to show up, because he was hitchiking from show to show. Afterwards, she saw him walking out 16th street, on the way to the next gig, but didn't give him a lift because she was too intimidated. I wonder if he was really hitchiking? I feel like he's great but maybe that part of his early persona was fake. She said it was a really amazing show.
Ella
Dude was a HUGE opportunist and used people until he got what he wanted, then dropped them. Also, his peronsa was about as constructed as any to be found in the last 50 years of pop culture. Big deal. None of us have to be friends with the guy. Best fucking songwriter in the rock canon. And as good as the PBS doc is, Don't Look Back is better. The aforementioned Donovan and journalist episodes alone are worth it.
And Highway 61 gets my vote for best Dyaln album. I don't even really like Blonde on Blonde that much, never understood why it's so revered.
" I'm not sure what this even means. I understand he's had to deal with a lot of shit but so have a lot of people who don't act like jerks."
It means what it says. Like a lot of performers who get told how great they are, he is insecure. That comes across when he acts like a prick towards people.
Sac: yeah, he totally used Dave Van Ronk and other folkies. Then again, they acted like babies when he went electric, so maybe that evens things out a bit.
My favorite album: Bringing It All Back Home.
Ed
I loved the No Direction interviews with that Irish Rovers dude. Naturally, he was tippin' back the good ol' mountain dew during the interview (OK, granted, he was in a pub). Just not one of the suspected cast of people I'd expect to have lined up in a piece on Dylan, but it made total contextual sense. And whether it's true or not, I just love the back story behind Kooper's organ line on "... Rolling Stone." Who cares if that's how it happened.
Hey, and I need to know if anyone spotted Marty's mom in No Direction?! This just might be his first film without her -- I looked and looked for that shock of white, curly granny-esque hair, but I think she was a no show. Hmmm, I hope she's doing OK -- shit, is she dead?! I'm going to IMDb ...
I recently acquired a copy of "Eat the Document," the other Dylan documentary which I guess has been banned or for some other reason is not in circulation. Anyone seen that one? Apparently one of the more famous scenes is Bob and Lennon riding around in a limo talking about rock star bullshit and one of them ends up puking in the other's lap. Hey, it's only rock 'n' roll.
- Dave
john jacob niles sounds a lot like antony of antony and the johnsons.
The Dylan/Lennon in the limo scene in Eat the Document should be required viewing for anyone who questions whether or not they're clever when loaded. Dylan drones on for about twenty minutes, stewed to the gills while Lennon looks very uptight, uncomfortable and English. Dylan comes across as a total fucking ass. I don't remember him puking on Lennon tho...
I happen to KNOW that I'm clever when I'm loaded. Ask anyone.
miller
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