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I’m watching the DVD of No Direction Home for the third time .
The Documentary, directed by Martin Scorsese, covers Bob Dylan's early career from 1961 T0 1966. It stops right before his famous motorcycle accident.
I made the decision to buy it on DVD, rather then wait a week to watch it on PBS because as one friend put it to me” you’re going to buy it any way, why don’t you get it as soon as it comes out.” So I thought about it for a second and found myself buying it on the first day it came out. It’s turned out to be a very good move since I can now enjoy watching it anytime I feel.
Being such a huge Dylan fan for almost all my life. I didn’t expect to learn anything new from watching this documentary. I have read so many articles, books and gone to so many Internet sites about Bob in the past that it really isn’t that much I don’t know about him and his music
As for the casual and the not so casual Dylan fan it gives them insight into his early genius and the impacted his music has had on the lives of so many people. The footage of his early performances is also a great reason to watch this flick. The shear power of the songs and lyrics should convert many people into fans and reawaken the casual fan to go out and listen to some of his older music
What really made this a must see for me was the new interviews with Bob spliced throughout the film.
Bob is really on top of his game. He seems very comfortable talking about his past and gives very lucid and pointed answers to all the questions. This is a far cry from some past interviews and TV appearances where it seemed like he was incoherent and just plain out on some other planet. His latest 60-minute interview was pretty good, but Bob was very fidgety and seemed nervous throughout the questioning.
One particularly bad appearance was the 1991 Grammy awards. Bob was receiving a lifetime achievement award. First they showed clips of him throughout his career then they had Jack Nicholson present the award. Jack and Bob must have been doing something prior to the show. Both of them were pretty much out of it. Jack gave a pretty weird introduction and Bob gave an even stranger acceptance speech followed by an almost incoherent performance of the great Masters Of War. His back up Band was way to loud and Bob’s vocals were pretty rough and he also messed up or forgot some of the lyrics.
For many years, people who aren't Dylan fans pointed this out to me as their reason for not liking his music.
Even though he does over a hundred great live shows a year and has produced some of his best music of his career lately these people still won’t listen to his music or go to his shows. They are the ones who this documentary was made for. If seeing this doesn't change their minds than nothing will.
So if you have yet to see- No direction Home- Do yourself a favor and go out and buy it or you can check your local PBS station for the times they will be playing it. It’s four hours you won’t be disappointed spending in front of the tube.
Let me know what your opinion of the show. Like to know if it changed your view of Bob Dylan.
Here is a site to watch or hear some of Bob’s TV and other type of appearances - Including his 1991 grammy speech
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