"You've Got A Lot Of Nerve"

So as part of Dylanfest September '05, I've been watching D. A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back, a documentary about Dylan's 1965 tour of Britain (his last solo acoustic tour before going electric). Everything about the film seems to indcate that Dylan was becoming particularly frustrated not just with the limitations of the acoustic guitar/voice/harmonica format, but with the people who thought they understood Dylan or his music. There're two or three scenes in the film where Dylan just rips into reporters for not being able to understand his work, for not understanding that there's no way they could understand his work or him. He just goes on tirades for five or six minutes each time where he tells them that it's impossible to actually "know" another person and that he's not a folksinger or a pop singer. The scene when he rips Time Magazine a new one is particularly amusing and vicious.

Dylan has some valid points, and some of his anger is probably understandable and even justifiable, but it's almost frightening to see just how passionate and fiery he was about this stuff. Questions of identity and purpose are implicit throughout the film, even if never really explicitly stated.

This really has me looking forward to Scorsese's flick later this month. No Direction Home picks up about where Don't Look Back leaves off, so it'll be interesting to see more of that.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Bob Dylan, "Gates of Eden (Live)"