you said dylan is a sentiment that you don’t want to share;
Author Graeme Thomson, of I Shot a Man in Reno
Dylan in 2009: it’s sort of like hearing your favourite songs covered by Kermit the Frog and his Amazing Hurdy-Gurdy Machine, and that never-ending tour of his is really only something you need to see once. That last night I experienced the man, the myth, the legend of my record collection live for a second time was an accident really, a quirk of my last.fm buddy Rachel having an extra ticket and nobody to share her banter with. And hearing my top two songs from that vast repertoire performed live by the man himself, even is both were mumbled in the same cadence from beneath a massive hat, was worth the entrance money.
It’s not a criticism, not really, because if anybody has earned the right to take it easy on the road it’s the man who blazed the trail and lit a fire in the hearts of most of my favourite contemporary artists. I’m about thirty years too late for my Freewheelin’ Bob, the man of my dreams (second, for those keeping score, is Carl Bernstein as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in All The President’s Men, and third is Pushing Daisies‘ Piemaker), and while I quite enjoyed 2007′s Modern Times I haven’t been able to convince myself to drop twenty quid on the double-disc deluxe edition of new album Together Through Life. There can’t be much to compare to the thrill of standing among ten thousand enthusiasts, many of whom old enough to have seen the man first time around, who are all bellowing their how does it feels with an enthusiasm the voice from the stage can’t quite muster anymore.
But it’s safe to say that I’m now content to curl up with my favourite albums, and make my own movies.
Big day tomorrow, but just before I head to bed I’d like to direct you all towards a brand new short story from renowned crime hack and all-round sexpot Jay Stringer. “The Hard Sell” is this week’s Punch over at Beat to a Pulp.
ETA: I’ve just realised it would have been very sensible to include in this post that my good friend Scott has recently been “filling in the gaps” on the Bob Dylan albums he missed out on for whatever reason over at Wack Beats. Go read.
*or: I Shot A Man In Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease, and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song, to give it its full title.
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May 04, 2009 @ 08:52:03
“second, for those keeping score, is Carl Bernstein as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in All The President’s Men”
Have you heard the story about how Bernstein was a total dick about that portrayal? Basically William Goldman had a version of his script ready and agreed with Redford, who was producing. Job done. Not long after, Bernstein called a meeting with them all to say he’d rewritten the script with Nora Ephron, his girlfriend at the time, and they should use that one. The new script had wholly invented scenes, and according to Goldman made Bernstein out to be “catnip to the ladies”.
They reached a compromise, but Bernstein’s role was heavily modified to make him look better. The glaring bit of Hollywood bullshit in that film is the scene where Hoffman tricks his way past a secretary. It never happened, and is only there because Bernstein kept bitching and moaning that he wanted to look better on screen. What a massive egotistical prick.
Sorry, it just makes me angry. Grrrrr. (Woodward later told Goldman that capitulating to Bernstein’s demands as to the movie was one of the top five things he was ever most ashamed about.)
May 05, 2009 @ 17:19:37
Seriously? For me it would be all Bob Woodward as by Robert Redford. But then Redford was my original filmstar boyfriend.
May 05, 2009 @ 17:42:11
I actually quite like Together Through Life, but I find New Dylan (which is, in fact, Old Dylan) positively fascinating. He’s always been an intensely *weird* man, which is the thing I’ve become more interested in after I got through all the significance of his career and the lyrical majesty and the phases and stages of his career. As an old fart, he’s probably at his very weirdest. He seems endlessly amused by himself, with little time for the serious, and in turn he amuses me.
Still, I wouldn’t go see him live again, I don’t think; too expensive for what is, as you said, something that only needs to be experienced once. Now if I could go on the cheap or even for free, then sure. I also want the one time I saw him to remain some magical thing and not be spoiled by an even older Bob. I mean, the time I saw him, it was like he broke out “Mama You Been On My Mind” just for me, right? Must have.
May 05, 2009 @ 19:11:45
David: I didn’t know that, so clearly the catnip portrayal worked on me! I feel cheated. I know he’s a bit of a skeez in real life, which is why I’d rather he was Hoffman, but yeah… gutted.
Lolie: :p
Scott: Cheers, your opinions on such matters normally make sense to me so I will have a listen on Spotify at least. And he definitely sang “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” just for me, so I get you on that one
May 05, 2009 @ 19:17:13
Also Scott, I’ve just realised it would have made sense to link your recent series of Dylan-themed posts – which I thoroughly enjoyed – above, so I’ve fixed that now x
May 06, 2009 @ 02:49:36
Hooray!
mona lisa musta had the highway blues; | [last year's girl]
May 25, 2011 @ 14:29:02
[...] his own latter performances are interpretations of the originals I guess – what was it I said the second time I saw him? [I]t’s sort of like hearing your favourite songs covered by Kermit the Frog and his Amazing [...]