The whole family sat down and watched Dylan the American Master miniseries on PBS last month. As I suspect many of the Whole Sick Crew across America did too. It was very fulsome, Lowell.
I liked the considerable access to Dylan..and the characters he grew up with. Tony Glover, Paul Nelson, Al Ginsberg [mighta liked to have heard from Bobby Vee], Maria Muldar [the Jug Band footage was priceless], Liam Clancy and Dave Van Ronk... all of interest. Footage of influencers Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie eerie.
Fun:Van Ronk desribes how Dylan took his version of House of the Rising Sun and kind of hurt his feelings..and how he couldnt play it anymore..and how gladly he chorttled when Eric Burton and the Amimals took it .. so that Dylan couldnt play it anymore.
The bits on the cold snowy Midwest resonated...and him listening to radio signals in the night. The influence of cabaret show biz on his style [by way of people he shared bills with] became more apparent as it did in Chronicles.
It seems this is apt topic for Gangomine blog .. so how do you make that community thread stuff happen? PBS is giving helpful questions for wouldbe coffee klatchs --
Dylan began dissociating himself from fame at an early age. Do you think it helped or hurt him? How? What is your favorite Dylan song? Why do you find it appealing? If Dylan had come onto the music scene 10 years later, do you think he would have had the same impact? Why or why not?
But that dont make it. I think maybe I will ask..do y0u remember a time when you saw Dylan perform?
Actualy the PBS people are setting up a Flash map to absorb such stories.
Maybe I will ask if and how Bob Dylan music/poetry changed your life. I remeber vividly Jim Cusuamno saying "I would have been a lawyer if I hadn't heard Dylan."
1 comment:
Jeff said: I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and here I am. Did you see the Dylan thing? I imagine you did. I thought
there was some fascinating stuff in there...wasn't it you and I who saw Eat the Document all those millenia ago in NYC? I wish he'd release that.
Those press conferences were too much. How many protest singers are
there? "136"
Paul was happy to hear him say Bloomfield was the best guitarist he'd heard because Paul was so blown away by Bloomfield, too.
I'm looking forward to going back to SF. It's actually a bookstore in my old neighborhood of Glen Park so it's a kind of going back full circle type of thing. Prodigal son returns with a satchel full of stories. My
friend and former landlady Zoe will be there and that's one reason I wanted to do it in the old neighborhood. Seeing Jim and Dave will be cool if they can make it.
I'm rooting for the White Sox of course. Too bad they lost the first one.
There's no other team I have much interest in besides the Sox. Get them some respect! It's always the Cubs. Do it for Shoeless Joe and Minnie Minoso (there's a nice rhythm and rhyme).
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