No Direction Home, Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese.


This afternoon I rewatched this great film, probably the best documentary on a musical figure I've ever seen. It is not only interesting from a historical perspective, but is also very entertaining and funny, particularly Part 2. Methamphetamine really seemed to enhance Bob's sense of humour. ;-)

The movie contains one segment I found particularly relevant in our current state of affairs. In December of 1963 the ACLU presented Dylan with their Tom Paine Award. He accepted it, but not without making the following statement:

"There's no black and white, no left and right to me anymore. There's only up and down, and down is very close to the ground. I'm trying to go up, without thinking about anything as trivial as politics."

Needless to say, the ACLU was not pleased. Dylan obviously had no desire to be the organization's poster boy, so I then wonder why he showed up at the awards ceremony, and accepted the "award"? IMO, Jackson Browne should have followed Dylan's lead; he hasn't been worth sh*t since he started making political statement albums.

Remember the scene in The Last Waltz in which Band bassist Rick Danko says " We're not trying to save the world, only improve the neighborhood"? Speaking of neighborhood, I am reminded of Dylan's song "Neighborhood Bully". Not explicitly political, but mighty close.

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Well, let's see.

Freewheeling: Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, Hard Rain, Oxford Town, Talking WW3 Blues.

Times they are Achangin':Lonesome death of Hattie Carroll, God on our Side, Only a pawn, When the sip comes in, Hollis Brown.

Another Side: Chimes of Freedom, whichever contains, "You unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rat".

Bringing it all: Maggie's farm, Gates of Eden.

Highway 61: Highway 61, Desolation Row.

Naw. Hardly political at all.
@terry9, you missed the important qualifying word in Dylan’s statement: "There’s no black and white, no left and right to me ANYMORE." The songs you cite were all in his rear view mirror by the time he made that statement.
Huh! Is there a point to be conveyed here? That is about the best I can come up regarding this subject 
I’m with Bob and bdp24. I prefer keeping politics and music separate.

Another side of Bob Dylan - My Back Pages

And of course it begs the question, how is the neighborhood? Has it been saved ? I suspect that Bob might have changed a bit since acceptance of that award.
i appreciate his lyrics and biting commentary on Infidels a much later work...
” when will they take away his license to kill ? “ sounds like that lyric could have been written last week... and so sadly.... next week

as for Jackson, Looking East is my theme song.... but sure I love For a Dancer, etc....