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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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bdp24 OP
9,821 posts
 

Fair enough, @rpeluso. I assume then that you also disagree with Dylan's assertion that politics is trivial? ;-)

Iris Dement recorded a great political song I love entitled "Wasteland Of The Free", so I'm not against them in principle. But when Jackson focusses on politically-themed lyrics, he tends to put less effort into the musical content of his songs. At least, that's how it sounds to me.

I love the great chord progressions and melodies in his earlier songs, his newer ones sounding rather common, nothing special. When he gets together with Graham Nash and David Crosby, for me there is entirely too much lecturing going on. Still love the man, and his earlier albums.

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tonykay
1,301 posts
 
Politics aside, I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne although many of their songs are blatantly political. When I listen to music, I’m not listening to see if their song aligns with my own political views. If I did, I would undoubtedly have a much smaller music library.
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geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
A man on a mission. For better or worse. 
rpeluso
1,063 posts
 
black diamond, I was not trying to be provocative in saying I disagreed with your view, just stating mine,  We can co-exist, as we have here for a long time.  I live in a bubble as much as I can, so tend to avoid conflict.  
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
It is an interesting tiltle. The line from the song "like a rolling stone". In a 60 minutes interview Bob say's how he "made a bargain a long time ago and I'm holding up my end" - "to get where I am now". A bargain with - "the chief commander from this world and a world we cannot see" so.. No Direction Home (?)
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