No Direction Home

aka Speaking of Bob (Dylan) Ok, we weren't but I am about to...


I have always loved bob dylan's music but not understood the man
He is one of two people I consider living music legends (the other is Bjork)
My urge to find out more about him has been growing over the last year
Spurred on I think by the fact I knew there were some films coming out about him

Come writers and critics...
Who prophesize with your pen...

I am in the middle of watching no direction home
i watched part one the other night
It's aptly titled as he really did reinvent himself as a kind of circus orphan, even taking on a new name at a young age to put some distance between himself (which I don't think he has ever actually defined for himself) and his home/parents who he says he realy could not believe they were related to him.

And keep your eyes wide...
The chance won't come again...

I have recently seen two other Bob films (Don't Look Back and I'm Not There)
but this one is by far the best I think - or perhaps i can't say that in light of not having known what it would be like to have seen this one alone without the other two...

And don't speak too soon...
For the wheel's still in spin...
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now..
Will be later to win...

but seriously... he has some issues
serious ones

For the times they are a-changin'.

he is one weird dude.
quite the engima
it is almost liek he is a channel for some wise spirits
the force of one's ideas and inspiration can drive one quite mad...and you begin to get good hints at that in these three films about him.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.

He denies being political and carries an urge to fight off any labels, categories or groups that anyone identifies him with
Is that the curse of feeling pinned down and trapped; constrained and his denial is his struggle to stay above ground in the face of that limitation on his creativity?

I think Bob did a lot of pretending, denial whatever you might call it - in his personal relationships and in his ability to understand himself and accept himself. Some of his songs seem to be written about himself although he denies it. The same songs can be seen to be about false messiahs.

So swiftly the sun sets in the sky,
You rise up and say goodbye to no one.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,
Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don't show one.
Shedding off one more layer of skin,
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.

You're a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds,
Manipulator of crowds, you're a dream twister.
You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain't nobody there would want to marry your sister.
Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame,
You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name.

He semantically avoids responsibility for things he has done in his life that aren't right (eg: going into someone's house when they were away and taking their rare collection of woody guthrie albums - defending and justifying this as a righteous act from his background as a "musical expeditionary"). He seems to be lazy in the personal growth side of himself - preferring to let himself be distracted by the drama he willing created resisting how people wanted to see him rather than just accepting that's how they wanted to see him. I can understand why, as an artist , you would want to do that.
I think it is that kind of weight from the public that killed Jimi Hendrix who had similar experiences with audiences demanding he stick to his original stuff that they first heard when his heart wanted to explore other styles and forms.
It really flies in the face of all that a true artist is - to be tied, constrained, pinned and held to something. You can't fully be creative if you aren't liberated. You can't be yourself and for most true artists they are extremely sensitive to this kind of pressure.
But perhaps this is how Bob managed to survive. He's still around! It is never really the drugs or the alcohol but just the art or genius itself that kills.
We lost many good artists to suffering far to early; Nick Drake, Jimi Hendrix, River Phoenix, Marilyn Monroe, Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, Michael Hutchence, Jim Morrison, Elliott Smith, Janis Joplin...
So maybe this is how Dylan secured his future in this life.


I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I'll say goodbye to Colorado
Where I was born and partly raised.

He seems to be craving people to listen to him expressing himself and then resenting them for doing it but the audience had a part to play - especially, I think, the british tour.

Dylan got badly treated by fans when he went to Britain. He had picked up an electric guitar and had a band behind him and the britsh fans did not want a bar of it and were so rude to him!
they all wanted to hear him play folk. You turn them on once and thats all they want to hear... until it gets old... and then they want to hear it again, only different, only the same
In those days that is what the audience did. They bought tickets went to the show and booed and abused him. But they don't do that now.
fandom has taken over
robbie williams could lie in the gutter and vomit and his fans would think it was gold.
they would still flock to his concerts
I am talking about crazy creepy idolization and commercialization of pop icons.
music is not about music anymore.
but robbie williams has changed his style a few times.. so has madonna.
peopel accept it and love it and buy it. they don't buy tickets, go the the concert and boo.
they just don't buy the tickets in the first place if they don't liek the new stuff.
in those days they went to the concert, booed and told him to go home.
it's astounding.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before its washed to the sea?
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before theyre allowed to be free?
Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesnt see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.

I had not realised the extent to which bob took on woody guthrie. When he was young, before he was known, he really spent a lot of years literally being a bunch of different people (a theme picked up on in I'm Not There)

The wounded man looks up with his one dyin eye...
... said why'd you bring him in here, he ain't the guy.

at one stage I was wondering if every song of his I liked was someone elses.
But no... he kicked in writing his own stuff after a while
but he spent a long time immersing himself in other people's stuff.
no direction home is really a great film about him.

I have always loved and respected Bob Dylan's music but never understood the man.
Through these films I have come to accept that is probably because the man doesn't understand himself.

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?