Robert Zimmerman

I've just bought the DVD of No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's doco about Bob Dylan from his musical beginnings (not long after his birth it seems) until the mid 60s. It's long (though not too long for those acquainted with Scorsese's other docos) yet well worth viewing if you're interested in Robert Dylan Zimmerman or documentary film making or both. The backbone of the film is archival footage, much of which was unfamiliar to me, of performances and events, fleshed out with recently filmed interviews with Bob and other luminaries eg Joan Baez and Allen Ginsberg, some of whom have weathered the passage of time better than others.

It's possible to program the DVD to play the Dylan music from the movie and, by drilling down into the Special Features menu, to play a few songs without commentary voiceover or interruption.


Apart from the music there's a great scene of a concert in the UK in the mid 60s where the national anthem (God Save the Queen) was played, perhaps partly as a crowd control device, to give Bob a chance to escape from those whose who'd taken umbrage at his conversion (in fact reversion) to electric guitars etc . This stratagem did not seem to be very successful but it reminds those like me who lived in the 60s how many things have changed. Another example is the number of male musicians who performed wearing ties.