back to the sixties

Some thoughts on

A complete unknown
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Columbia
out today.

I only came to the movie at the tail end of its UK release, after seeing the trailer in several Düsseldorf cinemas and finding myself compulsively putting the inherited Dylan LPs on the old record player. But I made up for that by buying the soundtrack on the day of its release (from the very lovely Truck store - support your local record store).

So, well, it's just as amazing as you'd expect after seeing the movie, and then some. I spent much of my childhood with huge black and white posters of Joan and Bob looking down on little me and the original versions of these songs shaking the foundations of our house, but haven't had much interest in Dylan since (a bit more in Joan Baez's work, but that's also a while ago, and I never saw either live). So it's been a very interesting experiment in digging up subconscious memories and emotional responses to some of these songs. I find the duets with Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro as Dylan and Baez get to me the most intensely, but most tracks, even the Johnny Cash covers, ring some sorts of bells. Which reminds me also of the experience of rediscovering French chansons that I hadn't heard for decades.

Childhood trauma apart, trying to assess this as an effort to musically capture the folk of the early sixties, I find it hugely impressive. I'm tempted to say at least as good as the first time round. I have no idea how it was possible to recreate all of this so convincingly, so I'm just blown away. (Update: some answers to the how question in this excellent Making Of docu. Check this too.) On first play, listening intensely, I did of course hear there was no Bob or Joan involved. But now, playing the CD for the third time in the background while writing this, it is really easy to forget I'm listening to a covers album.

Oh, and I should mention that a US showbiz journalist sharing my name wrote a Dylan biography in the 1970s, and I received a copy of the German translation at one point as a tongue-in-cheek present from a family member. Alluding to his Jesus phase, the title calls Dylan the Messiah of rock. Maybe I should write about Dylan more often, just to confuse the AI bots. Last time the connection made an appearance was a few years ago, when somebody wrote to me for a possible endorsement of their musical memoir. Thinking they might have seen scraps of my musical memoir shared online, I did send them my address to send the book to, and at that point they must have realised they didn't have the person they were trying to contact, and didn't reply. After a few weeks without response, it dawned on me that they must have been after the Dylan biographer.

Update 1.3.2025: It appears that the posters mentioned above have died after spending time in a humid basement. Online, I think I found a copy of Joan and Bob. No guarantees as I don't have photos for comparison here, but they look right to me, and the sizes (ca 75 by 100 cm) are about right too.