A Complete Unknown

Vanity | 12/25/2024 | Kjam22

[kjam22]

We saw the new movie release ….. A Complete Unknown. This is a movie about Bob Dylan from his starts in 1961 to 1965.

This was FANTASTIC. There are not enough superlatives to describe how well this movie was done, and how much I enjoyed it. Yes, I am a big fan of his music. This movie is a must own when it is available.

There should be an academy award or two from this movie.

Anyone else here see it today?

[FreedomPoster]

Thanks. My wife and I talked last night about seeing it in the next week.

[Stosh]

If one’s into such things, there’s a neat Dylan(-ish) cameo at the tail end of the Coen brothers’ “Inside Lewin Davis” - a concluding contrast between about to make it big and hardly making it at all.

[equaviator]

Only covers '61-'65?...Too bad it's not more biographic. I know I'd like it but I didn't really start listening to BD until I started hearing "Before the Flood" on FM radio. I'd heard his music, knew he was an upstart folkie for awhile and that he was a great songwriter. I wanted to buy what the big kids were buying. When I got around to his albums in the record stores, I took my time looking through it all and learned more about him. After "Blood on the Tracks" hit, I knew I would have to double back to '66 and work my way up to '74 if I wanted to have some real knowledge of Bob Dylan, his songs & music and his career. Unfortunately, I don't see a sequel to this one as being likely.

[PIF]

Does it mention he was/is addicted to heroin?

[Recompennation]

Rolling Stone?

[Ezekiel]

Looks good....

No time explain (I can hear the sighs of relief through the screen 😉), but the details below really light up like a Christmas tree. The weird is the tell.

I'll just make note of that here for future referencing:

A Complete Unknown is a 2024 American biographical musical drama film...

Distributed by Searchlight Pictures
Release dates
December 10, 2024 (Dolby Theatre)
December 25, 2024 (United States)
Running time 141 minutes[5]
Country United States
Language English

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Unknown

A Complete Unknown, heh. Right out of the blue, tangled up in. This is one funny photo. I'm old enough to see Gene Rayburn come back to life:

How does it feel
How does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone...

[The Duke]

There's the old analogy question of "Would you eat a brownie from a pan knowing that one corner was contaminated with poop?" In my younger more foolish days I consumed plenty of metaphorical brownies while avoiding the corners.

No longer.

[mac_truck]

I recently finished reading David Hajdu's book called Positively Fourth Street which chronicles the lives of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Joan's sister Mimi Baez, and her husband Richard Farina in NY and CA during the early 60s.

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie version of this story.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. I xhaven’t been to the movies in a long time. That is one movie I would like to see.

[Rummyfan]

Does it mention he was/is addicted to heroin?

It seems it's almost de rigeur for anytime long-time successful musician to have his/her bout with heroin. See Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page as two examples.

[newfreep]

RF’s Wiki excerpt...

On returning to Manhattan, Fariña became a regular patron of the White Horse Tavern, the well-known Greenwich Village tavern frequented by poets, artists, and folksingers, where he befriended Tommy Makem. It was there that he met Carolyn Hester, a successful folk singer.

They married 18 days later. Fariña appointed himself Hester’s agent; they toured worldwide while Fariña worked on his novel and Carolyn performed gigs.

Fariña was present when Hester recorded her third album at Columbia studios during September 1961, where a then-little-known Bob Dylan played the harmonica on several tracks.

Fariña became a good friend of Dylan; their friendship is a major topic of David Hajdu’s book, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña.

[trebb]

Will probably wait until it can be streamed - and then rent it from Prime or wherever it becomes available....but it’s on our movie “bucket list”.
I have a lot of his music from Newsgroups...

[Jim Noble]

Dylan has fans here. The late Larry Auster (View from the Right) was a huge fan. Glad you liked the movie.

This was written in 1962. 1962!

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

[deport]

Lots of photos and info of the border from over the years and showing the changes as time moves along

[GOPJ]

https://www.popmatters.com/172387-famous-people-2495749625.html

from link:

5. Joan Baez – “Diamonds and Rust” (1975)

Baez wrote this song about Bob Dylan. In 1961, Baez was an acclaimed folk singer who gave a much-needed boost to young, relatively unknown Bob Dylan’s career. She invited Dylan to play her shows, exposing him to audiences of 10,000 plus during her 1963 tour. Eventually, he didn’t pay back the favor: he reportedly snubbed Baez by inviting her to play on his 1965 tour but never letting her onstage. In 1975, she wrote “Diamonds and Rust”: “You burst on the scene already a legend / The unwashed phenomenon, the original vagabond.”

[mac_truck]

Richard Farina was an interesting character to say the least, and his influence on Dylan during those years (and vice versa) is a recurring theme of the book.

[mmichaels1970]

My wife said if I want to see it I have to see it by myself. She doesn’t like Dylan and doesn’t care that I do. The only movie I told her I’d never watch with her and never even pretend to like is “Hocus Pocus”. Of course I DID at least watch it with her ONE TIME. I’d sit with her and watch any other crappy movie she thinks is good, including “Elf”.

I guess this is a “Hocus Pocus” play for her and that’s a shame. I’ll stream it some Sunday afternoon when I can.

[kjam22]

We hadn’t been to a movie theater in at least 10 years. I could go see this movie again today. :)

[Jim Noble]

“LOL I would go for Phil Ochs”

Here you go:

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers;
Tears ran down my spine.
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy,
As though I’d lost a father of mine.
But Malcolm X(5) got what was coming,
He got what he asked for this time.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

I go to civil rights rallies.
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy,
I hope every colored boy becomes a star.
But don’t talk about revolution,
That’s going a little bit too far.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen;
My faith in the system restored.
And I’m glad the commies were thrown out,
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board.
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros,
as long as they don’t move next door.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

The people of old Mississippi,
Should all hang their heads in shame.
Now I can’t understand how their minds work.
What’s the matter don’t they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children,
I hope the cops take down your name.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

Yes, I read New Republic and Nation,
I’ve learned to take every view.
You know, I’ve memorized Lerner and Golden,
I feel like I’m almost a Jew.
But when it comes to times like Korea,
There’s no one more red, white and blue.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

I vote for the Democratic Party,
They want the U.N. to be strong.
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts;
He sure gets me singing those songs.
And I’ll send all the money you ask for,
But don’t ask me to come on along.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

Once I was young and impulsive;
I wore every conceivable pin.
Even went to the socialist meetings;
Learned all the old union hymns.
But I’ve grown older and wiser,
And that’s why I’m turning you in.
So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.

[stoneyhll]

I am so so on his music but we went to see the movie. We enjoyed it very much. The acting was terrific and all the singing was authentic and well done. I agree about at least two academy awards.