“A Complete Unknown” — On Bob Dylan’s Adventurous, Poetic Journey
A few days back, I could find some time to catch up with the latest release of ‘A Complete Unknown’ in the theatre and got completely immersed in Dylan’s journey from his formative years in the early 1960s. Dylan had left his home in Minnesota and arrived in Greenwich Village in NYC as a young man barely in his 20s, with nothing to his name but his guitar and harmonica. With a pluck of courage and resourcefulness, he meets his then idol Woody Guthrie, aided by Pete Seeger and starts making his name in the local folk music circuit. He is soon signed by Columbia Records, goes on to popularize country music to a wider audience and eventually transcends the genre of folk/country music when he picks ‘electric guitar’ switching from his earlier acoustic. What an adventurous journey indeed — arriving from ‘nowhere’ and then going on to widely impact music, songwriting and influencing millions across with his songs that speak to social, political & cultural milieu of his time.
I have loved Dylan’s works for years now and his poetic songs complemented with his mystical image, has left quite an impression. I recall one of his interviews, when asked if he had a happy childhood, he responds “I was not particularly happy or unhappy but a gnawing feeling that something is out there !”. That something ‘out there’ was his calling for which he was called to leave the comfort of his home and venture out into the unknown, not knowing how the journey might turn out to be. That Dylan was innately confident in his abilities even as a beginner, added to his charm (this was well depicted in the movie as well).
To answer what made Bob Dylan rise above the other music-makers of his time, I cannot help but look deeper into his lyrics from some of my fav. like — ‘like a rolling stone’, ‘hard rain’s gonna fall’, ‘Mr. tambourine man’ and others. Just like well-written poems, these songs are infused with images, metaphors that call for deeper interpretation, and at the same time words seem to flow so easily that they can find resonance with masses. Bob Dylan could well have been a poet (as an aside, poetry was an influence for him and he borrows his last name from the poet, Dylan Thomas).
Secondly, the movie shines a light on Bob Dylan’s ability to transcend the genre of folk & country music and find his own unique voice, ultimately charting a path true to himself that blends aspects of folk, rock, blues, into a potent whole that appeals to a much wider audience. A breakthrough in musical creativity !
Essentially, Bob Dylan could just have been a poet with his lyrical words or he could just have been a music-maker with his vocal and guitar skills but he deftly combined the two skills to become a legendary artist. No wonder, he was awarded Nobel Prize in literature and Rolling stone magazine named his song ‘like a rolling stone …a complete unknown’ as number one greatest song of all time. What an adventurous journey for the man!
