The best thing so far about “No Direction Home”, Scorsese’s Dylan PBS/BBC2 documentary, hasn’t been the hagiographic tone (although Allen Ginsberg is always a joy to behold), nor even hearing Dylan’s own flat, midwestern drawl, but the footage of his performances with his band (later The Band, who got their own Scorsese treatment in “The Last Waltz“) during their infamous 1966 UK tour: loud, angry, gorgeous and in many ways a better fit to “Like A Rolling Stone” than the original studio band. The reactions from the English crowd to this onslought were puzzling and hilarious: “I’m here to see Bob Dylan, not a pop group”, to which a wiser fan responded, “Not many pop groups like that!”; another wailed, in a line that would have been appropriate as a Dylan lyric: “He’s changed from what he was; he’s not the same as what he was” — as if that were bad thing.
Anybody can be just like me, obviously
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