File created by: Ben Taylor (b.p.taylor@ncl.ac.uk) Last changed: 8 June 1994.
In the likely event you should discover any errors, however minor, please e-mail your corrections to me at b.p.taylor@ncl.ac.uk
Richard Williams in "The Independent On Sunday" (8th May 1993) writes of this programme...
``Most valuably, we get John Bucklen, Dylan's childhood friend, who produces a bedroom tape of the two boys wailing and a song called "Hey Little Richard". Bucklen's memories, untapped and dew-fresh, add a valuable dimension to our knowledge of the great American artist; for these two boys, he says, life then was about "friendship and music"''
Tales Of Rock 'N' Roll is the title of a BBC Arena series which goes behind four famous rock songs - "Peggy Sue", "Walk On The Wild Side", "Heartbreak Hotel" and finally "Highway 61 Revisited". This film was first broadcast at 20:30 GMT on BBC2 8th May 1993. Duration: 60 minutes.
Key/Legend:
> On screen credits.
[] My comments.
B&W Black and white film (all films in colour unless otherwise stated).
Xxx Indecipherable lettering.
Note: All music is the officially released version unless otherwise stated.
Dylan: It's gonna happen fast, and you're not going to get it all. And you
might even hear the wrong words, you know. And then afterwards I
can't - I won't be able to talk to you afterwards. I got nothing to
say about these things I write. I write - just write them. I got
nothing to say anything about them. I don't write for any reason.
There's no great message. I mean if, you know, want to tell other
people that go ahead and tell them. But I'm not gonna have to answer
to it.
[Music - "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan.]
>HIGHWAY 61
>REVISITED
>Written and Recorded by
>BOB DYLAN
>1965
>Route of U.S. Highway 61
[Shows a map of the route of Highway 61, starting in New Orleans, through Memphis, Minneapolis, Duluth, by Hibbing and finally to Thunder Bay. Then Shows "Highway 61 Revisited" album cover and moves on to a B&W Film of Little Richard playing piano.]
[B&W film of Little Richard.]
>LITTLE RICHARD
>Recorded all his hits in New Orleans
[B&W film of James 'Son' Thomas.]
>JAMES 'SON' THOMAS
>Blues Singer
>Performer of 61 Highway Blues
[B&W film of Bessie Smith.]
>BESSIE SMITH
>Blues Singer
>Killed on Highway 61
[B&W film of Martin Luther King.]
>MARTIN LUTHER KING
>Killed on Highway 61
[B&W film of Elvis Presley performing.]
>ELVIS PRESLEY
>Lived on Highway 61
[B&W film of Dylan with cigarette in mouth doing top button of shirt in the mirror - probably from "Don't Look Back".]
>BOB DYLAN
>Born Duluth, Highway 61
[Picture of map showing Hibbing. Film of Hibbing sign: "Hibbing Pop 18046" and underneath "Star City for economic development". Then "Highway 61 Revisited" song finishes.]
>AL Z'DON
>Editor Hibbing Daily Tribune
[Al Z'Don was interviewed specifically for this programme.]
Al Z'Don: Well, we're in Hibbing Minnesota. It's a community of about 20
thousand people. We're in the very northern part of the United
States, about 80 miles from the Canadian border. It's an iron
mining town. It's a nice place to live. Bob Dylan grew up here.
(Edited out: Al Z'Don talks about Highway 61 being the main route for getting to where you want to go)
>ROBERT SHELTON
>Biographer of Bob Dylan
[It is safe to assume that all Robert Shelton's contributions were recorded
specifically for this programme - ie. not from existing interviews. Shelton
is shown speaking with his back to a large picture of Dylan.]
Robert Shelton: This incredible Highway, that starts in Thunder Bay Ontario
and runs down to New Orleans, is a very big symbol in
American music because Jazz travelled up the Mississippi
which Highway 61 parallels for a good part of its route.
Jazz came up the river. Blues came up the river. A lot of
great basic American culture came right up that highway and
up that river. And as a teenager he had travelled that way
on radio. More or less the radio waves going up Highway 61
where he lived. He got very interested in black music early
on. Black music was something very special.
[Music - briefly fades "Highway 61 Revisited" in and out.]
>Bob Dylan was born
>Robert Zimmerman 1941.
Robert Shelton: If you'd been born in a place like Duluth and if you were
raised in a very parochial town like Hibbing Minnesota you
had to start making your escape plans very early. Highway 61
became I think to him a symbol of freedom, a symbol of
movement, a symbol of independence and a chance to get away
from a life he didn't want in that town.
[Music - "North Country Blues" by Bob Dylan.]
>'North Country Blues'
[Still of Frank Hibbing memorial. Then music fades out.]
Al Z'Don: There's probably a lot of mutual animosity between Bob Zimmerman,
Bob Dylan and the community. I don't think people in town were
very thrilled at some things that Bob Dylan said about the
community. He said it was a good place to run away from. So it was
hard in doing those things that to even find someone who would
admit to knowing him or being a friend of his.
[Stills of Bob Dylan's and John Bucklen's highschool year-book pictures.]
>JOHN BUCKLEN
>Radio D.J.
[Film of John Bucklen driving in his car. All comments by John Bucklen were recorded specifically for this programme - ie. not from existing interviews.]
John Bucklen: Bob and I went to highschool together. He was about a year
ahead of me in school. But during the, oh I would say 1957
through '59 we became friends and had a common interest in
music. And we were aware of course of the economic situation
of the iron range at the time, in this town in particular
which was sort of hard pressed because of the iron depletion
in the mines which caused a great deal of unemployment and
hardships. And I guess in one sense we figured that was a
long hard winters. It was kind of a bleak time to live. But
it probably wasn't that bad so long as we had friendship and
music.
This is the street that Bob lived on. As a matter of fact
we've got - we're approaching his house shortly. Many hours
were spent here with Bob listening to the records that he
ordered out of Little Rock, Arkansaw, and down in Minneapolis.
And we spent time up in his bedroom playing the guitar and
practising and pretending we were big recording artists. And
it's your typical teenage rock fantasy and for one of us it
came true.
[Extracts from a 1958 recording (hereby referred to as the "1958 Tape"). The 1958 Tape is played over the B&W film of Little Richard singing.]
>Recording of Bob Dylan and John Bucklen
>(1958)
[Fairly fast paced rock piano playing with loud hoarse vocals by Bob Dylan and John Bucklen. Lyrics are virtually indecipherable except for part of the chorus.]
Little Richard.
Oh, Little Richard.
Dylan: It's your turn to sing now...
[1958 Tape fades out.]
John Bucklen: Bob had said Hibbing was a good place to leave. And at that
time it really was. It just seemed that to especially a
person growing up at that time, Hibbing was not maybe the
place that they wanted to stick around. There were much better
places.
[Still of Highway 61 sign then scene moves to New Orleans. Music - Alvin 'Red' Tyler playing jazz on the saxophone.]
>ALVIN 'RED' TYLER
>Saxophonist
(Edited out: comments by Alvin 'Red' Tyler on jazz, Fats Domino, Little
Richard etc...)
[An English interviewer talks to Tyler in a recording specifically made for
this programme.]
Interviewer: I have a question. Have you ever heard of Bob Dylan?
Alvin 'Red' Tyler: I know nothing about Bob Dylan.
[B&W film with sound of Little Richard singing "Lucille". Then back to the 1958 Tape.]
Dylan: This is Little Richard...(fakes wild crowd noises into microphone)
...Little Richard's got a lot of expression.
Bucklen: You think singing is just jumping around and screaming?
Dylan: You gotta have some kind of expression.
Bucklen: Johnny Cash has got expression.
Dylan: There's no expression. (sings in boring, slow and monotone voice)
"I met her at a dance St. Paul Minnesota...I walk the line, because
you're mine, because you're mine..."
Bucklen: You're doing it wrong, you're just -
[1958 Tape fades out.]
John Bucklen: Out in this part of the country there is no definite form of
music that is identifiable to this region, nothing American
like the blues from New Orleans for example or Chicago. We
sort of dependent on the radio which late at night when we got
better signals from the southern stations we could sit down
and listen to the music that we thought was the music to
listen to. And that had a lot of influence on us.
[Back to the 1958 Tape.]
Bucklen: What's the best king of music? Dylan: Rhythm and Blues. Bucklen: State your reason in no less that twenty-five minutes. Dylan: Ah, Rhythm and Blues you see is something that you really can't
quite explain see. When you hear a song of Rhythm and Blues - when
you hear it's a good Rhythm and Blues song *chills* go up your
spine... Bucklen: Whoa-o-o! Dylan: ...When you hear a song like that. But when you hear a song like
Johnny *Cash*, whadaya wanna do? You wanna leave, you wanna,
you - when you hear a song like some good Rhythm and Blues song
you wanna *cry* when you hear one of those songs.
[1958 Tape fades out. Music - B&W film of James 'Son' Thomas performing "61 Highway Blues" then the song ends.]
(Edited out: comments by James 'Son' Thomas on blues, Elboe James, guitar playing, comments on blues, mythic places of the blues, highway 61 and the symbol of the car.)
[music - "I'm going to roam this highway until the day I die...". An English interviewer talks to Thomas in a recording specifically made for this programme.]
Interviewer: Have you ever heard of Bob Dylan?
James 'Son' Thomas: Bo Diddly? Interviewer: Bob Dylan. James 'Son' Thomas: I can't remember. I can't remember that name.
[Black and white film of Bob Dylan in a train wearing black sunglasses and rubbing his eyes - probably from "Don't Look Back. Music - fades in Highway 61 Revisited. Shows Highway 61 Revisited album cover. Still of Dylan's highschool year-book picture. Moves onto (irrelated to Dylan) another page with the heading "Blazing Meteorites of 1960".]
John Bucklen: It was I think 1958 and he informed me one day that he was
going to be part of a talent show at the school. The full
student body was going to be there and he wanted me to play
lead guitar. And we maybe rehearsed the song two times, if
that, I don't remember.
[Back to the 1958 Tape. Bob Dylan and John Bucklen sing in harmony with sole guitar accompaniment - Dylan original? Dylan playing guitar?]
Well, buzz buzz buzz honey bee
______________I ever heard
_____________________darling
And the sweetest sound I ever heard
Well____the beauty of the red red rose
The beauty of the skies of blue
The beauty of the evening sunset here
Ain't but the beauty of you-u-uuu (Dylan sings line solo)
Honey, honey, honey comb
The beauty of the grapes on the vine
______________________silence
And I woke up and said you was mine
[1958 Tape fades out.]
John Bucklen: As soon as the curtain was drawn you felt a little warm rush.
Bob gets to the piano and starts doing his thing and I'm
following along. And with - after it got going it was actually
kind of fun. We really got into it. And the response was very
conservative at first. But I could tell that that was of no
concern to Bob at all. He did his thing the way he wanted to
do it and that was that.
[Back to the 1958 Tape. Bob Dylan and John Bucklen sing, accompanied by the piano.]
(Indecipherable.)
Bucklen: Listen, man you gotta to do it a little bit faster than that. I
mean I'm trying to cut a fast record here, that's right -
Dylan: I can't help it.
Bucklen: I know it ain't slow but it's not fast enough too.
Dylan: Whadaya talking about, man, that's plenty fast!
Bucklen: No it isn't.
Dylan: That'll sell - that'll sell (snaps fingers) just like that - ten
million in a week! Weeeeeeelllll! (plays first note on piano)
Bucklen: What are you trying to do man, coming in with 'weeelll' like that?
I mean -
Dylan: Well that's for the new song and I'm starting another one.
[1958 Tape fades out.]
John Bucklen: It was difficult to tell which songs he wrote and which songs
he didn't write because sometimes I'd discover that he said he
wrote a song and he didn't and other times I thought he did
not write the song and he did. So it was - it was difficult
to say I - needless to say it was, it was pretty similar to
the music we were interested in at the time. I remember a big
influence on us musically was a guitar player called Scotty
Moore who was with the early Elvis Presley Combo with Bill
Black and we emulated Scotty's guitar style. I remember Bob
coming over and says "listen I picked up some Scotty Moore".
The sound, he'd figured out how to do it and that was the
greatest thing that had happened to us in a long time. So we
essentially copied his style and learned to play guitar and
that type of music by listening to old Elvis Presley records.
"Mystery Train"...[talks too fast to hear]..., "...Boogie",
"That's Alright Mama", "My Baby Loves You" - that ilk of
music.
[Music - Elvis Presley "Train, train...coming ro-ound the be-end...". Then the scene moves to Memphis.]
(Edited out: comments on Elvis living on Highway 61 by Bill Burk, "friend of Elvis".)
[Music - Elvis singing "Blue Moon" - blends into the 1958 Tape of Bob Dylan and John Bucklen singing "Blue Moon".]
Dylan: Yeah, ah, Ricky Nelson. Now Ricky Nelson's another one of these
guys. See Ricky Nelson, Ricky Nelson -
Bucklen: Ricky Nelson is out of the question.
Dylan: Well he copies Elvis Presley! Yeaah, it's perfectly...
Bucklen: He can't do like Elvis Presley.
Dylan: Well he can't sing at all, Ricky Nelson. So we may as well forget
him. See I mean - I mean, ya know when you hear music like The
*Diamonds*. For instance The Diamonds are really cool, they're out
on the street really popular, really record [?], you know. So
they're popular big stars but where, where do they get all the
songs? You know they get all their songs, they get all their songs
from little groups. They copy all the little groups. Same thing
with Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley, who did he copy? He copied Clyde
McPhatter, he copied Little Richard, ...
Bucklen: Wait a minute, wait a minute!
Dylan: ...he copied the Drifters
Bucklen: Wait a minute, name, name, name four songs that Elvis Presley's
copied from those, from those little groups.
Dylan: He copied all the Richard songs -
Bucklen: Like what? -
Dylan: "Rip It Up", "Long Tall Sally", "Ready Teddy", err - what's the
other one...
Bucklen: "Money Honey"?
Dylan: No, "Money Honey" he copied from Clyde McPhatter. He copied "I Was
The One " - he copied that from the Coasters. He copied, ahhh, "I
Gotta Woman" from Ray Charles.
Bucklen: Er, listen that song was written for him.
[1958 Tape fades out. B&W film of Dylan being interviewed towards the end of a press conference at the Savoy Hotel in London, England April 27th 1965. Both are sitting down with Dylan on the left. The interviewer is English journalist Maureen Cleeve from the "Evening Standard". The film is from "Don't Look Back.]
Interviewer: Do you ever read the bible?
Dylan: (Whispers with hand half over mouth) What about the bible?
Interviewer: Do you ever read the bible?
Dylan: Uhm, no.
Interviewer: Have you ever read it?
Dylan: Have I ever read it? I, er, I glanced through it (gets out
cigarette and puts it in his mouth).
Interviewer: Because, you see, a lot of the things you say -
Dylan: I - I've glanced through it. I haven't read it.
[Film of Bob Dylan's birth certificate. Camera focuses in on "Religion: Jewish". "xxx" means indecipherable.]
STATE OF MINNESOTA
Division of Vital Statistics
__________
RECORD OF BIRTH
__________
Ref. District No._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ No. in Registration Bxxxx
xxre numbers to be filled in only by a legal registrar xxxx
(No. _ _ _ _ _ _519 3rd Ave. East_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
DULUTH, ST. LOUIS COUNTY,
ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL
xxxL NAME
CHILD_ _ _ _ _ _ ROBERT_ _ _ _ _ _ ALLEN_ _ _ _ _ _ ZIMMERMAN_ _ _ _
| Twin, triplets | No. in order
xxx M | or others | of birth
| |
xx | |
| (To be answered only in event of xxxx birth
| |
LENGTH: 20 1/2 in. WEIGHT
FATHER
xxL ABRAM
xxME _ABE_ H. ZIMMERMAN
xxT OFFICE
xxORESO 519 3rd Ave. East
Duluth, Minnesota
RELIGION AGE AT LAST
JEWISH BIRTHDAY_ _ _
[The following is sung in Hebrew.]
>And it came to pass after these things
>that God did tempt Abraham.
>And he said now take thine only son, Isaac,
>who thou layest
>and get thee to the land of Moriah
>and offer him up there for a burnt offering
>upon one of the mountains which
>I will tell thee of.
>And Abraham rose up early and saddled
>his ass and took Isaac his son
>...And they came to the place God had told him of
>and Abraham built an altar there.
>And Abraham stretched forth his hand and
>took the knife to slay his son.
Robert Shelton: There were only about a hundred Jewish families along the
*whole* of the iron range. It does add a distinct quality,
especially in a small town like Hibbing. His own family was
very middle class. The father was after him to settle into
the community and run this appliance shop. The father
continued for many years trying to persuade his son that the
music business was something he could outgrow, it was
ephemeral, and that he should be in there selling cookers
and fridges to the natives. Dylan resented that whole idea
and he escaped it. One of his first feelings about hitting
the road was to get away from that appliance store.
[Music - "Highway 61 Revisited". Film of Bob Dylan's birth certificate. The camera focuses on his father's name, Abe.]
>Oh God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'
>Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on'
>God say, 'No.' Abe say, 'What?'
>God say, 'You can do what you want Abe, but
>The next time you see me comin' you better run'
>Well Abe says, 'Where you want this killin' done?'
>God says, 'Out on Highway 61.'
John Bucklen: I remember once when Bob came to my house and at the time he
had his dad's car. And he says "I'm gonna go down to St. Paul
and visit some people down there. I'm wondering if you wanna
come along with me." I thought it was a great idea and I said
"Well, how are you getting down there?" He says "I'm taking my
dad's car but he doesn't know." I said "What the hell are you
doing, man. No!" But I'm not sure, I think that probably he
was not terribly truthful about that because I'm sure that Abe
would have had the cops out for us in a couple of hours.
But it was exciting to both of us because we were going down
to Minneapolis and St. Paul which was at that time we
considered the world, the real life where things were really
happening. So it was a great experience to go down there. So,
you know, on the way we just talked about normal things:
music, what we were going to see when we got down there and
the normal things that most humans talk about.
[Music - radio D.J. introduces a blues song. Back to the 1958 Tape which is played over the song.]
Bucklen: What's the best kind of music?
Dylan: Rhythm and Blues...When you hear a song like some good Rhythm and
Blues song you wanna *cry* when you hear one of those songs.
[1958 Tape fades out. Camera focuses on map showing Clarkesville. Cut to B&W film of Bessie Smith: "Don't leave Jimmy, please..."]
(Edited out: section on Bessie Smith and her death on Highway 61)
[Film of view from John Bucklen's car at night.]
John Bucklen: When we went down to Minneapolis that time on Highway 61 he
told me "now look, when we get there and I see some of these
people that I know, I want you to tell them that we are down
here to cut a record and that you're my bass player." And I
thought what the heck is he up to now, you know. But so I went
along and that was the impression that we got across and
everybody believed him and so he was kind of like the centre
of attention there because he was down to cut a record. He,
you know, gave the impression that he was a serious musician
who had the wherewithal to make it big but the problem was
you see he did so he didn't have to tell these stories.
[B&W film of Dylan with cigarette in mouth doing top button of shirt in the mirror - probably from "Don't Look Back".]
John Bucklen: Oh I was surprised when he came out to be such a strong
spokesman for many of the causes of the movement that was
sweeping the country in the early sixties starting with
what we used to call underground folk music. When I knew him
we were not political at all. We never talked about causes.
At that time there were no really "great causes" with the
possible exception of the civil rights movement which was just
starting to make itself heard during that era. Other than that
there wasn't much, as far as war or any social issues, at
least that we talked about.
[Music - "Blind Willie McTell" (Bootleg Series version).]
(Edited out: section on Martin Luther King's death.)
[Music: "Highway 61" sung by John Wesdon.]
John Bucklen: Well we have just gone past Maple Leaf cemetery just outside
of Hibbing. Bob and I spent a lot of time right in this
particular area because a girlfriend of his lived out here.
Her name was Echo [Helstrom]. And at the time when she lived
here was I would say a tar papered shack with it was one room.
She was a very bright and sweet kid I remember but she was
poor. But Bob, her and I had the same kindred spirit, I guess,
as to where we wanted to go in life and we spent a lot of hours
out here playing the guitar and singing.
[Music: "Girl From the North Country".]
John Bucklen: The last time he left he went to the University of Minnesota
and I was still in highschool and he was gone to the
University of Minnesota for about maybe three or four months
in the fall of 1959 and when I saw him that's when I first met
Bob Dylan.
[B&W film of "Gunsmoke", original voice-over announcing: "The impressive picture of Marshal Mat Dillon opens each weekly episode of 'Gunsmoke'. Dillon, for all his huge menace, is depicted by James Arnet as human rather than heroic. In this he is somewhat like his counterpart..."]
Robert Shelton: I have pretty well established that he first had the idea of
changing his name to Dillon, D-I-L-L-O-N, possibly after the
television western hero Mat Dillon. But his girlfriend did
recall that he'd loved Mat Dillon on TV. And there were
people later on at the university of Minnesota who said
"when he was around here he spelt it D-I-L-L-O-N." It was
only later when he moved to Greenwich Village and everybody
there was under the sway of the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas,
that he changed the spelling of it to D-Y-L-A-N.
[B&W film with sound of Dylan seemingly miming uncomfortably with guitar and harmonica singing part of "With God On Our Side" - played low with John Bucklen's comments on top. Source?]
John Bucklen: He said to me that rock music was out, the electric guitar was
out and folk music and the acoustic sound was in...He was
much more serious. He had something very unique when I
listened to some of the things he had to offer musically. He
had a neck attachment with a harmonica on it and I thought
"wow, how novel that is". So he played me some tunes and said
"this is what I'm doing now". And, you know, I figured later
that the rebel had found his cause.
[Cut to sound-track of interview. Source?]
Interviewer: When I first heard Bob Dylan was in I think Minneapolis and at
that time you were thinking of being a rock and roll singer
weren't you?
Dylan: At that time I was just sorta doin' nothing. I was there -
Interviewer: You were studying...
Dylan: I was making pretend I was going to school out there. I just
come here from south Dakota.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Dylan: Yeah. I'd come here from Souix Falls an' that was only about
the place you didn't have to go too far to find the Mississippi
river runs right through the town, you know (laughs).
Interviewer: (laughs) Well, whatever got you off Rock and Roll and onto folk
music?
Dylan: I don't know. I - I wasn't calling it anything then, you know.
I wasn't really singing rock and roll. I was singing Muddy
Waters songs and I was writing songs and I was singing Woody
Guthrie songs and also, ah, Hank Williams songs an' Johnny
Cash, I think.
Interviewer: Yeah, I think the ones that I heard were the, er, a couple of
Johnny Cash songs.
[Fade out interview.]
John Bucklen: He was playing a place in St. Paul called The Purple Onion
which was a pizza house where they had folk music back in
1960. And he played there for five dollars a night and we
sometimes joined them. He was there for a few months and one
winter night after the performance was done he says "I'm
taking off to New York to see Woody Guthrie". He says "do ya
wanna come with me?" I thought about the dead of winter and I
wasn't sure of myself hitchhiking out to New York and I told
him, I said "I think I'll pass on this one." And I did. And he
went. And I didn't.
[Music - Bootleg Series version of "Like A Rolling Stone" blends into the "Highway 61 Revisited" version after the line "...about having to scrounge your next meal...". Song fades out. B&W pictures of Greenwich Village (1960s?).]
>Greenwich Village
>New York
[B&W film of Gaslight Cafe entrance. Sign outside:
GASLIGHT CAFE
XXXXX FAMOUS
FOR
BEST ENTERTAINMENT
IN THE VILLAGE]
>SYBIL WEINBERGER
Weinberger: We went to the Gaslight and there on the stage was this young
man with his harmonica and guitar and his little blue hat and
jeans and we were all just amazed at the sounds that were coming
out of him. And so I guess afterwards we stopped and talked with
him and found out he had just recently arrived in New York and I
think this was his first job. I mean he hadn't been in, you
know, maybe a month, if that. We knew he was from Minnesota and
I guess - and also from Hibbing. But he didn't talk very much
about it. I think he really liked New York. The thing I remember
was that he always looked up. He always looked at buildings. He
always took everything in and also walking with him was always
an experience because if you had to be anywhere you would
never get there on time because all of a sudden he'd stop and
say "wait a minute" and he would sit down on the nearest stoop
and he would pull out his spiral-bound notebook and write
something down. He would never tell us what it was and then he'd
get up and continue the conversation - whatever it was - and we
would be on our way.
We'd go to jazz clubs and folk clubs and, er, he loved John Lee
Hooker. I remember any time John Lee Hooker was playing Bobby
he'd be there.
[B&W film with sound - John Lee Hooker introduces and plays "I'll Never Get Out of These Blues Alive". Audio of Cynthia Gooding interviewing Dylan, taken from a one hour radio programme recorded (or broadcast?) March 11th 1962.]
Interviewer: Have you sung at any of the coffee houses?
Dylan: Yes, at the Gaslight. I used to play down the Wha? too, you
know. You remember where that place is?
Interviewer: Yeah, I didn't know you sang there.
Dylan: Yeah, I sang there during the afternoon, er, played my
harmonica for this guy there who was singing. He used to give
me a dollar to play everyday wiht him from two o'clock in the
afternoon until eight-thirty at night. He gave me a dollar -
Interviewer: Wow...
Dylan: - plus a cheeseburger (laughs).
Interviewer: (Laughs) A thin one or a thick one? (laughs).
Dylan: Ahhhhh.
[edited out]
Interviewer: And now you're doing a record for Columbia. Dylan: Yeah, it's coming out in March. Interviewer: And what's it going to be called? Dylan: Yeah, it's very strange (laughs). Interviewer: Yeah...
[Music - harmonica playing from "Girl From The North Country" (Freewheelin' version). Camera zooms in and out of album covers: "Bob Dylan", "The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Another Side Of Bob Dylan", "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited".]
John Bucklen: I would play his music and I knew it was Bob but there was
something missing there and I never really got to know Bob
Dylan very well and so it was interesting for me to see this
all happen. But I could never get the connection between the
kid I grew up with and hung around with for a couple of years
and the star. However, I still have fond memories of the
person of Bob Zimmerman.
[Announcer at a concert: "His name is Bob Dylan!". Crowd cheers. B&W film of Bob Dylan singing solo with guitar and harmonica - "Love Minus Zero/No Limit". Probably from Don't Look Back.]
People talk over situations,
Read Books and repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.
[Film of view from a car's front windscreen as it travels through a tunnel. Played over this film is a heavily edited sound-track of the Klas Burling Interview, 8th May 1966.]
Interviewer: Do you like to suddenly get famous then (-cut)
Dylan: Uh, yeah, it's, it's all, it's sort of all over though, you
know? I don't have any interest any more...(cut)...but, I been
playing, you know, on the stage, following tent shows around
ever since I've been 10, 10 years old. That's been 15 years
I've been doing what I've been doing. (-cut)
Interviewer: (cut) OK, If you would like to choose a last final song
for this interview?
Dylan: You choose it.
[Music - "Highway 61 Revisited". Still of Bob Dylan's highschool year-book picture. Film of driving down Highway 61. Roll the credits...]
>With Thanks To
>JOHN BAULDIE
>MUSIC & BLUES MUSEUM, MEMPHIS
>TCB RELEASING
>IRON RANGE RESEARCH CENTER
>PETER LEE
>Series Narrator
>MICK McSHANE
>Film Cameraman
>MIKE DAUNCEY
>Camera Assistant
>RICHARD TERRY
>Film Sound Recordist
>KENNY DELBERT
>Rostrum Camera
>BERT WALKER
>Dubbing Editor
>ALASDAIR WHITELAW
>Dubbing Mixer
>TREVOR BARBER
>Film Post Production
>CHRIS PACKMAN
>Graphic Design
>PETE WANE
>Production Servicing Manager
>WARWICK GEE
>Unit Manager
>SUSAN WILLS
>Research
>DEBBIE ROBERTS
>Film Editor
>COLIN KNUFF
>Series Producer and Director
>JAMES MARSH
>TALES OF
>ROCK 'N' ROLL
[Film end.]
Bring It All Back Home
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