Month: December 2014

“Beyond Here Lies Nothin'”

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(Trigger Warning: Extreme Domestic Violence)
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That is something that I never anticipated I’d write on this blog.
In 2009, Bob Dylan took a dramatic turn with his music videos. Having mostly been involved in pretty terrible videos for a couple of decades, Dylan (or his people) did a good video for “Dreamin’ Of You” in 2008. In 2009 they hired Australian director/stunt man Nash Edgerton to direct what is now his first of three videos for Dylan. In a very good interview with Pitchfork Edgerton noted that he not only never met Dylan (he will later on) but he was played the song once over the phone as he decided whether or not to take on the project. Hyper-protective Dylan and his hyper-protective record company.
So, Edgerton made the video, and I watched it for the first time today. My heart is still racing a little bit. I’m not going to kid you, this is a truly disturbing music video. Truly disturbing. Shocking, even. It has strong Tarantino overtones and probably is not something that everyone should watch. Dylan has allowed his work to be taken to a VERY dark place.
If you can stomach it, it is an exceptionally well-crafted video. When the sound drops out for an extended period we were into a territory that I’d never seen anyone take a music video. The ending will righteously anger a lot of people, and it bothers me a great deal. Edgerton has uploaded this video onto his own Vimeo account, and he even responds (glibly) to questions there. I find his response about the ending very unsatisfactory, personally.
Looking at the lyrics, there is a large part of me that thinks Edgerton has simply amplified the subtext here a thousand per cent. It’s a dark song – the accordion parts and other music made me think that it should be used on a David Simon show, and, in fact, it was used as a teaser for True Blood (and in a second season episode). So perhaps I shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was, but there you are.
Proceed at your own risk on this one. I think “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” is the best song on Together Through Life and this video is remarkable, but I don’t think I’m going to ever watch it again.
On preview, it seems that the YouTube version is not the director’s cut (it doesn’t have the section where the sound drops out). Check the Vimeo link for the full version.

Dylan Does Ads (2009 Edition)

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Continuing our never-ending tour of Bob Dylan destroying the heart of the 1960s for filthy, filthy lucre, our man did not one but TWO television ads in 2009. And one of them is very high on the sell-out meter if you’re the type to have a sell-out meter (and who isn’t?)

First, at The Super Bowl, Dylan appeared in a Pepsi commercial with Will.i.am from the Black-Eyed Peas (who would later go on to do the half time show of a Super Bowl, something Dylan should really do – I would love to see him sing six songs from Tempest to a Super Bowl crowd). This is not the worst ever re-mix of “Forever Young”, but it was not exactly a necessary one either. The film clips chosen are pretty obvious and occasionally bizarre. Dylan doesn’t actually appear in this other than in old footage, but they need the old footage to make the argument that, I guess, the Black-Eyed Peas are this generation’s Bob Dylan. Not the most plausible argument, but there you have it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPQw-zQbaQo

The second ad was a UK-only one for the Co-operative group of supermarkets and such. I’d have expected this one to kick off an even greater internet hissy fit than the 2014 Chrysler ad, but since it wasn’t a Super Bowl, and since it wasn’t in the US, maybe the usual pundits all missed it. Perhaps British pundits decried the fact that he allowed his original version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” to sell food. If this is the type of thing that upsets you, this will upset you. What most upsets me is two and a half minutes of gauzy images of dandelion fluff. I fell asleep before I even saw what they were selling, which, I take it, is massively capitalized ethical food? Not quite sure. As I say, not the best ad ever.

So there you have it. More fuel for the outrage fire!

The People Speak

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Let’s start off 2009 with a great one. In January, Bob Dylan appeared in Malibu alongside Ry Cooder (on guitar) and Van Dyke Parks (keyboards) to record two Woody Guthrie songs for the television special The People Speak, a film based loosely on the work of Howard Zinn that aired in December of the same year. The trio did “Vigilante Man” (which I haven’t heard – Bjorner indicates that it isn’t circulating) and “Do Re Mi”. Here’s the latter from the film:

Isn’t that just great? Yes, Dylan’s voice is on its way to gone, but his phrasing is superb here. I love this.

I was in California two weeks ago on a short vacation and I had this song (not this version) stuck in my head the entire time. It’s one of my favourite Guthrie songs.

There is just something pleasing about Dylan, fifty years later, still up there doing Woody Guthrie. That’s awesome, that’s what that is.