Forget the number of roads a man must walk down before you call him a man, and don’t even get me started on how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned. You know what’s really blowin’ in the wind? Favorite Bob Dylan songs. It changes daily. Sometimes I’m in the mood for the post-“thin, wild, mercury sound” era (“The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest” is an underrated jewel). Other times, the only thing I want to listen to is the haunting loneliness of “Not Dark Yet.”
Naming a favorite Bob Dylan song is especially difficult when you’re in a movie about Bob Dylan.
I recently asked the cast of A Complete Unknown — Timothée Chalamet (who plays Bob Dylan), Elle Fanning (Sylvie Russo, based on artist and Dylan’s girlfriend at the time Suze Rotolo), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger), and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez) — as well as director James Mangold to share if they have a favorite Bob Dylan song(s). Some did, others found it an impossible task.
Check out their answers below.
James Mangold
I can’t do it. It’s too many, I can’t. Honestly, I’m so bad. I won’t do it with movies, I don’t do it with anything. I love too many things. It’d be like asking me to name a Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen or Frank Sinatra song I like best. I just can’t do it.
Do you remember the first Dylan album you heard?
Absolutely. It was my dad’s Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits record, the one with the backlit big hair. That was my introduction. He had a cassette that he played in his VW bus whenever he drove me somewhere. It was either that or Glen Campbell singing “Wichita Lineman.” That’s where I first was introduced to Bob. And then I obviously heard the records, but by the time I was in college, even when I was 17 or 18, I believe that’s when Infidels came out. I love that record, and that also made me buy everything backwards from there that I hadn’t heard.
Is there a deep cut that you really wanted to include in the movie, but couldn’t find a place to fit it?
“One Too Many Mornings.” I love that song, but I also managed to get it in, in the sense that if you see the movie again, and you listen to the guitar playing under Bob and Joan when he rides off on his motorcycle at the end, it’s the guitar part for “One Too Many Mornings.”
Edward Norton
The answer to that question has probably changed every five years, because I think as you move through life and go through your own phases and changes, there’s so much richness in his music that you end up realizing a different song that he wrote is the soundtrack you need at the moment. It’s never stayed fixed.
I’ve had periods where Blood On The Tracks was the soundtrack of my emotional life. And I’ve had periods where I was deep in World Gone Wrong. And I think when I was young and moved to New York to try to live in Greenwich Village and be an artist, those early records were almost totemic to me. “Song For Woody” is a very important song in my life. That idea of coming to a place to follow in the footsteps of people that you have taken inspiration from, I honestly felt that song was my story. That’s like what I was trying to do. Like so many other people, things he has written at different phases and eras of his own life have resonated for me at different times.
When I moved to New York for college, the song that spoke to me in the way you’re describing was “She’s Your Lover Now.”
Those songs, “Boots Of Spanish Leather,” “Girl From The North Country,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” I mean, he’s got this whole landscape of longing and loss, but then there’s the political stuff. Timothée and I talked a lot about how “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll”… I mean, that song is so lacerating, and challenging, and brilliant, and bold, kind of like “Hurricane” later. You know, the capacity to write a thing that’s not about rhyming, that is telling a story of injustice, and to have it actually, you know, hurt your heart. It’s amazing what he’s able to encompass in his writing. I remember when he won the Nobel Prize, and people were like, “Oh, but he’s not a writer.” It’s like, yes, he is. Yes, he absolutely is.
Monica Barbaro
I have, right now, the deepest relationship with “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” That was a song that I really focused on with guitar, because it’s very difficult to play, and in doing so, constantly repeating it, I just felt like, over months, the lyrics meant more to me. I was constantly finding new depth in the lyrics, and even changing my relationship over time with the words of that song. There’s also… god, I love the moment in “Farewell Angelina”: “Shut the eyes of the dead / Not to embarrass anyone.” That is something that just hits you. He’s a brilliant poet.
How about your favorite Joan Baez song?
It’s hard to narrow it down. I really love “Diamonds And Rust.” She wrote it in the ’70s, or at least it was released in the ’70s, and I thought that was a really helpful lens into a lot of pieces of [Bob and Joan’s] relationship, as many people did, as many fans did, and as he did. I think from the sounds of it, he heard the song and called her, and he’s like, “What the f*ck.” That was a very informative song. But I love the way she sings “The Water Is Wide.” I love the way she sings “House Of The Rising Sun,” the way she hovers on the relationship with the sister in that song. To me, whether she was doing this or not, it feels like she’s saying something about her sister and the relationship that they had. I find the accompaniment to be beautiful, and I think it’s the most beautiful version of that song that exists. God, “Silver Dagger,” so cool. It’s peppy, but tragic, and… god, I can’t pick favorites with her songs. I really can’t.
When you were preparing for the role, did you watch a lot of live footage?
Yeah yeah. We all pored over so much footage, and luckily, it was fairly well-documented. And there have been lots of documentaries throughout the decades. I think they’re also all very honest about themselves and honest about the time, and that’s a gift when you’re portraying these people, having the audacity to portray them behind closed doors. We’re let in on a lot of who they were, because they’re just honest.
Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning
Elle: It’s a wild question, I must say. But “Buckets Of Rain,” that’s the first Bob Dylan song I heard, so it means something to me. I love “Hurricane.” I love “Ballad Of A Thin Man.” Those are the ones that are endless, right? “Tangled Up In Blue.”
Timothée: It changes every day. Today, I’ll say “Outlaw Blues,” because, I could be wrong, I’m sure I’m wrong, but it’s been very hard for me to ever find a live version of him doing “Outlaw Blues.” And it’s also, conversely, one of the Dylan tracks from that period that has a crazy kick to it and a crazy energy. And to me, one of the underrated songs of that time period.
Do you remember the first album of his that you listened to?
Elle: Mine was Blood On The Tracks.
Timothée: I couldn’t tell you. For me, it was like everything at once. So I really don’t have a good answer for you there, and…
Elle: You were trying to be him.
Timothée: But in the beginning, the truthful answer of that was “Ballad Of A Thin Man,” the live version from No Direction Home, the Scorsese doc. And also “I Want You” from Blonde On Blonde. Those were, for whatever reason, some of the early Dylan songs in my library.
Have either of you ever seen him live?
Timothée: Yeah, we saw him together.
Elle: Kings Theatre?
Timothée: Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Not this summer, but this past summer and Elle passed out in the audience.
Elle: No, I threw up.
Timothée: She was throwing up.
Elle: I had a bad turkey sandwich. It was awesome.
Timothée: I was like, this is either a great omen for the movie or the exact opposite.
Elle: Oh my god, he was halfway through. I’d never seen him live, and we were there, and then something overcame me. And then I envisioned the turkey sandwich I’d had that day, and ran out. I threw up in the concession stand.
Is there an artist or band who you haven’t seen live who you really want to?
Elle: AC/DC.
Timothée: Whoa, good answer.
Elle: Yeah, I haven’t seen… I can still see them, right?
I think they just announced a stadium tour.
Elle: Amazing. All right, Sign me up.
How about you, Timothée?
Timothée: Maybe your sweater? [I’m wearing a Phoebe Bridgers hoodie] Maybe Phoebe Bridgers? I’ve seen Boygenius, but I haven’t seen Phoebe live.
A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.