The disparity between Bob Dylan's distrust of authority and love of capitalism (along with his singing styles, hair and put-ons) make him an easy target for satire, and YouTube has some real gems. Hence our first, and probably only Talkin' Bob Dylan Satire Short Film YouTube Festival.
Opening the festival is "Bob Meets the Beatles" by The Meth Minute. This short re-enacts that seismic pop culture moment in August 1964 when Dylan turned the Beatles onto "jazz cigarettes" in NYC's Hotel Delmonico. The creators of this piece obviously know their Dylanology, as they nail his love of hipster put-ons and cash with equal aplomb.
Next is "Backstage with Bob Dylan," a short from the very busy creator of Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane. Kudos to Seth for not, like so many others, portraying Dylan as rock's sole unintelligible singer.
In the live-action category, first is John C. Reilly's rip on Dylan's stream-of-consciousness lyricism (and his fans' unconditional worship) from Judd Apatow's mock-biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
More celebrated is Cate Blanchett's take on '66 tour Dylan from the groovy 2007 film I'm Not There. Here, in "Like A Rolling Stone" fashion, Dylan verbally undresses an Edie Sedgwick-inspired debutante played enchantingly by Michelle Williams.
Comic genius Christopher Guest was probably the first comedian brave enough to really lay into Dylan, the #1 hero of the counterculture, as seen here in the 1973 National Lampoon show Lemmings. Guest really has him down here, especially when he breaks into his Nashville Skyline voice. Guest too, takes aim at the voice of a generation's financial acumen, calling this piece "Positively Wall St."
Closing the wildly successful festival is Bob Dylan himself, riffing on a Pet Store sign somewhere on his '66 UK tour. In addition to being Dylanesque, this clip is also also Scorcesean, hailing from Martin's must-own 2005 Dylan doc No Direction Home.
Wow -- he does nail the Nashville Skyline voice!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the way he sings "sus-pect" is dead-on.