They seek him here, they seek him there...

Saw the new Dylan biopic, "I'm Not There" in which assorted actors (and one actress) play archetypal figures meant to represent some of the personas Dylan has put on over the years. They range from a young (11ish) black child on the Hobo Highway who calls himself "Woody Guthrie" (and carries a guitar in a case that has "This Machine Kills Fascists" on it) to the sunglassed snarky Dylan-does-London (the "Don't Look Back" guy) to an aged outlaw on the run living in a town called "Riddle" (birthplace of the black kid) where the residents look like outtakes from the cover shots for "Basement Tapes" (and some have names from the tunes on that album, like Henry and Homer).

It's an overloaded messy romp of a film, including a soundtrack that includes Dylan singing his own songs, other people singing Dylan songs (and they're never as good as he is), and lots of instrumental snippets of songs (sometimes with corresponding visuals). There are references within references; a Dylanologist (anyone remember A.J. Weberman?) will love puzzling them all out when this hits DVD.

High points? Cate Blanchett (yep, that's her in the photo), who plays the highly drugged and amazingly productive Dylan of the mid-60's ("Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Blonde On Blonde"), is dead-on, and gets the character down pat. The way she talks, the way she moves, the way she does (and does not) react - a perfect invocation of that memory-Dylan. If she doesn't get a supporting Oscar nod, I'll be very surprised. The scenes with the black kid are also pretty good, and evocative of Dylan's gifts for self-invention.

Other parts don't work as well. Combining Suze Rotolo and Sarah Lowndes into one love object is one of those misplays; the weak covers on the soundtrack is another - not enough inventiveness to cover up the blandness of the non-Dylan vocals. There are good Dylan covers (Manfred Mann's "Mighty Quinn", the Band's "When I Paint My Masterpiece", Leon Russell's "Hollis Brown", even Joan Baez' "I Shall Be Released" among plenty of others), but this movie doesn't provide any new ones worth picking up.

Who should see it? Dylan fans, of course, and fans of directors who try to stretch the medium and provide moviegoers with a unique experience. It's an interesting approach to a film bio of a very complex character, and even where it fails, it's not for lack of nerve. Definitely worth a viewing.

Arlo and Strings

We saw Arlo Guthrie Saturday night, doing the Pete Seeger Memorial (I know, he’s alive) Thanksgiving concert at Carnegie Hall. This reminded me that once, when I was working at a bookstore in Penn Station, someone actually asked me how to get to Carnegie Hall. After grinning madly and telling him that I had been waiting years for someone to ask me that question, I finally got to say: “Practice, practice, practice!”. Anyhow, Arlo – whom we last saw a few years ago at Purchase, performing a terrific set with his daughter and son – was accompanied this time by the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra (bet you didn’t even know there was one). This third or fourth tier orchestra was not bad (which is a measure of the depth of musical talent around); they opened by performing Bernstein’s Overture from “Candide” and Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, and didn’t embarrass themselves. although their performance was notably lacking in crispness and displayed occasional mistimings (no serious squibs, though).

The problem was that although they may be mixed better on the CD (yes, there is one – pictured above), the full orchestra overwhelmed Arlo’s amplified singing, guitar, and piano-playing. You could hear him, but there was just too much sound going on all around him. Another singer and songwriter, Randy Newman, writes orchestral scores – he knows how to work with various ensembles and it shows when he engages with a full ensemble on the album, “Sail Away”. Arlo doesn’t do this kind of work, and while his musicality is unchallengeable, I think this current interest of his would work better with a chamber orchestra, say, a more stripped-down sound – and more interesting arrangements. I mentioned Newman in part because there was a definite Newmanesque ragtime sound to several of the pieces (although Arlo’s interest in rag is also long-standing), and overall the sound was slickly soundtracky, and not particularly distinctive in and of itself.

Putting folksongs or folk-style songs (Arlo has an appropriately broad view - IMHO - of what "folk" means) to new and interesting arrangements is certainly do-able. Bruce’s “We Shall Overcome – the Seeger Sessions” is an outstanding example of how to do it right, Dixieland brass and all. Arlo’s attempt wasn’t an outright failure, but it didn’t work well for me over all. I much preferred the Purchase performance, where the focus was solely on his playing, singing, and story-telling (at which he excels). Incidentally, one of the numbers he did in both shows is a story about playing with Pete Seeger at a show in Germany which concludes with Arlo leading the audience in singing the Elvis hit, “Fools Rush In”. This number, like all his others, works just fine as a solo – all the orchestra added was an unnecessary sweetening.

Back From the Future

Yes, it's DJStan, back again after a long hiatus. I've missed blogging - there's been a lot of music between posts, and other things, too. I've decided that as part of the revival of Struts and Frets, I'll be posting about other topics as well as music. The focus will still be primarily music, but the other arts will also be discussed, particularly theatre (we see many shows), movies, literature, art, and television. I may even discuss a political question or two, although that is not the focus here.

I hope to be posting at least two or three times a week, as circumstances warrant. Meanwhile, if anyone has comments or suggestions about the general subject matter, feel free to pass them along.

A few quick notes: Steve Earle's new release, "Washington Square Serenade", is a fine set of songs. Steve is in love with both his new woman, singer Allison Moorer, and his new home - my own beloved New York City. The set leads off with a farewell to Nashville, echoing his hit, "Guitar Town", and includes songs about Pale Male, the hawk who lives on 5th Avenue, and the "City of Immigrants" in which he now lives. There are also songs about Oxycontin, a vision of the long walk down "Jericho Road", a sweet song about his new love, "Sparkle and Shine", and a neo-folk song tribute to the folksingers of Washington Square, "Steve's Hammer (for Pete)". All in all, an excellent addition to one of my favorite musicians' body of work. Highly recommended.

Bruce Springsteen's new release, "Magic", isn't. It's not bad, but it's no better than a 3 out of 5, which is about as not great as Bruce gets. Patti Sciafla's new one, "Play It As It Lays", is better - if I were to recommend one of these two, it would be hers (and I do recommend it). More on this anon.

Finally, there are now 13,997 songs on the DJStan Ipod. I'll break 14,000 this weekend (and will soon be in the market for an 80 GB pod). Incidentally, I've started buying songs from Amazon - they've got a decent selection to date (though not nearly as large as ITunes), they're slightly cheaper as a rule (89 cents for a typical track), they come down as high quality unrestricted MP3's, and the free Amazon client maps them right into your Itunes library. These days, if I'm looking to download music (fogey that I am, I still buy CD's, too), I check Amazon first. In the interests of competition and unrestricted downloads, others should do likewise - there's no downside that I can see.

More to come - watch this space!