Bob Dylan’s life story is being brought to life on the silver screen thanks to Timothée Chalamet and A Complete Unknown, introducing the singer and his work to a whole new generation.
The movie sees Chalamet portray the soft-spoken musician during his rise to fame in the folk music scene, as well as his controversial break away from the genre to explore new things. Dylan reinvented himself time and again, quickly becoming one of the most influential people in the music industry.
But, even so, A Complete Unknown will be an introduction to Dylan for quite a few people, or at least will help some learn more about the man behind the legend. For those curious to dive even deeper into the singer’s life and legacy, here is everything that you need to know.
A voice of a generation
Bob Dylan recording his first album, “Bob Dylan”, in November 1961 at Columbia Studio in New York City, New York. (Getty Images)
A Complete Unknown joins Dylan in 1961, when he travelled to New York City in order to meet his music idol Woody Guthrie while he was a patient in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, in New Jersey. There he performs for Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who takes the young Dylan under his wing after seeing his potential.
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Dylan really did travel to New York City in order to meet his idol, and it’s during the years after that he began to make a name for himself in music as he performed around Greenwich Village. Dylan’s career was not one of instant success, his self-titled first album consisted mainly of cover songs for other famous folk artists, and it only just broke even by selling 5,000 copies.
It was when the singer was able to record his own music that he broke through, his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released in 1963 and launched Dylan to instant global acclaim. Some of the songs were seen as protest songs with Guthrie and Seeger’s work proving influential to Dylan’s style, and the most famous of tracks on the album was Blowin’ in the Wind.
Timothee Chalamet portrays Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, which examines his career from 1961 to 1965. (Searchlight Pictures)
Dylan quickly became seen as a voice of a generation, a title that the singer has long since shunned, and his influence and popularity grew as a result. His admirers included The Beatles, with the late George Harrison once saying that when The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released he and the band members “just played it, just wore it out”.
While he was now a household name Dylan did not take to fame well, preferring to keep his personal life a mystery. Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman before he legally changed it to match his stage name, and whenever he was asked about himself he would prefer to misdirect those asking rather than answer.
Dylan became known for having an air of mystique, there wasn’t a question he would give a straight answer to, and this attitude made him seem both prolific and insufferable to people. Once when he was asked to talk about himself for his company Columbia Records he told head of press Billy James he was from Illinois, worked in construction in Detroit, and drove a bakery truck before riding a freight train all the way to New York City — none of which was true.
The singer admitted in Martin Scorsese’s documentary Rolling Thunder Revue that his decision to keep his personal life to himself was deliberate: “When somebody’s wearing a mask, he’s gonna tell the truth. When he’s not wearing a mask, it’s highly unlikely.”
Bob Dylan’s relationship with Joan Baez
Folk singers Joan Baez and Bob Dylan performing together 1963, the pair had a romantic relationship for several years. (Getty Images)
Regardless of Dylan’s desire to not discuss his personal life, A Complete Unknown does explore some of the romantic relationships he had during his rise to fame. One of which is with fellow musician Joan Baez, who spoke of their clandestine affair in her documentary I Am A Noise.
The musicians first met in 1961, Baez was already acclaimed as the Queen of Folk and helped to raise Dylan’s status by covering some of his original songs and inviting him to sing with her on stage. Their relationship eventually fizzled out in 1965 when they toured together in the UK.
In her documentary I Am A Noise, Baez said: “London was the nightmare, I think what happened when Bob started to be more famous he just started to move away. In some ways he moved away from everybody, I think the shift came very quickly.
The cover for the Bob Dylan album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, the cover features Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo walking near their apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. (Getty Images)
“I think if I had pushed my way in there I probably could have stayed central to that, but I couldn’t have done the drugs and the boy’s club. I didn’t know it was going to be like that. They were just on another planet by then, and I was just a weird folkie travelling around, I just didn’t belong.”
A Complete Unknown depicts Dylan as being in a relationship with a woman named Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) at the time of his affair with Baez. Russo is based on the singer’s one-time girlfriend Suze Rotolo who appears arm-in-arm with him on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and they were together until 1964.
From folk music to rock
Bob Dylan pictured in 1975, during his career the singer went from folk music to electric which was a very controversial change. (Everett Collection)
Dylan famously broke away from folk music in 1965 when he began to experiment with electric instruments, a decision that ruffled more than a few feathers.
The singer was keen to reinvent himself, a theme that is apparent throughout his six-decade career. And in 1965 that saw him begin to use electric instruments in his album Bringing It All Back Home, and making the full leap to electric guitar in Highway 61 Revisited.
While his decision to change his music style rankled some people, the musician did release some of his most popular songs in this period including Mr Tambourine Man, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), and It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. Highway 61 Revisited also became one of his most popular releases ever, particularly thanks to the success of his song Like A Rolling Stone.
While his popularity was growing exponentially his critics were also growing louder, which culminated in a concert at Manchester Free Trade Hall in England in 1966 when an audience member shouted “Judas” at him, and he responded: “I don’t believe you … You’re a liar!” This moment is recreated in A Complete Unknown, though the location was changed to the Newport Folk Festival.
That same year Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident, the singer said he broke several vertebrae in his neck though the full extent of his injuries were never revealed publicly. He stepped back from the spotlight for five years in order to recover, and did not tour again for almost eight years though he did continue to record and release music once he was fully recovered.
In his autobiography he said that it gave him the chance to have a break from the pressure of fame: “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.”
Reinventing himself again
Bob Dylan pictured on tour in 2012, the musician has been on his never-ending tour since 1988. (AP Photo)
The singer reinvented himself once again in the 1970s by recording Christian music after converting to Evangelical Christianity from Judaism. This musical jump wasn’t received particularly well but he persevered with recording them, and despite criticism over his Christian music one of the singer’s best-loved songs Hurricane was released in 1975 — which protested the innocence of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who had been imprisoned for triple murder at the time.
In the 90s the singer changed again by returning to folk music, which proved to be his big comeback. Dylan’s big achievements in the 2000s include an Oscar win for Best Original Song in 2001 for his track Things Have Changed, which he recorded for for the film Wonder Boys. He also began to reflect on his life in a series of autobiographies known as “Chronicles”, and continued to record music.
In 2016 Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contribution to the American music industry, he is the first musician to win the award. Elsewhere the singer has been on a “never-ending tour” since 1988, and has averaged around 100 performances a year since then.
A Complete Unknown premieres in cinemas on Friday, 17 January.