I recently saw Don’t Look Back at the Palm Theatre and felt like I had time traveled to my youth. While a college student at Columbia University, I hung out in Greenwich Village at coffee houses, jazz and folk music clubs and at bars where Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, was said to hang out. Although the second Dylan eluded me at the White Horse Bar, Bob Dylan didn’t. I am embarrassed to say I once left a club he was playing at during intermission because I thought his voice was terrible.
Now that I have seen the film, I realize not only the incredible influence the 20 years of folk and later folk rock music had on my generation, but also what a strong part it played in various movements: civil rights; ban-the-bomb; Vietnam war protests, Native American and women’s rights. I only wish that music had a similar role to play today.
I strongly urge people to see the film whether you were alive during that era or not. And note the neat symmetry between the beginning and the end.
Judith Bernstein
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Volunteers 2025.
Heavy lyrics from Bob Dylan:
I’ve got a woman, she’s so mean
Puts my boots in the washing machine
Slips me buckshot when I’m nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She’s funny, calls me honey, wants my money.
Doesn’t sound familiar? Don’t worry, the vandals took the handles.
I’m pretty sure the letter writer is referring to the new movie A Complete Unknown with Timothee Chalamet. Don’t Look Back is a 1967 documentary about Dylan’s 1965 tour of England. I don’t think there were any scenes filmed in Greenwich Village. Dylan is probably the greatest voice, no pun intended, of the silent generation, maybe only a tad above McCartney and Lennon, considering he did win the Nobel Prize for literature.
No, Mr. Harris, those born between 1928 and 1945 (too young to have fought in WWII and too old to be part of the high birth rates following the war) are commonly referred to as the silent generation, not to be confused with Nixon’s mythical silent majority. Otherwise, carry on with your rants. They are quite entertaining.
Simply based on years of birth, Mr. Harris. Dylan was born in 1941 so he fits into that artificial construct. It has nothing to do with his likeness to others born at the same time. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump are considered baby boomers, yet they are as different as night and day.
Shanti,
Why so critical, disparaging, and aggressive. Your comments appear to have an underlying level of anger which is surprising for someone in the SLO County Office of Education.