Walk the Line/No Direction Home

I've had the "good luck" of seeing a triplet of wonderful films lately. Wonderful in the sense that I get so caught up in them and what they're saying, the music they surround you with, the ups and downs of the stories ... and I want to see them again. (That's always my Litmus test.)

The first that I saw was Walk the Line which, just in case you've been living in a paper bag, is Johnny Cash's story. I didn't know much about him before seeing the movie ... I just knew the old Johnny Cash songs like "Ring of Fire" from the records my Dad played when I was little. Now I have always been so-so about Johnny Cash. He is, afterall, country-western right? What has captured my attention was how he fit into what else was going on at that time. I hadn't realized that he and Bob Dylan were starting out at around the same time. And there's Johnny Cash singing Bob Dylan songs. I had forgotten how different country-western ("old" country) is from the country we hear now ("new" country.) It is much more related to folk music than I had really understood. But beyond that, his story is just ... well you just have to watch it.

Next, my Netflix copy of No Direction Home (Part 1), which is Bob Dylan's story, arrived. It's directed by Martin Scorsese if you're into directors. Wow. I have loved Bob Dylan for a long time, since an old boyfriend started playing early Dylan and Woody Guthrie (you know, the "This Land is Your Land" guy) recordings for me. This brought that all back, and how amazing to see footage of some of those early concerts. The end of Part 1 shows footage of one of the early Newport Folk Festivals (early 1960's) and there's Johnny Cash singing "Walk the Line," Pete Seeger (the link between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan), Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others all singing "Blowing in the Wind." It really gives you a sense of what that time must have been like, when the civil rights battles were brewing, there was the conflict in Vietnam ... and people were actually singing about these things. Here's a great example, a verse from Dylan's "Only a Pawn in their Game":

A South politician preaches to the poor white man,
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain.
You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

We still have the same problems today, but no one seems to be yelling or singing about them. I was talking about this with hoagie boy and Mrs. H at lunch today and they could explain *why* 2006 is so different. But it still makes me sad that it *is* so different.

I promise to tell you about the third film in my next post.

*maki-girl