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No Direction Home

Date: Sep 30 2005

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

protest song

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

More than any other popular musician or band in recent history, Bob Dylan, in my opinion, has revolutionized the face of modern music. From his humble beginning playing at coffeeshops in Minneapolis, Minnesota (my own hometown!), to his current status as worldwide music legend, the documentary movie No Direction Home traces Dylan’s evolution. If you like Bob Dylan’s music, you’ll love this film.
Listen as I tell John about the film.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Dave

John

Dave: Martin Scorsese just did a documentary on Bob Dylan.

John: Oh really? How was that?

Dave: I love it. Love Bob Dylan, love his music.

John: Now he was kind of in that hippie generation, you know, the flower power and folksy stuff, right?

Dave: Yeah, yeah. He, um, he started off with a lot of protest songs, which he has since backed away from, saying that he was only in it for the music, not the politics.

John: Is there any authentic footage in the film at all, or how’s it made?

Dave: Yeah, there’s a lot of authentic footage from, um, his early days in New York and a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that, you know, the average person, no one, no one has seen. Until now.

John: Yeah.

Dave: His music was groundbreaking in many ways in terms of the lyrics and, um, the simple chords he plays on the guitar.

John: You play the guitar at all?

Dave: No.

John: Oh, okay.

Dave: You play any instruments?

John: Ah, I played the sax in high school.

Dave: Oh yeah?

John: I don’t think that counts, though.

Dave: No.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

At the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Dylan was booed by the audience for “going electric,” or using electric guitars in his music. Many folk music fans called him a pariah, or traitor, for not being loyal to folk music. Traditional folk music uses only acoustic guitars and non-electric instruments. By “going electric,” Dylan was doing what he wanted to do with his music, but many of his fans at the time did not like the change.