Announcing: Not Completely Unknown (Discovering Bob Dylan)
Bob Dylan is not an easy guy to get to know. That’s true in part because of his seemingly intentional inscrutability, but it can be equally blamed on the vastness of his output and the depth of much of that work.
The movie ‘A Complete Unknown’ is creating/expanding interest in Dylan, but it only scratches the surface of even a basic overview. It covers only 4 years in a career that has spanned 60+ and it’s far from comprehensive even for the 1961-1965 period. The movie does an excellent job of getting the core story and impact right, and hopefully that makes a lot of people want to learn more.
Introducing: “Not Completely Unknown”
“Not Completely Unknown” is our effort to create an on-ramp for new or long-time Dylan fans that want to go beyond occasional listening and enjoy more background and analysis. It will be an ongoing series - now planned for 16 weeks - built around a series of podcasts from multiple podcasters all released on Dylan.FM, plus blog posts both on our substack and website, and social media chirps (primarily on Bluesky @dylan.thefm.club).
It will offer a semi-structured path that anyone who cares to can follow to explain the 60 year arc of his career, to highlight key events and milestones, and to help justify the reverence so many people already hold for Bob Dylan.
Three sources will frame the series:
A Bob Dylan Primer: This is a 16 part series that walks through Bob Dylan’s career one phase at a time. It was created and produced by Michael Hacker, who has revised and updated the series for this presentation. One episode of this series will be released each week.
Dylan Revisited: What began as a series of Tweet Threads which exquisitely condensed and presented key albums and events in Dylan’s life, later became a series of blog posts. and is now a podcast - all by writer Colm Larkin. A new episode and associated blog post will appear every week or two.
Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan: The first and many still believe best serious critical analysis of Dylan’s work comes from Michael Gray in his Song & Dance Man books. New excerpts from the book and recut versions of our chapter-by-chapter talks with Michael will be released throughout this series.
Beyond these, we’ll include other introductory or explanatory materials, some from other Dylan authors, podcasters, and experts.
In Service of The Music
Of course, just about the entire Dylan catalog is available on streaming services and good old records, tapes, and CDs. Bob is primarily a recording artist and performer, so can’t you just go listen and watch? Why is it necessary to ‘learn’ anything?
On one level it isn’t. Generations of fans have taken Dylan in simply by listening. Of course you should go listen as much as you can, and to as much of the catalog as you want to tackle. Bob doesn’t need anyone’s help getting his point or is quality across.
But Bob doesn’t make it easy, doesn’t reveal everything, and so for at least three generations now a bunch of very smart people have spent time researching Dylan’s influences, finding the references within the music, and generally working to help other fans better understand and more deeply appreciate Dylan.
Our goal is simply to organize and share some of the best of that work.
Get It Here
If you or someone you know wants to come along for ‘Not Completely Unknown’ there are two easy steps:
Subscribe to this substack (the free level is fine)
Subscribe to the Dylan.FM podcast in your podcast app
Most installments will be free, but there will be bonus materials for our paid/premium subscribers.
Avoid It Here
Current subscribers who may not care for a stream of somewhat introductory Dylan content (some of which has also been covered here before) - can opt out of new posts from this series.
Just click the hamburger menu in the upper right (three lines on desktop, three dots on mobile) and click Manage Subscription, then deselect the ‘Not Completely Unknown’ newsletter.
Starting Tomorrow
Our journey begins tomorrow morning with the Episode One of A Bob Dylan Primer by Michael Hacker. Here’s a bit from the introduction to the series:
This is a primer about Bob Dylan, the oceanic artist of our time and our place. If you can't stomach Bob Dylan's music or if you think he's the worst singer of all time and you feel like that and are sure of those things, I'm not interested in trying to change your mind.
But if you're curious, if you kind of think you might like Bob Dylan's music but can't really wrap your arms around him because there's just too many songs and albums and he's from a different time, or if you're just trying to understand a little bit what all the fuss might be about, or if you love the music already and want to revisit the Dylan landscape in a little bit more detail, then hopefully you'll find this series of broadcasts somewhat engaging and helpful. Welcome to a Bob Dylan Primer.
There are just 16 episodes working in more or less chronological order and covering Dylan's life and career from his early beginnings to the present day. The first episode starts off with Dylan being born in Duluth, Minnesota and tells the story of how he got to New York City and what happened when he did.
Later episodes cover the early Fokie days, the true insanity of the 1966 tour, and how Dylan very nearly died after that, but not from a motorcycle accident. Then it's on to Dylan stripping away the madness to get to something else, the basement tapes, the underappreciated beauty of the early 70s material, blood on the tracks, and then through the 70s and 80s, there's a lot to talk about.
We’ll cover the religious phase, although I don't really like that word phase, then the period of the late 80s when most people gave up on Dylan, and then the 90s, which produced some amazing music and let people say Dylan is back because we love that narrative. And then the truly inspired work that Dylan's done in this century, including five full discs of Sinatra-inspired classic songs, and the shockingly great record of brand-new material Dylan released in 2020 that I think stands with anything he's ever done.
This first episode will be released on Dylan.FM on December 24, 2024.
The Bob Dylan Starter Kit
It’s clear the new movie will expose millions to the origins of Dylan’s story and some of his greatest music. Hopefully this series can help many of them make the leap to become deep and lifelong fans.
If some of your non-Dylan friends and relatives are asking questions, please send them here to discover that there is in fact a lot we do already know about Dylan and his music.
Gather ‘round me people, a story I will tell…
Dylan Forever