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A Complete Unknown, Like a Rolling Stone: Exploring Bob Dylan’s Life, Influence & Biopic
There are songwriters, and then there’s Bob Dylan. The word “genius” is so often thrown about with reckless naivety. In the case of Dylan, a towering figure in music, it simply isn’t enough. An American original, Dylan always played to the beat of his own drum.
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With his distinctive gravel-engraved voice, he plugged in when no one expected it, fought when he needed to, and was invariably the smartest man in the room. Dylan’s gift with lyrics is considered so great he was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, recognition for having created new poetic expressions. Great songwriters’ eyes light up at the mere mention of his name.
Every conceivable award is in his keep. An active artist since the ‘50s, Dylan scaled the Everest of his craft in the ‘60s and never left its summit.
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Flip through our digital A Complete Unknown zine below & read the stories that follow
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Before Taylor Went Pop, or Beyoncé went Country, Dylan Changed the Game
These days, we’re used to seeing the world’s biggest artists cross-pollinate and reinvent themselves with each new record.
But long before Taylor Swift traded country for pop, or Beyoncé went country with “Cowboy Carter”, Bob Dylan set the genre-hopping blueprint – proving that rules were always meant to be broken.
In the early ’60s, Dylan became the poster boy of folk, his songs fueling the cultural reset of the Civil Rights Movement. Then, just as the world began to define him, he changed direction.
Off the back of his fifth studio album “Bringing It All Back Home”, Dylan hung up his acoustic guitar and plugged in for an infamous set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, leaving some fans in shock. Turns out, they weren’t quite ready for electric instruments at a folk festival. But Dylan didn’t care.
His voice and lyrics – raw, unmistakable – wasn’t just music, it was revolutionary. Hits like “Blowing in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone” shattered conventional ideas of folk, pop and rock & roll songs and inspired generations to come.
Image: Searchlight Pictures
The Times They Are A-Changin’
But if you listen closely, is the change as drastic as it seems? Much of modern music is a mélange of past lyrics and melodies often influenced by the great pioneers like Bob Dylan.
Across 40 studio albums spanning from his 1962 self-titled debut to “Shadow Kingdom” in 2023, few artists have cast a shadow of influence as long and impressive as his. But with a legacy this immense, where does a newcomer to his catalogue begin?
Start here, with a guide to five essential Dylan albums, and the contemporary artists who followed in his footsteps.
1. “Nashville Skyline”, 1969
Sounds like: F-1 Trillion, Post Malone
This warm, country-tinged record shows Dylan at his most sentimental and romantic. Full of simple, comfort songs that remind us of Post Malone’s 2024 country album.
2. “Blood on the Tracks”, 1975
Sounds like: Folklore, Taylor Swift
Over the years, Dylan played with themes of heartbreak and self-reflection through his lyrics, paving the way for albums like Taylor Swift’s deeply introspective “Folklore”.
3. “Time Out of Mind”, 1997
Sounds like: A LA SALA, Khruangbin
Moody and atmospheric, Dylan’s 30th studio album saw him continue to experiment and evolve, much like Khruangbin’s stripped-back 2020 release.
4. “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, 1963
Sounds like: Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Dylan’s impressive sophomore album captured his talent for deeply meaningful, folk storytelling, similar to what Bon Iver modernised for a new generation.
5. “Highway 61 Revisited”, 1965
Sounds like: Romance, Fontaines D.C.
In 1965, Dylan traded his acoustic guitar for electric rock, redefining his signature sound for a new era with a carefree attitude that’s reflected in Fontaines D.C.’s alt-rock album.
Image: Searchlight Pictures
How Timothée Chalamet ‘Pushed The Bounds’ To Play Bob Dylan In “A Complete Unknown”
The actor takes us deep inside the year’s biggest biopic.
By Brian Hiatt
Timothée Chalamet was supposed to have four months to get ready to play a young Bob Dylan onscreen. Instead, thanks in part to a pandemic and a few Hollywood strikes, he’s had five years. He started off hardly knowing a thing about Dylan, and ended up a self-proclaimed “devoted disciple in the Church of Bob.”
“I had to push the preparation, the bounds,” he tells me, “almost to psychologically know I had pushed it.”
Chamalet’s been working with a vocal coach, a guitar teacher, a dialect coach, a movement coach, even a harmonica guy. At one point, he wrote out Dylan lyrics on sheets of paper and taped them to his walls. Chalamet brings his acoustic guitar to the singing lessons, where he’ll sometimes, without warning, show up talking in Dylan’s voice. In the film, A Complete Unknown, which opens January 23rd, we’ll end up hearing Chalamet singing and playing entire songs, for real, live on set. “You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he argues later. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”
Image: Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning in ‘A Complete Unknown’
In the finished movie, it all works, down to the guitar picking, the sweat on Chalamet’s pallid forehead, and the subtle prosthetic on his nose. “His performance,” says co-star Edward Norton, “is off-the-charts great.”
“I felt like I could take myself out of the equation”, says Chalamet. “The pride I was feeling had no vainglory in it. I just felt, ‘Wow, this is like old-school theatre or something.’ We’re bringing life to something that happened, and humbly and bravely going on this journey to hopefully bring it to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t know about it. That felt like an honourable task.”
He first encountered A Complete Unknown, originally titled Going Electric and based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book, “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties,” in an emailed list of potential projects, before director James Mangold was attached.
Image Credit: Aidan Zamiri for Rolling Stone US
While he certainly wasn’t on set, the real Dylan was, in fact, also involved in A Complete Unknown, and even has an executive-producer credit. During the pandemic, he had several meetings with Mangold in Los Angeles, and eventually went through the screenplay, line by line. “Jim has an annotated Bob script lying around somewhere,” Chalamet says. “I’ll beg him to get my hands on it. He’ll never give it to me.”
He soon learned that Dylan at first saw himself as a rock artist, but ended up a folk-music superstar, before winding his way back to rock stardom. Chalamet quickly mapped that scenario onto his own experience. The way he likes to see it, Dylan, for all his reverence of figures like Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Odetta, used the folk world as a sort of back door. “If he couldn’t become Elvis or Buddy Holly immediately,” Chalamet says, “he found Woody Guthrie and stuff that was a little more accomplishable, and happened to be really good at it. And that immediately hit a bone with me.”
Chalamet became a movie star with roles in indie films that punched way above their weight commercially, playing a sexually awakened, fruit-violating teen in Call Me By Your Name, a virginity-snatching jerk in Lady Bird, a tortured young addict in Beautiful Boy, a lovestruck suitor in Little Women.
Image: Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in ‘A Complete Unknown’
He was a brilliant young actor with an extraordinary knack for choosing rich indie roles, but he was also taking what he could get. “I was knocking on one door that wouldn’t open,” he says. “So I went to what I thought was a more humble door, but actually ended up being explosive for me.” Chalamet eventually found his way into the Dune movies, and he unabashedly sees his turn as a sandworm-riding space messiah in the year 10,191 as his own going-electric moment. His earlier roles, he says, were “so personal and vulnerable. There’s an intimacy to that work that I hear in Bob’s early music, in his early folk songs.” He pauses, and seizes the metaphor. “And then eventually you want to use different instruments.”
He also related to the idea that Dylan’s story, and his art, can’t be boiled down to any particular trauma. Dylan has never once had to think about his entire life before he plays, and neither has Chalamet. “I related to the feeling that my talent could be my talent,” he says. “I could draw the picture of an unconventional upbringing. I grew up in arts housing, Manhattan Plaza, which is a funky way to grow up. I could try to paint it negatively to you. I could try to paint it positively, but it’s a bit of everything. It’s nuanced.” His point is that it doesn’t matter. “I don’t need to point to something in my youth. Your talent is your talent. The thing you gotta say is the thing you gotta say. You don’t need the Big Bang.”
Image: Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan
The Fits They Are A-Changin’: Why Dylan’s Iconic Style is Having a Moment
If TikTok’s obsession with ‘Bob Dylan Core’ has taught us anything, it’s that the musician’s signature style is as timeless as his biggest hits.
“Can we bring Bob Dylan core back pls,” one content creator posts, adding to a string of viral videos with indie-looking guys and girls walking with a slight hunch in a leather jacket, denim and messy hair. When asked where the boots are from, he comments fittingly: “random cowboy boots from Japan.” Enough said.
With the internet’s favourite young actor, Timothée Chalamet, stepping into Dylan’s shoes in A Complete Unknown this January, it’s the perfect time to dissect the effortlessly confident look that’s inspiring a new wave of cool.
Image: Searchlight Pictures
Bob Dylan Style Essentials
• The sunglasses – No Dylan-inspired wardrobe is complete without a pair of classic shades. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, he was rarely seen without them.
• The shirt – Looking back, Dylan has a certain understated cool that comes with dressing in a personal uniform. The shirts were casual, denim, striped or plain colours and always tucked in. Think the Levi’s® Vintage Clothing Men’s 1950’s Sportswear T-Shirt.
• The jacket – Most importantly, you need a light jacket, like the Levi’s® Men’s Trucker Jacket. Preferably in denim, black or tan with a shearling collar and slightly cropped. If it’s really cold out, layer with a soft, thin scarf.
• The denim – As seen in first looks of A Complete Unknown, Chalamet can be seen in Dylan’s signature faded, straight leg blue and black denim. Achieve the look with a pair of Levi’s® Men’s 501® Original Jeans, and don’t forget a thin leather belt.
• The boots – Dylan was almost always seen in sleek leather boots or loafers. Black or brown is non-negotiable for capturing his unmistakable style.
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This January, experience Dylan’s electric true story on the big screen in Searchlight Pictures’ A Complete Unknown, where Timothée Chalamet stars and sings as Dylan. See it only in cinemas January 23rd.
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