In partnership with Searchlight Pictures
In A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet delivers a stunning turn as Bob Dylan, singing and playing some of the American troubadour’s most iconic songs live. With the soundtrack available to stream now – and a limited edition vinyl coming on January 24 – here are Chalamet’s 10-best performances in the movie.
Singing ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ at the bedside of Woody Guthrie
This seminal protest song from 1962 is first heard in A Complete Unknown as Bob performs to an audience of one – his ailing, bed-bound musical hero Woody Guthrie. Until the hospital orderly puts a stop to it. A breakthrough for Dylan as a songwriter, becoming an anthem of the era, he never had a hit with it himself – and he became disillusioned with the tune. So much so, he refused to play it at concerts for years afterwards.
Wowing the Folk City crowd with ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’
Introduced by Pete Seeger, the young Bob oozes a casual assurance as he gives New Yorkers a taste of things to come. At West Village venue Folk City, the appreciative audience – including Joan Baez – get to witness the birth of a legend, as Bob delivers this reinterpretation of the traditional song ‘Nine Hundred Miles’. Believe it or not, this elegantly simple but profound track about flying the coop never even made it onto Dylan’s first album.
Entertaining partygoers with ‘When The Ship Comes In’
One of the simplest and yet most effective moments in A Complete Unknown sees Bob sitting down with his guitar at a party, surrounded by the fortunate few, as he regales them with ‘When The Ship Comes In’. First written in August 1963, with lyrics alluding to the expression of freedom, Dylan was reputedly inspired to pen it after a hotel clerk refused to allow him to take a room due to his unkempt appearance.
Debuting ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ at the ’64 Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is hugely significant in A Complete Unknown, helping chart Bob’s musical journey. So it seems apt that Chalamet beautifully unveils one of the singer-songwriter’s most timeless tunes on stage as the crowd goes wild. As Dylan implores us to come gather round, this title track to his third album is an anthem of change that came to symbolise a generation, as the civil rights movement and others re-shaped American society.
Getting political with ‘Masters Of War’ at the Gaslight Café
As the Cuban Missile Crisis has the world on the edge of its seat, famed Greenwich Village coffee house The Gaslight takes centre stage as Chalamet gives a moving rendition of ‘Masters of War’. Released on Dylan’s second album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ in May 1963, this hard-hitting condemnation of the arms industry is the singer-songwriter at his angriest. Lyrics like “While the young people’s blood/Flows out of their bodies” nod to wartime’s senseless loss of life.
In the studio with ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’
With Chalamet now going full Dylan, wearing those iconic Wayfarer shades, he nails this iconic and influential track in the studio. “This is gonna piss some people off” comes the remark from one onlooker. In fact, released in January ’65, this counterculture classic became Dylan’s first Top 40 hit in the United States, later famed for its innovative music video, with Dylan holding up and discarding cue cards with key lyrics from the song.
Bob and Joan duet on ‘Girl From The North Country’ at Monterey
The tumultuous relationship between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez is a key part of A Complete Unknown, with Chalamet joined by the equally brilliant Monica Barbaro. Bob and Joan first take to the stage at the Monterey Folk Festival, singing this poignant song from ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’.
Getting famous with ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’
A complete unknown no more, Chalamet’s Bob is catapulted to wide acclaim and ensuing fame as his poetic songs speak to the nation. As if to signify his rise in the cultural pantheon, we see him sing this classic early Dylan protest song, first premiered at New York’s Carnegie Hall. As he tells us, “I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children”, the themes of suffering, pollution and warfare are writ large.
Hitting the road with ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’
“In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.” Chalamet’s rip-roaring take on Dylan’s to-die-for song accompanies the moment Bob and girlfriend Sylvie jump on his motorcycle and head to the Newport Folk Festival. Like so many Dylan songs, the track has been covered by a multitude of artists – beginning with The Byrds, who popularised it in the same year Dylan included it on his 1965 album ‘Bringing It All Back Home’.
Bob goes electric with ‘Like A Rollin’ Stone’
Dressed in an orange shirt and black leather jacket, Chalamet’s Bob takes to the stage at the ’65 Newport Folk Festival, plugging in his electric guitar and blasting out one of his most famous records, ‘Like A Rollin’ Stone’, much to the chagrin of the attending audience, who start throwing missiles in his direction. The song heralded a significant moment for Dylan, as his next albums, beginning with that year’s ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, veered towards rock.
‘A Complete Unknown’ is out January 17 in UK cinemas. You can listen to the full soundtrack here