A Complete Unknown: A Listening Companion from Smithsonian Folkways
31 videos • 2,937 views • by Smithsonian Folkways A listening companion to 'A Complete Unknown' curated by Elijah Wald, whose book 'Dylan Goes Electric' inspired the film. Wald writes: "From the moment he took an interest in folk music, Bob Dylan was intimately engaged with Folkways Records, and that engagement continued throughout his early years in New York and on to the present day. He learned songs from Folkways LPs, wrote songs based on material he’d heard on Folkways, had friends who recorded for Folkways, and eventually, he and others recorded his own songs for the label. This playlist touches all those bases and, while following Dylan’s journey, gives a sense of the breadth of his influences and the Folkways catalog. Much of the material is from Black tradition, a reminder that before Dylan turned to acoustic folk styles, he was deeply immersed in the rhythm and blues he heard on late-night radio shows, and he first impressed New York audiences and tastemakers as a distinctive young blues artist, a white singer who channeled the spirit of that tradition while reshaping it to fit his own voice and experiences." Read more at https://folkways.si.edu/a-complete-un... 🕶️🎸🃏🎶