Dylan Goes Knockin' on Oscar's Door
news.lycos.com
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Could there be an Oscar blowin' in
the wind for Bob Dylan?
The legendary singer-songwriter who revolutionized pop music
in the 1960s and is still touring the world, was nominated on
Tuesday in the best original song category for his "Things
Have Changed," from the soundtrack of "Wonder Boys."
For Dylan, who turns 60 in May, the times certainly are
a-changin.' The poet with the gravelly voice whose songs
became anthems of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam
war protests now confesses that he no longer much cares.
Looking back over four decades of American life, Dylan sings,
"I used to care, but things have changed."
"Things have Changed" both opens and closes "Wonder Boys"
and is Dylan's first new work expressly for a movie in 13 years
and his first ever Oscar nomination. Director Curtis Hanson,
who has idolized Dylan since his youth, said the song perfectly
captured the main themes of the film.
"The film is about people struggling to figure out how they
should be leading their lives. It's about renewal, sense of
purpose and human connections," Hanson told Daily Variety
last month.
"In some ways, Dylan is the quintessential wonder boy. He has
dealt with public expectations, fear and keeping himself
creatively vital," Hanson said.
The other nominees are British pop singer Sting and David
Hartley for "My Funny Friend and Me" from the Disney
animated movie "The Emperor's New Groove," Randy Newman
for "A Fool in Love" from the comedy "Meet the Parents," "I've
Seen It All" from "Dancer in the Dark" with music by Icelandic
pop singer Bjork, and "A Love Before Time" from "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Dylan has already picked up a Golden Globe for the song --
one of three new songs on the "Wonder Boys" soundtrack --
and he appeared in an unfamiliar tuxedo, his unruly hair curling
around his collar, at a glittering Beverly Hills award ceremony in
January.
If the song's success has put Dylan in the limelight again it is
not so much a comeback as a continuation of a life's musical
journey that has taken him from folk singer through blues,
rock, gospel and reggae on themes ranging from love and
Christianity to war and growing old.
Although Dylan has hardly been gracing the covers of today's
celebrity magazines, the reclusive darling of the sixties
embarked in 1988 on the so-called "Never Ending Tour."
Apparently oblivious or heedless of critics and changing
musical fashions, he has been playing more than 100 shows a
year before audiences small and large around the world and he
has not finished yet.
In 1998 he won three Grammy awards for his album "Time Out
of Mind" -- a meditation on aging and death that was hailed as
one of his best ever.
Now the man considered the most influential musician of his
time but who has never had a No.1 single on the Billboard
charts, is knockin' on Hollywood's door for its highest honor. |
