John Jacob Niles was just disturbing. But now I know who Tiny Tim's influences were.

To me, the only really enjoyable part of the Dylan film was the beginning--up through the Village scene stuff. Other than that, it just seemed like a "poor Dylan" sort of piece. Poor Dylan, the journalists were so stupid. Poor Dylan, the folk purists were so savage. Poor Dylan, everyone was putting all this baggage upon his countenance. Yeah, tell it to the wall.

Like I said elsewhere, I don't know that Dylan is or was a genius. A few days after watching the film and talking with a bunch of my daughter's friends who watched with us, I'm not even convinced he will be remembered as a great songwriter. As they pointed out to me, it isn't like there is a mad rush by subsequent generations of musicians to cover Dylan's stuff. He was very much a man of a certain time and place. His music appealed to the children of the liberal and intellectual elite, which meant that he has been more or less canonized by the rock press (which was controlled by children of the liberal and intellectual elite). He was very popular among that group of Americans and Europeans, but not so much beyond those groups. Which means his music hasn't had the universal appeal that some other musicians of his era had (mainly the Beatles). Dylan was definitely a phenomenon amongst white liberal kids, though. And now has even become a legend in his own mind.