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A Short History of Joan Baez Calling Bob Dylan on His Bullshit
A Complete Unknown, to its credit, shows us that Baez has always been able to pierce the smoke and mirrors of Dylan’s lore-building.
After failing to hail a cab, she’s drawn into the Gaslight Cafe by a familiar voice — it’s Dylan, of course, rising to the moment by performing “Masters of War.” He finishes the anti-war dirge, grunts something about finding someone to love in troubled times, and passionately makes out with Baez on his way out the door, cheating on his girlfriend in the process. The worst version of Complete Unknown would have included much more of that kind of schlock — with Timmy-as-Bob proceeding to Forrest Gump his way through the early ’60s, an audience of slack-jawed onlookers occasionally asking “who wrote this song?! Speaking in his phony, placeless accent, Dylan claims he worked in a traveling carnival as a kid and learned to play some “funny chords” from a nomadic cowboy named “Wigglefoot.” Clearly used to people indulging his beatnik self-mythologizing, he looks briefly stunned at Baez’s response: “You’re full of shit.”
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