I'm not there...

A lost classic rediscovered thanks to Todd Haynes.

"...no i don't belong to her
i don't belong to everybody
she's my prize forsaken angel
but she don't care she cries
she's a lone-hearted mystic and she can't carry on

...i was born to love her
but she knows that the kingdom waits so high above her
and i run but i race..."

From Sight & Sound Vol 18 No 1 (Jan 2008):

Q: The film is named after a lesser-known Dylan song from the 'Basement Tapes' sessions. It sums up your take on Dylan, but it seems perverse to start with a song most people won't know.

Todd Haynes: It's from the original 'Basement Tapes' recordings with the Band in 1967 but it was never released as part of the Robbie Robertson-produced album that came out in 1977. There were a few packages of discovery I encountered when I got back into Dylan in 2000, and all the strange and mysterious drunken songs from those recording sessions was one of them... That collection of stuff I'd never heard as a teenager was part of the first blush of obsession that came back at that time.

I discovered 'I'm Not There' probably by reading about it before I even heard it. So when we finally approached Dylan that summer I already had a one-sheet. What resulted in the meeting with his manager Jeff Rosen and his son Jesse was a one-sheet description of what there would be, which was entitled 'I'm Not There: Propositions on a Film Concerning Dylan' and contained a one-line take on each of the essential characters.

How often we read about Dylan first before hearing him.

Counterpoint and reversals. Counterpoint to I'm Not There: Someday Baby ("why was I born to love you?') from Modern Times (2006).

And go back to Simple Twist of Fate (Blood on The Tracks, 1975) and compare it with Born in Time (Under the Red Sky, 1990 or the version found in Tell Tale Signs, 2008).

Hope springs eternal.