I recently saw Don’t Look Back at the Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo and felt like I had time traveled to my youth. While a college student at Columbia University, I hung out in Greenwich Village at coffee houses, jazz and folk music clubs, and at bars where Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, was said to hang out. Although the second Dylan eluded me at the White Horse Bar, Bob Dylan didn’t. I am embarrassed to say I once left a club he was playing at during intermission because I thought his voice was terrible.
Now that I have seen the film, I realize not only the incredible influence the 20 years of folk and later folk rock music had on my generation, but also what a strong part it played in various movements: civil rights; ban-the-bomb; Vietnam War protests, Native American and women’s rights. I only wish that music had a similar role to play today.
I strongly urge people to see the film whether you were alive during that era or not. And note the neat symmetry between the beginning and the end.
Judith Bernstein
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Jan 9-19, 2025.