It’s hard to come across much about Bob Dylan in Korea. He’s not an icon the way the Beatles are, and if you go to a norebang (karaoke) you’ll usually only find the same two Dylan songs available for those hazy 3 a.m. approximations. One, is Like a Rolling Stone. Fair enough. Great, classic song. Tough to sing, although  that hasn’t stopped me from trying  several times.

The other song you’ll find at every Korean norebang is One More Cup of Coffee For the Road (Valley Below) from 1976’s Desire. Definitely one of my least favorite Dylan songs  of any era. The only possible  reason I can come up with for its inclusion  is that  somewhere along the line  it was used in a TV show or commercial in Korea.

I recently  found the  soundtrack to the film I’m Not There, which I had heard of some time ago, but didn’t realize was finally being released in the U.S. Nov. 21. The soundtrack is filled with interpretations of Dylan by a few artists I’ve liked over the years: Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, Willie Nelson, Stephen Malkmus, Cat Power and others.

Typically,  Dylan covers just don’t  stand a chance against the originals unless they’re reworked so dramatically that it becomes intriguing. Even those at their best usually just drive me back to the originals. But there are a handful of songs on the I’m Not There soundtrack that are decent listens.

Still, it  inspired me to get a hold of The Basement Tapes, recorded in 1967 but released in 1975, and hands down some of  my favorite Dylan material.  

For kicks I started researching Dylan in Asia. Dylan still plays nearly 200 shows per year and has been doing so, with the occasional break,  forever.    According to the preeminent Dylan concert resource, Dylanstubs.com, where you can find setlists of virtually every one of his concerts, he played for a few weeks in Japan in 1978, doing two weeks of shows in Tokyo and Osaka before heading to New Zealand.

He wouldn’t return for nearly 20 years, coming to Japan in 1994, this time playing smaller markets like Yokohama, Nagoya, and Hiroshima, as well as stops in Tokyo and Osaka again. Interestingly enough, he then headed south, playing in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Hong Kong before  going back  to the states.

For as long as Dylan has been touring and making music it’s surprising he’s never played in Korea, Taiwan or India. Although, Dylan does do a number of corporate appearances, and those can happen anywhere and  aren’t even necessarily known by the general public. Not surprisingly he’s never played in China, though I wouldn’t count that out later.

Don’t know what to think about the film. Seven people playing Dylan at different points of his life-it’s better than just Heath Ledger as Bob Dylan, I suppose. David Cross as Allen Ginsberg has me curious.

From what little I know of the movie it sounds vaguely like his autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, which I read a few years ago.

In that book Dylan himself doesn’t focus on quintessential Dylan moments, instead going into detail about the recording sessions of two lesser known albums, New Morning (1970) and Oh Mercy (1989), and his arrival in New York City via Minnesota during the early 60s before he  was a household name.

From what I’ve read about the film, and there are some good reviews here and here, I’m Not There takes the same approach, attempting to focus less on Dylan the icon, and more on, well, the Dylan that’s not  Dylan.

The title of the film is from  a song recorded during The Basement Tapes sessions, but never officially released.  Although, there are several bootlegs of those sessions (some which cover some 5 and even 10 CDs) that include the song. This new soundtrack includes it, as preformed by Dylan and The Band, as the  last track.

My guess is that unless this movie becomes  Oscar-bound it will never arrive in Korean theaters. That was the case with  the Ray Charles (who Koreans generally don’t know either) biopic, Ray.

I’m going to include two  from the soundtrack to  I’m Not  There. No, not One More  Cup of Coffee For the Road, which I think  I can safely assume is  being sung at this moment,  in a chorus  of businessmen and prostitutes,  not far from where I write this.  Perhaps  at a  room salon  called Highway 61.  

What I will play is  a mesmerizing version of Just Like a Woman, sung by  Charlotte Gainsbourg, who also acts in the film, and whose father Serge  is  a  personal favorite of mine. The backing band is Calexico,  who are from Tuscon and have  a kind of southwestern folk/country sound that is  far enough away from Dylan’s own country-roots aesthetic, that  emulates him a little, but  doesn’t try to  be Dylan.

[audio:Dylan1.mp3]

Calexico also backs on the second track here,  sung by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, who I think at times sounds jsut a little like Robbie Robertson, who sings with or in place of  Dylan on The Basement Tapes as a member of The Band. This is a version of my favorite song from that album, Goin’ to Acapulco.

[audio:Dylan2.mp3]