Everyone's a critic

Bobby Vee!  That was exactly who I was thinking of when I commented on the bard's vocal ability.  There were an awful lot of Bobbys singing at that time besides Mr. Vee; you had Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin, Bobby Freeman, and a few others.  But Dylan didn't jump on the Bobby bandwagon; he was simply Bob, a slightly more serious name.

I'll trust Uncle Ken's judgement on his musical ability, as my archive of Dylan recordings ends with Blonde on Blonde.  Nothing after that really caught my interest to the extent that I would go out and buy it.  I don't reject the later works; I just prefer the earlier stuff.

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Following Uncle Ken's plug, I watched Inside Llewyn Davis this afternoon.  Another quirky Coen brothers movie, apparently patterned after the career of a singer with whom I am unfamiliar: Dave Van Ronk.  The movie was a little too uneven for me, and they made a big error (to me) when they had the guy from Ft. Dix in his fatigues.  That did not happen in those days; when you left base you were in civilian clothes or Class A uniform.  Never fatigues; the MPs would snatch you up.  I seem to recall a dress code for civilian clothes, too.  No T-shirts (unless they had a pocket), no sandals without socks, and shirts had to have a collar.  I forgot if there was a blue jean policy.  It was goofy, but the rules probably varied from base to base.  I've seen guys turned back at the front gate because they were improperly attired or needed a haircut.  No overnight pass for you!  Perhaps Mr. Beagles has some insights on how things were done in Germany.

Little things like that uniform faux pas can ruin a movie for me because then I start keeping an eye out for what else may be wrong and thus lose the continuity and flow.  It's like seeing an extra in Braveheart wearing a wristwatch.  Damn distracting and I should be more charitable to the filmmakers, but such is the curse of keen eyed observation.

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An odd final note on the Coen brothers' movie is that two of the actors later appeared in the most recent Star Wars movie.  They must have thought that a strange coincidence when they met again on the set.