I did not anticipate seeing the new movie about Bob Dylan would open a floodgate of childhood memories, but it did.
A Complete Unknown, starring Timothy Chalamet, explores the first few years of Dylan breaking into the music scene in the early 1960s, a time when I was first being exposed to music myself.
I was born in July 1960 in Alert Bay, B.C. far from New York City where Dylan was playing his music.
By the time I was four, we had moved to my late mom Shawn Lamb's hometown of Nelson, B.C.
My parents were both very musical and often our house hosted Sunday night jam sessions. My dad, Ken Lamb, and his friends had a group called Mrs. Buckley’s Tea Chest, stemming from the stand-up bass they made from an old wooden chest.
Some of the neighbourhood kids called our home the “hippy hothouse” because of some of the musicians that visited or stayed with us.
As kids we played the spoons and sang at the jams and later my siblings all became very musical with some of them writing and performing their own music.
If people were not playing instruments and singing, there was often a record playing on the turntable in the living room.
When I was about nine-years-old I knew of Bob Dylan and even wrote him a fan letter.
I remember enjoying listening to my parents and their friends sing Dylan's songs, so watching Chalamet and Monica Barbaro, who portrays Joan Baez, sing together in the film brought back some warm memories of mom and dad harmonizing together.
We only had one channel on our TV and our watching of it was limited.
Instead, I played outside a lot and when inside I read or listened to music.
I would spend hours learning a song and trying to understand the lyrics. Later when I had a guitar I attempted to play and sing, but was never talented that way.
Even at a young age, I appreciated that Dylan was saying something about the world around him and encouraging us to make a difference.
To this day I am eager to know what message a songwriter wants to share.
In April 1980, I saw Dylan live in Montreal during his gospel phase.
Then in the late 80s when he emerged with the Traveling Wilburys alongside Tom Petty, George Harrison, Jeff Lyne and Roy Orbison, I really enjoyed the collaboration.
Since then I've tuned in every once in a while to see what he's up to.
Seeing A Complete Unknown was a nice reminder of what I loved about music as a child and reaffirmed that it was totally OK to have written that fan letter so long ago.
