Portrait of an artist as a young man. Roughly chronological, using archival footage intercut with recent interviews, a story takes shape of Bob Dylan's (b. 1941) coming of age from 1961 to 1966 as a singer, songwriter, performer, and star. He takes from others: singing styles, chord changes, and rare records. He keeps moving: on stage, around New York City and on tour, from Suze Rotolo to Joan Baez and on, from songs of topical witness to songs of raucous independence, from folk to rock. He drops the past. He refuses, usually with humor and charm, to be simplified, classified, categorized, or finalized: always becoming, we see a shapeshifter on a journey with no direction home.

Martin Scorsese never met or discussed the film with Bob Dylan during filming. However he worked extensively with him during the filming of The Last Waltz (1978).

Reporter:
How many people who major in the same musical vineyard in which you toil, how many are protest singers? That is, people who use their music, and use the songs to protest the uh, social state in which we live today, the matter of war, the matter of crime, or whatever it might be.


Bob Dylan:
Um... how many?


Reporter:
Yes. How many?


Bob Dylan:
Uh, I think there's about uh, 136.

[People around him giggle. The reporter doesn't laugh]


Reporter:
You say ABOUT 136, or you mean exactly 136?


Bob Dylan:
Uh, it's either 136 or 142.

Errors in geography: Footage of the San Francisco Bay Bridge is included among footage of New York City illustrating Bob Dylan's arrival there.

Written and Performed by Bob Dylan