Showtime

Who: Bob Dylan performs at Copps Coliseum

When: Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $49.50, $64.50 and $89.50, available at Copps box office, ticketmaster.ca and 905-527-7666.

You walk into the room

With your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked

And you say, "Who is that man?"

You try so hard

But you don't understand

-- Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man, 1965

Bob Dylan has never been the easiest person to get along with from a reporter's point of view.

From his earliest days, Dylan has skewered journalists, picking verbal fights with them, questioning them, mocking them and, worst of all from the media's perspective, just simply ignoring them by refusing to do interviews.

Rock 'n' roll lore has it that it was a reporter who was the much- maligned Mr. Jones in Dylan's Ballad Of A Thin Man who had no idea of what was happening (here).

Dylan has always let his music do his talking, and it will do that at Copps Coliseum Wednesday night when he comes to Hamilton for the third time.

Dylan has been playing mostly keyboard on this tour, and is garnering good reviews with set lists that have covered his career from 1963's Blowin' In The Wind to 2006's The Levee's Gonna Break.

He has also thrown in Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, Girl From The North Country, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Lay Lady Lay, Lonesome Day Blues, Masters Of War, Spirit On The Water, Honest With Me, John Brown, Highway 61 Revisited, Beyond The Horizon, Nettie Moore, Summer Days, Like A Rolling Stone and Thunder On The Mountain.

He apparently hasn't done any interviews on the current tour, which should come as no surprise given his history.

That is not to say Dylan has always been media-shy.

He made a rather amazing appearance in early 1964 on a CBC program titled Quest, singing some of what were to become his most famous songs in a rustic cabin setting with guys in plaid shirts playing cards in the background.

Most of the songs are available in various clips on YouTube.

But other in-depth Dylan media appearances were few and far between for the next 40 years until he sat down with 60 Minutes in 2004.

The most that Dylan has ever revealed about himself on camera was in director Martin Scorsese's 2005 PBS documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. It is available on DVD.

Here are some other places you can catch Dylan.

Don't Look Back, 1967

In 1965, the 23-year-old Dylan was trailed across Great Britain by a film crew headed by documentarian D. A. Pennebaker, and produced one of the great music movies of all time. A swaggering Dylan sings and parties his way through the tour, finding time to joust verbally with reporters and fans.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, 1973

Dylan's stab at big-time movie acting found him playing a secondary character named Alias to James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson as the title characters. It was a critical and box-office bust but gave us Knockin' On Heaven's Door, one of Dylan's most famous songs.

Renaldo And Clara, 1975

Dylan directed and starred in this little-seen film made in 1975 but not released until 1978. The Internet Movie Database reports it was greeted with "condemning reviews and many theatres refused the screenings. The film was cut from its original four-hour length to a two-hour length, and what was left was mostly concert footage."

An extensive look of the film can be found at:

www.litkicks.com/Films/RenaldoAndClara.html.

Hard Rain, 1976

An NBC TV special recorded at a concert in Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour in 1976. Songs include A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall, Blowin' In The Wind, I Pity The Poor Immigrant, Shelter From The Storm, One Too Many Mornings, Mozambique and Idiot Wind.

Hearts Of Fire, 1987

Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand was behind the camera for this tale of a reclusive rock star (Dylan) who loses his girlfriend to a British pop singer, played by then-unknown Rupert Everett. Some scenes were filmed at Sherman Avenue and Barton Street in Hamilton. It didn't make it to many theatres and seems available only on VHS.

Masked And Anonymous, 2003

Dylan and Borat director Larry Charles wrote this story about a singer (a bewigged Dylan) just released from prison who looks to re-establish his career with a TV concert. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson and Val Kilmer.

I'm Not There, 2007

Director Todd Haynes' tribute to Dylan featured famous actors Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Richard Gere, and unknowns Ben Whishaw and African-American Marcus Carl Franklin portraying the musician at different stages of his life. Blanchett's turn as newly minted electric Dylan makes it well worth the price of admission.

dfoley@thespec.com

905-526-3264