The Bob Dylan song choices Timothée Chalamet picked for his “Saturday Night Live” musical appearance were… well, completely unknown to most of the viewing audience. The actor’s dip into more obscure choices delighted many Dylanologists who tuned in, even as his picks defied expectations that he would recreate songs he performed as Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” which turned out to be the furthest thing from his mind.
In his opening monolog as host, Chalamet signaled that viewers would be surprised by the choices during his musical segment. “You might not know the Bob Dylan songs I’m performing, but they’re my personal favorites,” he told the audience. “I’m so grateful ‘Saturday Night Live’ is still doing weird stuff like this 50 years in. They’re either really nice for letting me do this or incredibly mean and this is all a big prank.”
It was quickly apparent that Chalamet intended to perform in his own voice — and have some irreverent fun with it — when he launched into two songs back to back for his first musical spot in the show, wearing sunglasses and a winter coat with a hood over his head.
For that first appearance, Chalamet sang a brisk, fun and bold medley of “Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels,” two numbers that are well-known to serious Dylan fans but have never appeared on any greatest-hits album. “Outlaw Blues” does at least date back to the period depicted in the movie, having appeared on the 1965 “Bringing It Back Home” album.
He sat down and settled down the medley transitioned into his second choice, “Three Angels.” That number would be for inclusion if James Mangold ever makes a sequel — it’s from 1970’s “New Morning” album, when Dylan was moving into a mellower mode after the explosive mid-’60s period depicted in the movie.
And then… Dylan/Chalamet goes acoustic! Chalamet took a more subdued approach when he came back later in the show, picking an acoustic guitar, to sing a third Dylan selection… still avoiding affecting Dylan’s vocal mannerisms, and still sticking with the vert deep catalog. He closed out the night by performing “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” a song that Dylan first sang live and demo-ed in 1962 but didn’t release in any form until the 1970s, although many other artists covered it in the ’60s.
Ironically, Chalamet has now sung “Outlaw Blues” live one more time than Dylan ever did. Although it was a track on one of Dylan’s most popular albums, he has never sung it in concert. “Outlaw Blues” did appear in his setlist, just once, in 2007, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium — but only because Jack White was sitting in, and he took the lead vocal. (White has performed the tune a number of other times, solo or with the White Stripes.)
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time” has an even more complicated history. The song became a kind of folk standard in the 1960s by way of being covered by other artists, but Dylan never released a live version till the 1970s and never issued a studio version till the 1990s. His 1963 live version of “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” first officially appeared on 1971’s “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II,” albeit as a sort of bonus, since it’d never been previously released, much less become a hit for him. His studio version, recorded in 1962, was bootlegged over the years but not officially released until a 2010 “Bootleg Series” demos collection. (Among the artists who released a version of “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” years before Dylan ever did were Elvis Presley, who cut the song for his 1966 “Spinout” album, and Judy Collins, Ian & Sylvia and the Kingston Trio.)
Chalamet was clearly having a good time as he usurped expectations with the performance, the first appearance in particular feeling like a chance to cut loose and celebrate the Oscar nomination he picked up for best actor this week, one of eight nominations the film garnered.
In his monolog, Chalamet added to the canon of Dylan lore by saying that Dylan and Willy Wonka actually had a lot in common — “both eccentric, both innovators, and they both captured and enslaved hundreds of Oompa Loompas.”
Seemingly more seriously, he claimed he was the first actor to host the show to double as a musical guest — then immediately admitted he was lying, noting that Gary Busey had been the first to do so back in 1979, on the show’s fourth season. (The “Buddy Holly Story” star performed with Rick Danko of the Band and Paul Butterfield on his hosting episode, although he did only one out of two songs included in that show.)
Altogether there have been nearly 50 hosts who have done double-duty. Recent examples include Ariana Grande and Charli XCX, and the tradition stretches back to include Paul Simon, Lily Tomlin, Desi Arnaz, Kris Kristofferson, Art Garfunkel, Olivia Newton-John, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Frank Zappa as well as more contemporary multi-hyphenates like Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Donald Glover, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Bad Bunny.