“A Complete Unknown” — the movie about the early career of Bob Dylan, which has earned great reviews even from the most I-probably-won’t-be-impressed audiences who remember those days — shines a light on (among many other things) the singer’s on-again, off-again professional and romantic relationships with Joan Baez.
In 2025 the view is important, but removed: some dramatic license has been taken by the screenwriters and filmmakers, then reinterpreted by actors Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro.
But Eric von Schmidt had an up-close-and-personal view of the duo’s intense, rocky dynamics.
He is the Staples High School graduate (and son of famed painter/ illustrator Harold von Schmidt) who followed a stint in the Army with a Fulbright scholarship to study art in Florence.
He was also a musician. In 1957 von Schmidt moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and fell in with the coffeehouse scene. He influenced Tom Rush, then Dylan. According to Wikipedia, he and von Schmidt “traded harmonica licks, drank red wine and played croquet.”
Eric von Schmidt, in his folk days.
Dylan gave von Schmidt a shout-out on his first album, for teaching him “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.”
His own album — “The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt” — appears on the cover of Dylan’s LP “Bringing it All Back Home.”
Eric von Schmidt’s album (red and blue cover) is at the center of the table, just to the left of Bob Dylan’s hands.
The other day, Harvey Brooks posted this on Facebook:
It’s a poster from 1965. Created by (of course) Eric von Schmidt.
For many years, Harvey Brooks lived on Compo Road North — right around the corner from von Schmidt’s Evergreen Avenue home and studio.
Brooks, meanwhile, has his own history with Bob Dylan.
A noted bass guitarist, he was part of Dylan’s backing band on “Highway 61 Revisited” — the rock-infused album that changed Dylan (and music history) forever (and provides one of the key plot points in “A Complete Unknown”).
Other musicians at that session (and portrayed in the film) include guitarist Michael Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper.
Brooks was also part of Dylan’s early group that played at Forest Hills and the Hollywood Bowl in 1965. “Band” members there were Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm.
Harvey Brooks posted this photo, from Forest Hills Stadium on August 28, 1965, on social media. He’s on the left, with Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson.
Eric von Schmidt died in 2007, after tragically losing his larynx to cancer.
(His art lives on. His magnificent “Birth of the Blues” — 7 works, showing the broad scope of American music, including jazz and folk — hangs in the auditorium foyer of Staples High School.)
Harvey Brooks now lives in Israel with his wife, longtime Westporter Bonnie Behar Brooks.
As for Bob Dylan and Joan Baez: Both are still going strong, in their mid-80s.
How does it feel …
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In the movie, when he’s in the village he comes to a movie theater w a poster advertising Now Voyager! I was surprised! It was based on a book my great aunt wrote! There’s a classic cigarettes screen w male actor and Bette Davis. In the 60s when I saw that, I met w Westporter Bette Davis in her kitchen to discuss the movie and my aunt whom she had met!
I presume your great aunt was Olive Higgins Prouty. The “male actor” you mention deserves to be identified. He is Paul Henreid, and the “classic cigarettes screen” you mention is Henreid holding two cigarettes in his lips, lighting up both of them, and giving one to Bette Davis. All this has nothing to do with Dylan and Baez so forgive the tangent on a tangent.
Yes. And I know the actor and the scene. Didn’t want to expand
One more Westport connection here: Staples grad Michael Friedman, who played at school dances with Barry Tashian’s HS band, worked for the legendary manager, Albert Grossman, whose clients included Bob Dylan.
Eric’s mother was an Emergency Room nurse at Norwalk Hospital for many years. I think she moved west – Arizona? It’s been a long time so the memory’s edges are a bit blurred.
. . . to NOT be on your own. It takes a village to create a band.
And there I am, living on Tamarac, and awesome stuff is going on over at Evergreen. I mean, Dylan must have dropped by taking that highway from Cambridge to NYC. And Joan has graced W’s venues.
Saw Joan out here [McMinnimins Outdoor a decade ago] say 7 words to the crowd that responded with “knowing” sounds of support for her.
“Been Ageing so long, it looks like Youth to me.”
Eric was a wonderful person and a very talented musician and artist. I remember attending a party at his house sometime in the 2000’s. Of course the music was great and what a good time we had. I can’t remember if Harvey Brooks was there, but I remember Eric giving a bunch of us a tour of his studio.
The painting he was working on was the women of the blues.
The painting was still unfinished but the women were all painted with their undergarments on. I don’t remember his response about if that was a common process for him. I just thought it fascinating to see how he worked his craft.