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The Official Bob Dylan Thread


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Has anyone posted the trailer for the doc yet? Rolling Stone just put this up:

Bob Dylan’s ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’: See Trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Netflix Doc

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-rolling-thunder-revue-trailer-martin-scorsese-netflix-doc-843743/ 

Looks like it includes new Dylan interviews, which is pretty amazing. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My feelings on the new doc were perfectly summed up by a Variety reviewer:

 

"Scorsese, working with mountains of footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, had crafted a burbling, live-wire, turbulently vital portrait of Bob Dylan in the mid-’70s that felt kaleidoscopic in its authenticity...

 

"...Yet the fact that I was nearly seduced into palming off a blatant fabrication as fact kind of bugged me. I didn’t feel delighted — I felt played. And the fact that I liked the rest of the movie so much didn’t mitigate the irritation; if anything, it only increased it."

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Perhaps that was Dylan and Scorsese intention --- so they succeeded, who knows.

 

I have been watching it on and off this weekend -- still have about a 1/2 hour left. Definitely enjoyable. I didn't realize (more to the point, I forgot) that the van Dorp dude was fiction -- for me it made the whole cockroach quote way more enjoyable, once I remember was fake...

 

Dylan and Scorsese could have went the traditional 'documentary' route ---- creating the fake stuff is a even harder (more expensive) route. More power to 'em. 

 

That whole quote by Dylan about a person wearing a mask is more than likely gonna tell you the truth than one not wearing one is pretty much in the beginning of the movie ---- so of course it throws everything off tilt, because none of the recent interviewees are wearing one. 

 

It is great seeing the footage of Ratso. 

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upon reflection, with the exception of the actual performances, the whole thing is a giant p*ss take. & hilarious! i can just see bob & scorcese giggling like school boys when they were  planning this. the whole kiss thing, sharon stone, lucas tanner for God's sake! most of the performances are stellar. i'm not huge on joan baez but she's fantastic in this. any chance to see mick ronson playing is a treat. bob is just intense when performing. i'll have to watcht this again.

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It's disappointing that for all the narratives they made up, they still included Allen Ginsberg. I mean, you're making stuff up, why not just exclude him entirely? 

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It's disappointing that for all the narratives they made up, they still included Allen Ginsberg. I mean, you're making stuff up, why not just exclude him entirely? 

he was larger than life, didn't need fiction.

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A few things that stand out for me in this very captivating movie - I watched it on the 12th after I got back from Deer Creek:

 

- The live performances. Never have I seen Bob so animated and lively. You can tell he was really getting off on the RTR concept in that first leg, especially. Isis is off the chart with energy, and even a song like One More Cup Of Coffee (which I never considered to be a major work) is stellar. The clip of Joni with Bob & McGuinn doing Coyote (did they say that was shot at Gordon Lightfoot house?) was a treasure.

 

- The sequence with Bob and Joan Baez ("Thought will fuck you up") was intense as hell, and might have been the most revelatory part of the movie for me. Like, "Why didn't we stay together and rule the world?" "Well...because...". It's obvious Joan loves that man so much it hurts in all of her Q/A.

 

- Deadheads: Did you catch the Blues For Allah sticker on Scarlet's violin? That part of the film was late '75, the Dead LP came out in September of the same year. Interesting that the sticker was in place 2-3 months after the LP came out. And MY GOD she seems like she must have been a real firecracker. 

 

- Ginsberg is The Buddah. Bob definitely respected the fuck out of that guy. Even if his scenes in concert were cut he delivers the ending benediction of sorts in the movie, and did so brilliantly, and in a way uniquely his.

 

I would give a 10/10, if not for the "fake news" parts of the movie, so 9.5/10.

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- The sequence with Bob and Joan Baez ("Thought will fuck you up") was intense as hell, and might have been the most revelatory part of the movie for me. Like, "Why didn't we stay together and rule the world?" "Well...because...". It's obvious Joan loves that man so much it hurts in all of her Q/A.

 

- Deadheads: Did you catch the Blues For Allah sticker on Scarlet's violin? That part of the film was late '75, the Dead LP came out in September of the same year. Interesting that the sticker was in place 2-3 months after the LP came out. And MY GOD she seems like she must have been a real firecracker. 

 

I probably would've preferred a straight up concert film, though it was nice seeing Dylan talk, at times off guard, even if it was fabricated. Nice quote toward the beginning about how the tour really didn't mean anything at the time, just a bunch of stuff that happened that they are trying to impose meaning on in retrospect.

 

Thinking that Dylan Baez scene was something improvised for Renaldo and Clara, so not a real commentary on their relationship rather something they were just acting out.

 

Did catch the Blues for Allah sticker, tho it's not clear that Scarlet knows its a Dead reference. Maybe she just liked the sticker? Is the stuff about her being the girlfriend of the Kiss lead singer made up? That doesn't seem too likely, but who knows.

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We watched most of it last night. Oh man, that "Isis" was awesome. I've listened to that version of the song for quite some time now. What a treat to see it performed on film.

The fake stuff I found annoying. I can see Bob just loving it though so...I'll roll with it. At least he is consistent with never giving a straight answer.

Also, I have loved Scarlett ever since I first heard her. That discordant "gypsy" sound of hers....and then to see her interviewed and realize she is a total complete freak....oh man! 

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When the Bootleg Series, Vol. 5 - Bob Dylan Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue was released, a DVD came with it with ISIS and Tangled up in Blue on it --- I don't know if the ISIS performance on the DVD is the same one in the documentary. I watched that DVD a lot when I first got it. A great performance.

 

 

A bonus DVD accompanying the initial release of this album featured two video excerpts from Dylan's 1978 film Renaldo and Clara: a November 21, 1975 performance of "Tangled Up in Blue" (included in audio form on the main album) and a December 4, 1975 performance of "Isis" (which had been included in audio form on the 1985 compilation Biograph). It spent nine weeks on the chart and was certified and awarded a gold record on March 12, 2003 by the RIAA. The album reached number 69 in the U.K.

 

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I bought that LP thinking it would be the Rolling Thunder Revue version. Nope. Pretty much sucks, IMO.

 

Hard Rain was from the 2nd leg of Rolling Thunder (1976).

 

I have not listened to Hard Rain or Real Live in a long while.

 

I never actually owned either - my library system has The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. 1, so I have them on a hard drive

 

I recently bought an old copy Before the Flood on vinyl --- it was the first Dylan CD that I ever bought, though I did have a dubbed copy of Blood on the Tracks that I taped off the radio, prior to the CD purchase

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Anyone opposed to me asking spoiler questions about the Dylan doc?

I heard that Bruce Willis's character is really dead during the whole movie.  :shifty

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Thanks Chez!

Ok, here goes...................spoiler question ahead..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside of the obvious ones like Bob, Joan, Scarlet and Joni, I'm thinking all those other people interviewed were fakes. Agree/disagree?

 

And that got me thinking...how much of the footage was faked as well? Not the concert footage but shots of the outside when people were buying tickets, etc...

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