Bob Dylan - 1975-1981 Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years
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Actor: Jerry Wexler, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Regina McCrary, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Scarlet RiveraBrand: Music Video Dist
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 240 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Mvd Visual
DVD Reviews of Bob Dylan - 1975-1981 Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years
DVD Review: Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware
Summary: 3 Stars
Whether you give this DVD three or four stars will depend on your view of DVDs like this. I gave it three because to give it four at the start of this review would be misleading, and I also can envision a different version of it that would rate four or even five stars. There are hosts of DVDs and so-called documentaries trying to cash in on the Beatles or any other big name. It's not really all that different than your basic critic's take in the newspaper or on TV or worse-- on a blog site, except that the makers of said docs have to entice your interest in them.
My case in point is the recent big budget one from Martin Scorcese. It annoys me that it was being passed off as some kind of Dylan tribute or almost a public service, when right out of the box it was on PBS, then on DVD, and meant nothing but money from day one. I mention this because that documentary had access to lots of footage (and the interviews annoyingly fade out songs you'd rather be hearing). It stands at opposite extremes then, to this one by Joel Gilbert, who obviously could not license the Dylan songs, so you hear only the briefest snippets, or footage, and thus had to get creative.
But he could have gotten more creative than this. The visuals are basically clip art, and for a long time I've wondered why clip art isn't better. I really wonder that about this clip art. When Bill Dwyer of the Vineyard talks about how the V wasn't about Christianity, but about Jesus, what we get interspersed with Bill's talking head is Sunday School clip art of the churchiest and most artless sort. Watch EWTN for ten minutes and you'll see that some very engaging visuals can be created from merely filming stained glass windows and Renaissance art. That, brother Joel, I wish you'd done. Or look at the dazzling bit of filmmaking that is Ben Stein's film, "Expelled". It shows that documentaries don't have to be boring. I'm with the other reviewer, Joel, cut out the clip art and re-edit this thing and we'd all flip it up a star.
That said, Gilbert is a savvy journalist and die hard fan. Exactly the right combination that the major newshounds could have gotten but which flies under their radar. This is why so many interviews in magazines with rock stars are so lacking in interest-- they don't ask the right questions. Gilbert does, and he asks it of the right people. These parts are priceless, and in that regard this DVD definitely rates a four.
He also clears up a number of mysteries that, again, are too quotidian to interest high-powered journalists. Why, for instance, did Larry Norman tell this writer in an interview for HM Magazine that the Vineyard started in his home, when everything you can read about the Vineyard never mentions it? Dwyer does. He explains that Chuck Gulliksen (sp.) led Bible studies at both Norman's house and that of Chuck Girard of the band Love Song. Then it must have branched out, as Dylan actually attended one at Al Kasha's house. But this is the first place-- book or DVD-- to make that clear.
Also, what I know of Regina, other than her amazing gospel voice on Slow Train and Saved, comes from Paul Williams' book, Dylan, What Happened (Entwhistle Press). How wonderful to actually see her interviewed in person. Good on you, Joel. And Jerry Wexler. Here he tells the secret of that magic, euphoric union of Mark Knopfler and Dylan on songs like "Precious Angel" from Slow Train. Those who stopped listening in the '60s, spin again, and sit back in wonder. Not only that, on the rare, live recording, Dylan and the Dead, it is the Grateful Dead who perform what would be the "Saved" songs, as Dylan, true to form, forgets the words. "Saved", one of Dylan's rockiest CDs, is, to me, a tribute to Black Gospel, and there was a tribute back, as it were, with the CD, "Gotta Serve Somebody", on which gospel artists like Shirley Caesar performed Dylan songs. Dylan said he liked her version of "Gotta Serve Somebody" better than his own, and if you hear it, you'll know why. Dylan's "Saved" broke out of the "most ignored Dylan CD" box when Third Day did it on their "Offerings" CD. When "Saved" was finally rereleased on CD, the hand reaching down gospel style album cover art (shown on this DVD) was replaced with an impressionistic painting of Dylan which was originally inside the CD booklet.
Another reviewer noted that this DVD is very long. Were it on PBS or the History Channel (where a bigger budget version, sans clip art, could easily air), it would break out into about eight half hour shows (with commercials). Also, the Rolling Thunder part and the Gospel Years seem to be two separate, albeit similar documentaries, which would work out to four shows each. Until rececently, the Rolling Thunder Revue tours, which peg a high point for Dylan's creativity and inventiveness, have been the second most underrated and overlooked period of his career. Sam Shephard's Rolling Thunder Logbook and the excellent CD collection, Bootleg Vols. 1-3, have done much to change that. Listening to "Hurricane" on Bootleg, I am time and again amazed, but I'm equally floored by the joyous gospel rock songs that never made it out of the Infidels and Shot of Love sessions (until in the CD version of Shot the outstanding "Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar" made it on as a bonus track. Do I know what that song's about? No, but take it as the Divine Bridegroom from the Book of Revelation waiting for his Bride, and the song is powerful and dazzling).
There is a companion CD to this DVD by Joel's band, Highway 61 which, the blurb notes, "contains no Dylan music". But it still looks like it would be great. And I, for one, am totally against the sort of licensing arrangements that reward Martin Scorcese for his dragging Dylan biopic, and relegate hungry journalists like Joel too using clip art. You could do worse than kick twelve bucks his way. It has a lot more integrity than stealing songs off the Internet.
Description of Bob Dylan - 1975-1981 Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years
Director & Producer Joel Gilbert (Bob Dylan 1966 World Tour The Home Movies, 2003 and Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974Through the Camera of Barry Feinstein, 2005) weaves the story of this monumental period of Dylans life and music through revealing insiderClassic Rock Music CDs
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