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This DVD is a wonderful glimpse of the backstage/offstage happenings
during the 1966 and '74 Dylan world tours with The Band
as his supporting band. The majority of the DVD is interviews
between Joel Gilbert and various people that have Dylan
connections, but mainly with Barry Feinstein, the official
tour photographer for both world tours. In the spirit of the DVD,
we have decided that the only way to reasonably review this release
is an interview of our own.
REVIEWER 1: The first thing I noticed is the completely
extraneous footage of director/terrible interviewer Joel Gilbert
loading his gear out of his car at LAX… That's just ridiculous,
and very silly. In fact, this whole beginning is quite absurd,
and tons of baseless claims are being made.
REVIEWER 2: This guy's awkward attempt at building suspense
and speculating about what he may or may not find in Woodstock
completely defeats the purpose. It really makes you not care and
just want him to get on with the meat of the interviews. The fact
that he asks an old hippy if he's seen any old hippies around,
gives some indication of his aimless and thoughtless style. And
he's wearing a shirt that is far too cool for him to carry off.
REVIEWER 1: Do you think it's really necessary for him
to be asking Barry all of these questions - repeatedly- about
the cameras that he uses? And the whole exploration of Feinstein's
memorabilia is so lacking of real emotion or character. These
photos of Dylan in England from the first tour are very cool,
and the stories really make a difference in the viewing.
REVIEWER 2: His questions about technical equipment lay
the groundwork for the inane questions about film stock. Feinstein
is interesting, and it's a shame that he wasn't asked more intelligent
questions.
REVIEWER 1: This guy's delivery of questions is more flat
than a William Shatner recitation. How would you feel about
being asked so many questions in this deadpan, emotionless, random
style?
REVIEWER 2: Like you are asking right now? I feel a little
dirty, used. How can you justify doing a documentary of Bob
Dylan without using any Bob Dylan music?
REVIEWER 1: Not only does that bother me, but the fact
that there are only about three different sections of music used
over and over in loops throughout the entire DVD. That really
bugs me. I mean, if I'm the leader of a Dylan cover band and I've
recorded a bunch of it, why would I only let the world hear 3
sections over and over? Because obviously, my catalog is quite
extensive.
REVIEWER 2: What bothers me more is that the music only
plays when the photos are being shown and stops during the interviews.
The editing is very disjointed.
REVIEWER 1: Well, I guess anyone with a Mac can make movies
now… just like they can make music at home with their Garage
Band software. Even perpetrate a Dylan cover band from their
living rooms. I do love these little interviews with people like
café owners who I always feel are going to jump out of
their chairs and throttle this guy for his tone of voice. The
interview with D.A. Pennebaker kind of feels like that.
Obviously this guy is still busy enough that he doesn't have time
for a hack journalist to waste too much of his time.
REVIEWER 2: Do you get the feeling that the interview
subjects are humoring him?
REVIEWER 1: I get the feeling that you and I are humoring him
- watching this and listening to the sound, when I would probably
be more interested if he was just basically showing us a slideshow
of some of Feinstein's photographs. I mean, I think that some
of the stories that the people tell are really insightful and
interesting, but the editing and lack of interest from Gilbert
kind of shuts down the great stories. Are you siding with the
skeptics on the story about the motorcycle accident? I mean, you've
ridden motorcycles, do you believe Dylan could have crashed?
REVIEWER 2: It's an interesting debate in an apocryphal
way… But I sure wish the director had crashed in his re-enactment.
What do you think about his insight when says things like, "Well,
I guess Bob survived…"
REVIEWER 1: I think this guy is a huge Dylan fan and he
wanted to dig up some cool stuff about Dylan… But someone
should have let him know that he is a terrible interviewer and
he has absolutely no charisma in front of the camera. I mean,
when you're talking with someone about something or someone and
suddenly you ask about some other person or object, it creates
a complete non-sequitor. It's this whole style of choppy editing.
This seems to me to be a really expensive fan film project, but
it does bring to light some really cool photographs and stories.
REVIEWER 2: The fact that this guy seems lost shouldn't
make us think that when he's at home, he's not just as lost. Convincing
stoned hippies that he's Bob Dylan and signing autographs is almost
as sad as showing up uninvited at Dylan's old houses. Do you think
he thought about calling ahead?
REVIEWER 1: I can't see how he didn't think about it,
since he somehow got appointments to talk with all these people
who actually have something to do with Dylan. It's interesting
to think about Dylan's homes, and Big Pink, but I mean, to see
some guy finding the places and driving around and telling us
about it is somewhat ridiculous. This bit with A.J. Weberman
is very entertaining. This guy is still very nuts, and he seems
to go back and forth between being sorry for harassing Dylan all
those years, and wanting to continue to do those types of things.
And his Al Gore style claims to being the first person
to use a computer to make a concordance of Dylan's songs. I mean,
can we take anything more away from this interview than entertainment?
REVIEWER 2: Well, Gilbert sets out to confront Dylan's
archenemy, and Weberman basically confesses to everything and
more than Gilbert was even going for… Thereby stealing his
thunder. He also adds life to this film what the director could
not. Of the two nuts sitting here talking about Dylan, I think
I prefer Weberman.
REVIEWER 1: His stories are definitely the most animated
and interesting. But again with the Gore-ian claims to be the
first private citizen "garbologist". Weberman does add
quite a bit of entertainment and provides a brief respite from
the doldrums of the rest of the interviews. And he was the first
one to discover backwards masking on records, too. I mean, where
would the rock world be without this guy? Al Aronowitz's
confession that he was basically behind the Beatles' first using
marijuana is very funny. Again, the stories are simply amazing,
and mostly very fun to listen to.
REVIEWER 2: The glimpses that Gilbert gives us into the
world of Dylan are voyeuristic through the eyes of an obsessed
fan.
REVIEWER 1: That's my point exactly. If we could just
watch the pictures that Feinstein took, and see some cool stuff
we've never seen before, that would be good. And these photographs
are simply amazing. The interviews are fun, and some stories are
going to be forever stuck in my head, but mostly, the joy is in
the pictures. I mean, seeing Robbie Robertson and Garth
Hudson in these photos is as much fun as seeing Dylan. I think
that this was a very important era in the history of rock music,
and this DVD is a great way to get a little bit of an insider's
view.
REVIEWER 2: Feinstein once asked Dylan why he didn't do
interviews, to which he replied, "No one asks the right
questions." I couldn't have put it better.
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