I'd guess that over my MOGyear 1, I've posted more about Dylan and Springsteen than about any other artists, which stands to reason. They mean more to me than anyone else, they're more heavily represented in my music (and music-book) library, and I've seen them live more than anyone else.
On Thanksgiving Day, I went down to Film Forum to see Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," and for someone steeped in arcane Dylanology, it's a fascinating experience. They hand you a little explanatory CD-sized pamphlet at the theatre, but I'm thinking it's going to be most revelatory on DVD, when Haynes can add commentary (or footnotes). Hey, I'm pretty Dylan-savvy, and did the whole NYU filmschool thing, so I caught a good share of the allusions (to "Masculin-Feminin," which is quoted almost verbatim, to the rare Dylan song "She's Your Lover Now" in a random snatch of dialog), but I'm sure a lot got past me. Nonetheless, for anyone who loves movies and/or Dylan, it's a must-see. I'm sure you've heard about Cate Blanchett as "Don't Look Back"-era kinda-Dylan: it's an amazing performance.
The next day, my family and I had a belated holiday gathering, and we sat around the Hi-Def hearth watching the newly-released Dylan DVD of his 1963-1965 Newport Folk Festival appearances. In the space of less than 90 minutes, we saw the transformation of Dylan, without benefit of editorializing or faulty memory, just what he did, on stage, in the space of three separate summers. "Historic" doesn't begin to say it.
On a Springsteen note: it was recently announced that Danny Federici wouldn't be making the European leg of the tour to deal with health issues. From all reports, the last show of the first U.S. sprint, Wednesday in Boston, was quite the emotional affair, with Danny taking center stage on a few selections from "The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle. I can't imagine an E Street Band show without Danny on keys and accordion, but the band will go on with a sub from the Seeger Sessions Band.
Danny being one of the longer-serving members of the band, here's a track from early 1975, Bruce & Co. doing Dylan's "I Want You." Get well, Danny.
And here's Dylan doing "Mr, Tambourine Man" at Newport in '64. Think about this: no one in the audience had ever heard the song before, not by Dylan, not by The Byrds, nada. It was the year before "Bringing It All Back Home" and the Byrds' groundbreaking single. What must they have made of this? Did they know they were witnessing a pivotal moment?
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Seeing Dylan sing that moved me. Eons ago I saw a film made of Newport folk performances, it might have been called _Festival_, and it had footage shot only with cameras that were not synchronized with the tape recorders, for budget reasons I guess, but it meant that they had to keep cutting between shots because otherwise the sound would get too far out of synch, but here with Dylan that doesn't seem to be the case. Great post.
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I concur with Spike, That Dylan video is something very special.
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I love Dylan. I watched the TV specials on him this weekend. Cool.
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With songs like Mr Tamborine man (et al) Dylan reached deep into folk music traditions and turned them inside-out and upside down. The long narative tradition is as old as dirt. Even the surrealism had precedent. But the open embrace of escapism, the advocacy of 'forgetting about today until tomorrow' ran completely counter to Folk music's (and Blues as well) themes of sin and redemption. Sin, (remorse), and redemption were the central pillars of folk music. Not dancing beneath diamond skies with one hand waving free. Dylan was dragging the remnants of a dying culture (beatniks, folkies and assorted proto-hippies) into a new awareness. Its no wonder his audience was confused, shifting, drifting off, moving in. He's still at it today.
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Pete Seeger seemed really happy at the end, there. I'm not sure who the other performer sitting at screen left was.