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Don't Look Back

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Speaking of Bob, I linked the classic Pennebaker documentary, Don't Look Back, which covered his 1965 tour of England.  Personally, I liked the Rolling Thunder Revue (1975) better, which was chronicled by Sam Shepard.  It was a great line-up that included Ramblin' Jack Elliot, T-Bone Burnett, Dave Mansfield and of course Joan Baez. There was also a great documentary done by Martin Scorsese on Dylan, entitled No Direction Home, which placed Dylan in context with the early 60s folk movement, with some wonderful interviews and historic footage.   Like him or not, Bob Dylan is an American icon and probably did more to popularize folk music than anyone other than Pete Seeger, who of course was a huge influence on Bob Dylan.



Here's Pete and Bob at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

Comments

  1. James FergusonSeptember 5, 2010 at 11:14 AM

    Great reviews for the Sean Wilentz book. I'm game if this is where readers would rather go than New Orleans.

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonSeptember 6, 2010 at 10:25 AM

    I ordered Bob Dylan in America and Sublette's book on New Orleans, The Year Before the Flood, so I can go either way. Any consensus here?

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsSeptember 6, 2010 at 6:52 PM

    Since I'm here with all my folk music friends from the 1960s, I'll also order the book on Dylan.

    (Sorry I missed you here, Bo. Didn't think to let you know I'd be so far north.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. robertwhelanSeptember 7, 2010 at 2:49 AM

    My post here got lost.I wanted to post in a different site as I started a new book today. I'll order DYLAN soon

    ReplyDelete
  5. NYT PerduSeptember 8, 2010 at 4:17 AM

    In addition to "No Direction Home" Scorsese directed "The Last Waltz" about The Band (incl. Dylan at times), one of my favorite music movies (and a fave Scorsese, though I'm missing big chunks of his work).

    ReplyDelete
  6. James FergusonSeptember 8, 2010 at 8:48 AM

    Not so long ago, he produced a pretty good PBS series on The Blues as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. TripplerSeptember 9, 2010 at 5:16 PM

    Is this the Blues series you referred to:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W4zlYem67w

    I watched only a small portion but will eventually watch the rest of it.

    While most folks had a higher regard for Motown, I was a far bigger fan of Stax music. It was much more bluesy while Motown was more commercially oriented. That is not to say it was bad in any way. Only that Stax was more authentic. To this day I enjoy that music far more.

    Here in Minnesota the famous (or perhaps I should say 'infamous') movie ''The Blues Brothers'' was extremely popular. That tour-de-force movie featured many Stax stars and music.

    ReplyDelete
  8. James FergusonSeptember 9, 2010 at 5:25 PM

    No, Scorsese explored the roots of Blues going back to the early days with contemporary links to musicians like Ali Farka Toure, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. He invited such directors as Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders and Charles Burnett to direct the episodes.

    But, the Stax story looks great too. Have to check it out.

    ReplyDelete

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