Scorcese doc and more unreleased Dylan on the way

[Rspaight]

Dylan Gets Spotlight in Upcoming PBS Series

Wed Jan 19, 2005 06:37 PM ET
By Chris Morris

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The more Bob Dylan reveals, the more he conceals.

Lately, the singer-songwriter has been much in the public eye. His memoir "Chronicles Vol. 1" has been perched on the New York Times bestseller list for 14 weeks. Late last year he sat for an infrequent TV interview, with Ed Bradley on "60 Minutes."

Despite that current high profile, Dylan remains a cryptic figure. Though it's a delightful read, "Chronicles" often obfuscates about the facts, and he was as gnomic as ever in his CBS sit-down.

Now Martin Scorsese is taking on the Dylan mythos. The director's three-hour feature "No Direction Home" will premiere on PBS's "American Masters" series in two parts on July 13-14.

"It's nonfiction -- maybe," Scorsese said candidly at a Television Critics Assn. session at the Universal Hilton on Saturday. "With Bob Dylan, you never know."

The film will focus on the five years from Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 to the July 1966 motorcycle crash that sidelined him. During that time, the protean musician underwent a hurtling artistic metamorphosis -- from Woody Guthrie acolyte to protest-song icon, from impressionist folk poet to surrealist rock dandy.

"You're constantly in a state of becoming," Dylan says in a clip drawn from 10 hours of fresh interview footage shot by Dylan's aide de camp Jeff Rosen, who takes a co-producer credit on the project. (Scorsese said he has not conducted any interviews himself, though it's still a possibility.) The feature will also offer testimony from such familiars as onetime paramours Suze Rotolo and Joan Baez, musicians Dave Van Ronk and Pete Seeger and poet Allen Ginsburg.

"American Masters" executive producer Susan Lacy said the show pursued Dylan for 10 years. Judging from the five-minute reel screened for critics, the payoff for that quest should be breathtaking.

"No Direction Home" will tap a glittering lode of hitherto unseen footage. The promo reel included what may be the earliest film of Dylan, taken in 1962 by John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers on his New York rooftop. The film will unearth performances from the '63 and '64 Newport Folk Festivals, and outtakes from D.A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" and "Eat the Document," shot respectively on Dylan's '65 and '66 tours of England. Even some Dylan home movies will be aired.

The most unexpected clip unspooled for the writers shows Dylan -- on stage in Manchester, England, on May 17, 1966, during his confrontational first electric tour -- reacting as outraged folkie Keith Butler yells "Judas!" from the audience. It's a legendary moment in rock history, and now we can see it.

In conjunction with the PBS airing, Columbia Legacy will issue a two-CD set of unreleased Dylan music. Paramount Home Video will release a DVD, with additional footage, in late summer or early fall.

It remains to be seen if Scorsese -- who filmed a balky Dylan for his 1978 documentary on the Band, "The Last Waltz" -- can capture the essence of this guarded, endlessly morphing musician. As the director noted, "He's constantly trying not to be pinned down ... Tomorrow, he may be something else."

[lukpac]

The film will unearth performances from the '63 and '64 Newport Folk Festivals

How about '65? Which, contrary to popular belief, was NOT a sea of booing fans (they only seem to get restless after he left after only 3 songs).

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[CitizenDan]

The film will unearth performances from the '63 and '64 Newport Folk Festivals

How about '65? Which, contrary to popular belief, was NOT a sea of booing fans (they only seem to get restless after he left after only 3 songs).

That's true when it comes to his Newport set. But at the Forest Hills show later that summer, he is booed fiercely.

[lukpac]

That's true when it comes to his Newport set. But at the Forest Hills show later that summer, he is booed fiercely.

I've only heard the Newport set. It's just there are a LOT of myths surrounding that one, and the aural evidence doesn't support them.

[CitizenDan]

Yeah, people get confused by all the B.S. stories about how he was booed off the stage at Newport. The one about Pete Seeger trying to take a hatchet to the power cords is probably hooey as well.

The crowd was thrilled to see Dylan that day, and as you say, only raised a fuss over the brevity of the set (three electric songs followed by an encore of two acoustic numbers).

[MK]

Luke's right. The boot's available through trading circles like dylantree.com, and I think Clinton Heylin also disputed the 'booing' in his books on Dylan.

[lukpac]

I don't remember Heylin mentioning that in Bootleg, but I could be wrong.

Interesting note...I have two copies of the set. One is stereo and doesn't contain Mr. Tambourine Man. The other is mono and contains the whole set. The interesting part is that not only is the stereo edited, but there's fake crowd noise dubbed in around the songs, which also eliminates all of the between song pauses and banter. I'd have to assume it was slated for an official release of some sort at one point.

[CitizenDan]

I also have the stereo edition of the show, and that is some bogus-ass applause, all right. Too bad, because the music sounds sensational.

[Patrick M]

...I think Clinton Heylin also disputed the 'booing' in his books on Dylan.