Summer Concert Series: The Big TNT Show (1966)

This semi-sequel to The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), is a great follow up and an excellent concert film.

The musical selection in this movie is as good as it gets. Artists including Ray Charles, Petula Clark, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddly, Joan Baez, The Ronettes, Roger Miller, The Byrds, Donovan and Ike and Tina Turner. Any movie that features a live performance of Ray Charles performing Georgia on My Mind (no matter how many singers sing this song, Ray's version will always be the best) is definitely worth recommending. All the artists are at the top of their gang here. After country music being completely left out of The T.A.M.I. Show it is a joy to see Roger Miller here and his unique style of country music as well as his quirky sense of humor. His performance of London Swings features the best use of background dancers in either of these films. The Ronettes give a high energy and fantastically choregraphed performance that is corny as all get out but so much fun. Joan Baez's voice as always is beautiful as ever, especially on her first two song, which are in the folk tradition that she upheld so well. Unfortunately You've Lost That Loving Feeling doesn't seem to fit her all that well. Ike and Tina Turner are so energetic and tons of fun to listen to. Donovan's performances of slower, sad songs don't quite fit in with the film's mostly high energy fast paced acts, but he is still fantastic here. Before this movie I was really only familiar with Donovan for the Bob Dylan movie, Don't Look Back (1967) and I have to say, I am very impressed. Bo Diddly is here much too brief of a time, but gives a fantastic performance. The Byrds are also at the top of their game here and show just why they were so important to folk-rock.

The biggest fault of this movie was simply the fact that the teenage girls in the audience scream a lot, like all 93 minutes. It is very annoying at first but to be honest, you get used to it pretty dang quickly. This film luckily does away with the awful comedy of Jan and Dean and the use of Go-Go dancers is minimized. Though to be fair, the climax of this film is an all Go-Go dancer spectacular. Personally part of me wanted to see Go-Go dancers behind Donovan, just for how little that would fit.

Like The T.A.M.I. Show if you like 1960's music this movie is a must watch.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Summer Concert Series: Don't Look Back (1967)

Few films have changed documentary film-making more than Don't Look Back. There was absolutely nothing like this movie before.This was not a rock and roll musical like the Elvis films or The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. Nor was this a straight forward documentary. Nor was this a concert film. This was something completely new and startling. Something nobody excepted but that inspired many generations of filmmakers yet to come. Others have tried to recapture the magic of this movie but no one has ever succeeded. Even today this film feels just as fresh as it must have in 1967.


 Director D.A. Pennebaker was a one of a kind filmmaker and in many ways this is his masterpiece. This film had none of the polish that one would see in a Hollywood film. This is often a rather cheaply shot and looks it. However this is what makes the movie so powerful. It makes it feel more intimate and real. Any Hollywood polish would only have the effect of diluting the intimacy and rawness of this this movie. This film is not great in spite of it lacking this Hollywood polish, but rather because of this and this would be one of its largest influences on future documentary filmmakers who would make similarly raw and unpolished films.

This is a very intimate film that shows Bob Dylan in a completely honest light. It never holds back on some of the more off-putting parts of Bob's personalty at the time. When given interviews he is cold and distant to the people asking him questions refusing to give one of them a straight answer. This is a well known facet about Dylan, that he never truly lets anyone into his confidence outside of his music. He never cares to discuss any deeper meanings to his songs, instead wanting the music to speak for itself. Still I do feel sorry for some of the poor reporters who simply are trying to do their jobs. Despite this much of his kidding of these reporters is actually very witty and funny. At times one has a feeling that much of this kidding wasn't meant to be malicious but rather Bob just trying to have a little fun with what had become monotonous to him. Still Bob's basically berating of a Times magazine reporter does take on a surprisingly vicious tone and is more than a little difficult to watch because though I often agree with much of what Bob is saying, I also feel very sorry for the poor man and know that I would truly hate to be in his place. However I am grateful that this documentary does not simply supply us with an idolized or Hollywood-like version of Dylan.

My favorite scenes feature a very different intimacy with Bob and these are the moments he spends either in his hotel room or car with his friends. I especially love the moments they spend sharing songs with one another. I love that he spends time in his hotel room simply playing and sharing songs with his friends. His brief covers of Hank Williams songs are a special delight for me being a fan of both singers' music. I was surprised when I first saw this film at how perfectly Bob's voice fits these classic songs. I also love Donovan and Bob's little song contest (Donovan with To Sing For You and Bob with It's All Over Now Baby Blue). I also love the little joking conversations the group has ("give the anarchist a cigarette") and their reactions to various news stories about them. These moments give you a look at Bob Dylan that can not be seen anywhere but this film, making this incredibly valuable to my fellow Dylan fans.

Joan Beaz almost has a too brief presence in this film. Yet she delights completely with her lovely singing and natural charm in front of the camera.
 

Don't Look Back is about Bob Dylan's last tour as an acoustic singer (in 1965). However the film opens up with one of Bob's first real rock and roll songs, Subterranean Homesick Blues. This opening sequence predates the music video, but certainly looks ahead to it. This is the famous scene in which Bob holds up cue-cards that contain lyrics as well as some jokes (humor has always been an important part of Dylan). Director D.A. Pennebaker shot this scene multiple times in different locations. Listening to this and comparing it to the performances of The Times They Are A Changin' and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, it becomes all the more obvious why a song like this truly shocked Dylan fans when it first came out. One has to wonder if him considering this new change in musical styles was why he told a Times reporter that he wasn't a folk singer in this film.

This is a must watch for any Dylan fans and for anyone who wants to watch cinema history as it was being made.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Summer Concert Series: 65 Revisited (2006)

I am sure many of my readers are very familiar with the excellent Bob Dylan documentary directed by D.A. Pennebaker, Don't Look Back (1965). Well more was filmed for that great movie than was used in the final film. Much more. Because of Pennebaker released a whole feature film, mostly made of unused footage from Don't Look Back four decades later. If you want to see this film, it does appear as a bonus feature on the Don't Look Back Criterion DVDs and Blu-rays.

The major difference between 65 Revisited and Don't Look Back is that in this film the focus is more on the music. With Don't Look Back Pennebaker explained that he did not want to make a film about Bob Dylan as a musician but rather as who the poet was behind his poetry. Because of this in that film, clips of Bob performing songs were used but rarely whole songs. 65 Revisited lets the songs play from beginning to end, including some we just got clips of in Don't Look Back. These performances show Bob at his best. Not only are the songs he is performing, some of his best songs of the era, but he performs they with such joy. He just looks so comfortable (something rare to see Bob being on camera) on the stage and is putting his full heart and soul into these songs. In Don't Look Back Bob stated that people went to his shows for entertainment not because they were great art. This concert footage could be the perfect argument for that. While the songs he is performing are great works of art, these performances show that he is as great of an entertainer as he is an artist. Dylan fans like myself will eat this footage up as it is truly indispensable. Not all the music is concert footage though. There is plenty of great footage of Bob and Joan Beaz singing songs together for themselves between shows. These songs are just pure fun.

The non-music footage is equally indispensable. Bob gets one of his best wisecracks in this film as he tells a reporter that asks him "Where do you see yourself in the future," "Sleeping." I also love his interactions with some young fans. I especially love some young girls chasing the train Bob is in waving to him. These scenes seem like the opposite of the Bob Dylan we see in Festival (1967), who hides from the crowds. It is just as nice to see this side of Bob.

It is hard to believe a movie comprised of outtakes from another movie could possible be this good. However this is not only a great companion piece to Don't Look Back, but a fantastic film in its own right, that can be considered a work of cinematic art on its own terms.

-Michael J. Ruhland    

Summer Concert Series: Festival (1967)

A very thought provoking folk music documentary with great music. This film shows footage of the 1963 and 1966 Newport Folk Festival.

If you have a similar taste in music to me, you will know as soon as you see the opening credits that this movie is going to be a pure musical treat. Performers in this film include Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Peter Paul and Mary, Buffy Sainte Marie, Michael Bloomfield,  Mississippi John Hurt and Paul Butterfield. If I had one complaint about the music it would be that we only see and hear Johnny Cash perform a brief snippet of I Walk the Line and other than that he is largely absent from the film. However there is no other complaint about the music in this film, it is near perfect as music can be. One of the highlights of the film is Bob Dylan's incredible performance of Mr. Tambourine Man. Though many with more traditionally great voices than Bob Dylan have performed this song no one sings it quite like Bob. This is a mysterious and magically unexplainable song and Bob's rough voice just heightens this quality perfectly. We also are treated to one of Bob Dylan's earliest pure rock and roll performances. At a festival that was all about folk music, Bob performers the radical Maggie's Farm. This is not only a rock and roll song but a proud and defiant announcement that Dylan was leaving the folk scene for rock and roll. The performance of this song is pretty darn hard rocking for its time and one can only imagine how the audience at this festival felt hearing this from some one who was know as one of the top folk singers of his day. Though this performance has found its way onto various rock and roll documentaries, it is still incredible every time I see it. Though Bob had abounded political protest songs at this time and all of his performances here have no political overtones at all, Peter, Paul and Mary perform some of Bob's past protest songs including The Times They Are A Changing and Blowing in the Wind. Peter, Paul and Mary seem to be favorites of director Murray Lerner, as we get a lot of songs from them. Luckily they sound extremely good here. Joan Baez is certainly also in top form here as her voice has never sounded better and her song choices are perfect. Paul Butterfield and Mississippi John Hurt show us what the blues are all about in their magnificent performances, while Michael Bloomfield gives us a new style of white blues-rock. All this shows that the blues can never be defined or understood they are just a part of the people who play the music.

This movie also brings up some very thought-provoking moments. It discusses how while folk music is a genre of music for and by the people, how the iconography of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez contradicts that. This movie discusses whether this iconography is good or bad from various positions. There are some audience members, who feel that the worship of them takes away from the relatability and realness of their music. Despite that many other audience members go insane when Bob takes the stage and hound Joan for her autograph. It is interesting to the contrasting ways the two deal with this bigger than life status. Joan finds it sweet and healthy (although she feels a bath wouldn't hurt some of those kids), and she jokes while signing autographs that the only affect this has on her is "a bloated ego." Bob on the other hand is obviously uncomfortable with this. He rushes to his car and hides from the people. I get the feeling this isn't out of rudeness, but rather that the situation and the crowds make him so uncomfortable that like a scared little child he rushes to safety. Then again I have social anxiety so maybe I am imparting who I am on to who Bob Dylan is. Another thought provoking part of the movie comes from Son House discussing the blues and how he feels this new rocking electric type blues goes against what the music is all about. Masterful editing (editors on this film include Alan Heim, Michael Marantz and Gordon Quinn) and great direction intercut this with blues-rock musician Michael Bloomfield talking about his type of blues music to create an intelligent and thought provoking debate between two great musicians. This movie also calls into question the counter-culture movement and whether these college kids truly understood what they were talking about. Unlike on the previous issues this film seems to give a distinct answer to that question. A middle-age man states that he approves of the young people questioning his generation, because it shows they are thinking. Joan Baez says that she believes the kids know what the singers and songwriters are talking about. Pete Seager has the best comment on this stating that this festival is where "Everyone gathers together to be a non-conformist."

Unfortunately this incredible film did not and still doesn't receive the attention it deserves. One reason sometimes given for this is that the justifiably famous D.A. Pennybaker documentary about Bob Dylan (also featuring Joan Baez) was released a month before this film. Hopefully more people will discover the excellent movie this is and enjoy it as much as I did.

-Michael J. Ruhland