Scorsese's movie about Dylan

I can totally imagine Lou Reed boasting of his sweep picking prowess but refusing to demonstrate it for anyone because it's a flashy cliche or whatever.

I've finally watched this and liked it a lot although I can't stand Dylan's "rock" live performances from that era (the accoustics ones are good) !
So many great moments : Dylan driving the tour bus himself, Baez amazing dance, their awkward conversation about their mariages, the rehearsals, Joni Mitchell's "Coyote" with Dylan on backing guitar....
I think the only things I didn't like were some "fake" parts and even that is not really a problem (well, the S. Stone part could have been reduced to just the initial t-shirt story... the rest might be the most cringey aspect of the movie)...

wtf is sweep picking btw?

Playing fast changing arpeggios, more or less. You see it it jazz and country more than rock, but the shredder guys all do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLn5g5qIb2k

https://www.loudersound.com/features/mick-ronson-s-greatest-moments

M. Ronson's shredding was great. Also lol Bob not talking to him during the tour !

And the concert at the old folks community center is so wtf from everybody's point of view...

There’s some funny comments about all this from Ian Hunter in that link.

Bob probably didn't talk to him because he couldn't understand his accent.

All in all, I think that might be the most interesting, entertaining and funniest Dylan doc/movie (although I loved the Pennebacker ones for other reasons).
I mean just the McGuinn/Dylan duo at the end is amazing crazy !

I've heard lots of stories of people hanging around or with Bob on tour and otherwise and never talking to him, from Steve Earle to Pete Townshend. Even the people who work with him. There's that great story of Charlie McCoy working on a session in NY or whatever and then getting introduced to Dylan and Dylan basically asking him on the spot to record something. Dylan drops him right into Desolation Row, which iirc McCoy had never heard and which he only took one run at, and that was that, at least for then.

lol love Petrucci got in this thread

but to be clear, sweep picking isn't just fast playing arpeggios, it's playing the up and down the fretboard picking all down strokes, then all up strokes back down allows for more efficient shredding than doing alternate picking

also if it wasn't the fake art film Bette Midlers husband who filmed the original footage, who did?

Howard Alk and co. one assumes

Howard Alk was the main filmmaker/collaborator with Dylan. They also put together Eat The Document. Alk is sort of a shadowy figure in the Dylan saga — committed suicide in the early 80s I think?

Never heard of him except in this context, so yeah, shadowy.

Leaving him out of the new film feels meaningful — he and Sara Dylan were major parts of the rolling thunder revue but they’re both nowhere to be found here.

hmmm

that's kind of fucked up because honesty the more I think about this, I think that for me 75% of what makes this great is that footage

the new Dylan and Joan interviews were great but the fakery stuff didn't do much for me

that footage of Dylan and Joan at a bar kind of wistfully talking about why they didn't end up together was really affecting

Dylan driving the tour bus himself

I had a chuckle at that. Breaker breaker, good buddy.

Another great quick bit was the group singing "Love Potion No. 9". Joni really got into it.

They should have done the Tijuana Brass version.

Dylan driving bus was amusing. Missing Sara was kind of disturbing, I guess.

And maybe a way to be left alone on the road... but I'm not sure there's another example of a big star driving his/her own tour bus !

I wonder what his handle was.

Do you really think he drove the bus that often, aside from that clip?

Jack Frost drove it the other times iirc

Well I suppose he didn't drive it THE WHOLE tour but there are at least a couple or more moments in the filmm where you can see him driving.

that's kind of fucked up because honesty the more I think about this, I think that for me 75% of what makes this great is that footage
i might be wrong, but alk's absence might be more of a covert tribute — from what I gather, he was as responsible for eat the document and renaldo and clara's overall aesthetic/vision as Dylan ... so I get the feeling he might approve of the weird subterfuge of the new doc.

the new Dylan and Joan interviews were great but the fakery stuff didn't do much for me

that footage of Dylan and Joan at a bar kind of wistfully talking about why they didn't end up together was really affecting

I thought that conversation between Dylan and Joan was contrived to the point that maybe it was scripted for Renaldo and Clara except she refers to him as Bob. Regardless, the entire movie is fake in the sense that the purposes for which the footage was filmed all those years ago is not the same purposes to which it is put now. It’s one of the most Bob things Bob has ever done.

Yeah, immediately after watching couldn’t remember whether that convo was or was supposed to be new footage or old footage.

it felt very strange for them, esp Bob, to be talking that intimately on camera about their relationship so i still am not sure if it was legit

it was affecting nonetheless

That’s what I love about this so much: just like Bob, it’s mostly fake yet 100% true.

“And him that tells a bigger tale would have to tell a lie.”

I had seen some headlines about fake stuff in this, but I didn't know the extent of it going in. In fact I still don't. I will admit that I didn't catch on to the film director guy until after it was over. Who knows to what extent that Dylan/Baez convo was scripted, although it seemed spontaneous to me, and no question there is something emotionally real going on there.

I think some people are annoyed because, weirdly and despite him always seemingly actively working against it, for a lot of people Dylan is seen as Mr Auteur Genius Singer Songwriter - Mr Authentic who is writing true things about truth - the guy who influenced a million boys to badly busk Blowing In the Wind to make them seem poetic. and thats obviously in direct contrast to fake pop posers - who couldn't possibly express truth. that notion of authenticity was totally alien to music fans before the 50s - nobody gave a fuck who wrote a song or whether it really reflected that persons "truth" - the PR / self-creation of "Dylan" was totally a spearhead for the creation of that aura - and I enjoy the fact that he's always recognised it and questioned it. I forget which book i read on this but it tied that trend to the transition from disposable 7" singles to the (more profitable) album "as artistic statement".... I guess Its important for journalists/think piece writers to play into that narrative because it brings validity to writing about pop songs and can let some of them feel better about making a living doing clickbait top 10s and recaps. If a guy like Dylan suddenly says "lol fuck that this is all a bunch of lies" its no wonder some of them get pissed off.

feel free to rearrange that stream of consciousness into something that makes sense though?

Freewheelin' jamiesummerz

https://external-preview.redd.it/eck3BUOhERZnWiO5HUWWJIjoFGB8zX0qtoLLoeQ9Y_0.jpg?auto=webp&s=75762613954c9158f46c8ba534a1dde96454f457

The revue was a cool idea with great performances and I wish he would have continued with it.

Lollin throughout though whenever Ronson appears

Still wistfully imagining the picking in the parallel universe revue of Ronno and Reed on say, “Satellite of Love.”

I can totally hear how Dylan singing Satellite of Love would go

Ha, I was just hearing that in my head as well.

The revue was a cool idea with great performances and I wish he would have continued with it.

He kind of went for something similar during his wandering the wilderness years, right? When he was touring with the Dead and later Tom Petty? Kind of hitching his wagon to someone else's scene, taking the pressure off for a while (fittingly, when he was probably least deserving of attention, too).

pretty tough to imagine Lou fitting in with the Revue, even with Ronson on board ... though maybe a country-fried "Vicious," "Sweet Jane" or "Waiting for the Man" would work.

xp:
There are these little pauses in the vocal that fit his phrasing:
Satellite’s gone... way up to MARS!

Feel like if Lou was there it would only be fair to invite Nico as well.

pretty tough to imagine Lou fitting in with the Revue, even with Ronson on board ... though maybe a country-fried "Vicious," "Sweet Jane" or "Waiting for the Man" would work.

but de-SPIIITE of all the am-pu-TAAA-tions

xp:
There are these little pauses in the vocal that fit his phrasing:
Satellite’s gone... way up to MARS!

Nope

but maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCjAIWg36c

Gerald Malanga and Joan Baez could do... some sort of dance.