Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5

Subject: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 07:03 AM

Columbia have just announced the latest volume in the Dylan Bootleg Series. It's live performances from the 70's Rolling Thunder Revue tour. To be released in November.

Bootleg Series 5

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 11:31 AM

Great. The music was a bit raucous on Rolling Thunder, but had lots of life. That was probably the most memorable tour of all time.

Apparently Bob has been doing some Warren Zevon tunes on his new tour and playing the piano a lot. See Bobdylan.com for news.

- LH

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Big Tim
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 03:18 PM

Thanks guys.

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 03:59 PM

Now if they will only release the entire Renaldo and Clara film on DVD.   I remember watching the 4 hour extravaganza the week it was released and being very impressed. It wasn't a documentary of the tour, but the cameras did document some great performances. It was sort of performance art. The film rambles and the "acting" is very unusual - I wouldn't call it avant-garde - I'm really not sure what to call it. I remember a red rose being carried by various performers throughout the feature. The music was incredible.

And while we are at it, how about a issuing the TV special "Hard Rain". Very bizarre.

Ron

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 10:52 PM

Hard Rain was strange all right, specially the headdresses..but it had some good renditions of songs in it. I have never yet seen Renaldo & Clara, sad to say...

- LH

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 11:52 PM

The film received terrible reviews, but as a Dylan fan I thought it was fun. Great concert footage.   

Dylan apparently had it re-edited to a two hour version, but I'm not sure if that ever received any wide release. I know there are some bootlegs floating around.   Perhaps if this new CD does well we might be seeing something.   I understand a DVD will be included with the new CD set that contains a few scenes from the movie.

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 03:08 AM

I'll probably get this just because I have the other ones. I would be much more interested in an official Gaslight Tapes or other Pre-Columbia stuff. Rick played some amazing "boots" on his show this week. Where can I get that stuff.

I'm a Dylan fan, but some of that seventies stuff was pretty weird. (Isis from Biograph?)

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: alanabit
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 03:26 AM

I thought that Renaldo and Clara sucked on ice. There was a lot of footage of bored, effete people sitting around twittering nonsense about their star signs. The concert footage - which was the potentially interesting part - was butchered by atrocious cutting. There was no comprehensible plot or even theme and the whole sorry exercise was cursed by feeble script/improvisation, crap direction and incoherent editing. It was the most effective evidence I have ever seen to persuade me that musicians should stick to what they are good at. Somehow, whe shortened version was so badly edited that it made even less sense than the long version. How did they do it? At least the long version included a superb (chilling) in concert
performance of "Tangled up in Blue". The whole thing should have been re-edited into a watchable film of Dylan concert footage. I love Bob Dylan, but you have to be a hard core fan to sit through garbage like "Renaldo and Clara" twice. Now, can anyone tell me how I can get to see "the "Hard Rain" TV documentary?
By the way, that tall, blond guitarist who is obviously the band leader onstage is Mick Ronson. I met him in Cologne a few years ago and he was a lovely, charming, unaffected bloke. Sadly, he died of cancer some years ago. He was better known as the guitarist in David Bowie's earlier days and for his brilliant arrangement of "Life on Mars".
Good news about the bootleg series though Steve. Thanks for posting it.

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 09:41 AM

"Sucked on ice"?    I've heard "stink on ice" but that is a new one!

Maybe it was the time in which I viewed it, or maybe it is 20+ years since I saw the film, but I didn't find it that bad.   It had its roots in beat writers that many of the performers were influenced by. It was surely strange, bad acting, long, and poorly edited. Maybe that is the charm of the film. I will still like to see it again.

The Hard Rain TV special (it wasn't really a documentary from what I remember, just concert footage) was put together by a different crew from a different leg of the Rolling Thunder tour. I remember those incredible closeups of Dylan's nose and chin.   TV in the 70's had a thing for extreme closeups and that special is probably the best example of the style. I would love to see it again as well!

Ron

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 10:08 AM

In Toronto you can get virtually all the bootlegs at the book/record store at College just west of Brunswick. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:34 PM

There are sound clips on the Dylan website.

Official Dylan site

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:55 PM

Sorry, I should have tested my Blicky, here it is tested.

Official Dylan site

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:06 AM

Ah, Hard Rain -- brings back memories, the week I finally went off Dylan!!! (He has been desperately trying to scramble back into my good graces ever since).
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Spartacus
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 11:32 AM

I love the fact that Ron used the adjectives "unusual" and "avant garde" to describe the acting in R&C. The acting looked unusual becuase it was horrible. That movie was a great concept, bad follow through. It did "suck on ice".

-Spartacus

Subject: RE: Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 5
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 02:04 PM

Suck on ice - I guess it depends on the composition of the water.   

Can I copyright this term? I might make a mint with the Rangers this season.

If you were looking for mainstream, Academy Award potential acting this was not the place to find it.   If you were looking for avante garde amateuers, this film had it all. Of course the "script", what little there was, was by Sam Shepard. Lots of role-playing and spontaneous bits of improv by "non-actors". It reminded me of a high-school art project.   I still found it fun to watch.   Sure I like a nicely prepared dinner, but every now and then a bag of Cheese Doodles hits the spot.

In my opinion, it did not "suck on ice".

Ron