Description
Few performances in history are as legendary or as controversial as Bob Dylan s 1965 appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. In a single, galvanizing instant, Dylan plugged an entire generation in, forever changing not only the way the music was made, but the way it was heard. By putting you in…
drkhimxz –
I never saw or heard Bob Dylan before this documentary. What was I doing in the sixties when this film was made and Dylan was becoming a star: I was busy working to earn a living. Do/did I understand what this audience was feeling about themselves and the world: No, I was years over thirty and had already performed my military service in an earlier war than that which the young men in these audiences were so terrified over the possibility of being drafted to serve in. Does that mean I did not enjoy this documentary: not at all; while the sentiments expressed by Dylan and the folk singing tradition were both quite familiar to one who was a child in the thirties and a college student in the forties, Lerner, who is of the same vintage as I, was able to surmount time and place, by an admirable job of filming and editing, letting the performances speak for themselves.dI would certainly recommend the film for those too young or too old to have shared the experience, as well as those who can relive a part of their youth here.
William E Donoghue –
I never saw or heard Bob Dylan before this documentary. What was I doing in the sixties when this film was made and Dylan was becoming a star: I was busy working to earn a living. Do/did I understand what this audience was feeling about themselves and the world: No, I was years over thirty and had already performed my military service in an earlier war than that which the young men in these audiences were so terrified over the possibility of being drafted to serve in. Does that mean I did not enjoy this documentary: not at all; while the sentiments expressed by Dylan and the folk singing tradition were both quite familiar to one who was a child in the thirties and a college student in the forties, Lerner, who is of the same vintage as I, was able to surmount time and place, by an admirable job of filming and editing, letting the performances speak for themselves.dI would certainly recommend the film for those too young or too old to have shared the experience, as well as those who can relive a part of their youth here.
Kathryn –
I’ve had an audio bootleg of the 1965 set for years but to see Bob Dylan with Mike Bloomfield from The Butterfield Blues Band at his early peak, the rhythm section from Howlin’ Wolf’s band, bassist Jerome Arnold (Billy Boy Arnold’s brother) and the amazing Sam Lay (ever hear his double shuffle? the drums he played are at the Experience Music Project archives in Seattle WA — I saw them) and organists Barry Goldberg and Al Kooper is amazing. Only The Band could meet that high standard later that year when they joined Dylan at the Hollywood Bowl. Who ever thought that this footage existed? The hint was when some of it showed up when Festival and No Direction Home was released this past year. That still begs the question of the film of the English tour that next Fall which showed up only in clips in No Direction Home. The two World Tour releases are not the official films; Murray Lerner must have those. Apparently he shot the Fall 1965 electic/acoustic tour while D. A. Pennebaker shot the Don’t Look Back Spring 1965 tour if I am right. The logical thing, now, is to release that footage with The Band minus Levon Helm plus Micky Waller on drums. Did someone film the Carnegie Hall Concert? Anyway, it’s classic music that changed the world.