Filling In Between the Rolling and Thundering

By ROB PATTERSON

Bob Dylan continues to make headlines and a media splash 57 years into recording career. And reassert the importance and vitality of music he made 44 years ago. Plus stir controversy on social media and in the news. Not bad for an artist approaching 80 years old.

This last year’s big Dylan moments were the “Rolling Thunder Revue” film and live recording release from the 1975 tour of the same name. What seemed to create the most hubbub was the fictional elements within the Martin Scorsese-helmed film, which viewers naturally assumed was a documentary, though it is titled a “Bob Dylan story.”

I’ll admit it: At first Dylan and Scorsese got me when the film showed the actress Sharon Stone talking about how the tour came to her Massachusetts hometown and how she hopped on the bus with the troupe and came along at 19 years old. I thought, how come I never heard about that? I’d followed the news of Rolling Thunder at the time and read about it afterwards.

Later a talking head identified as Congressman Jack Tanner recounts how he finagled his way into a Niagara Falls show with the help of Jimmy Carter. He seemed familiar to me and I tried to recall him politically, but to no avail.

Also interviewed was the “director” of a Rolling Thunder film, Stefan Van Dorp, which also prompted me think, wait, didn’t Dylan direct the filming of “Renaldo & Clara” during the tour? Who’s this guy? After all, in 1978 I sat through its four original (and somewhat wearing) hours, hence some of the Rolling Thunder concert and offstage footage was already familiar.

When I discovered that I was being pranked by that and two other fictions in the movie, I found it amusing. Sharon Stone isn’t even from Massachusetts. Jack Tanner felt familiar as he is actor Michael Murphy reprising his role from the 1988 mockumentary TV series “Tanner ’88” directed by Robert Altman and written by Gary Trudeau. Stefan Van Dorp does not exist.

I was taken aback by how some people on Facebook and in the media were outraged by these and two other inventions in the movie. Dylan’s been known to spin fictions about himself ever since he first arrived in New York City in 1961 with a rather deep bag of tall tales that he told about his past. To me the anger seemed much ado about nothing.

After all, “Renaldo and Clara” – which goes unmentioned in the Rolling Thunder movie – was full of characters played by the members of the tour troupe that Dylan and playwright Sam Shepard invented to, in a way, tell the story of Dylan’s break-up at the time with his wife Sara. Plus one of my frustrations back in 1978 was how the great live performance footage included – and a lot of it – somehow didn’t capture more attention.

Now it’s the musical performances that shine in “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.” Driven by the dynamic rhythm section of bassist Rob Stoner (who acted as the Rolling Thunder bandleader) and drummer Howie Wyeth, it’s folk-rock with a big accent on the rock. As Rolling Thunder began to coalesce, Dylan made a fierce return to protest music with “Hurricane,” and managed to help its subject, wrongly-convicted murderer and boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, get freed and a new trial, plus land the song in the Top 40.

There’s a potent urgency to even the softer songs in the film. The movie is delightful and even with its pranking still shows how Rolling Thunder came into being and captures the gypsy spirit Dylan was trying to invoke. And coming as it did after his ‘74 tour with The Band, it could be seen as the landmark beginning of his “endless tour” and Dylan’s signal that he would be interpreting and playing his music with what has become myriad ever-changing ways.

Populist Picks:

Film: “Hugo” – Speaking of Martin Scorsese, this 2011 movie about an orphaned boy living in the walls and rafters of a Paris train station is not the director’s usual fare. But it’s a sweetly and touching tale and a visual feast well worth seeing.

Documentary Film: “Woodstock: Three Days That Defined A Generation” – The PBS American Experience doc that debuted during the event’s 50th anniversary back in August is now streaming on Netflix. Having almost made the fest myself – got about five/six miles away on Saturday and turned around and went home – and been part of the counterculture, I can attest: It captures the scene and spirit, thanks to it wisely accentuating the memories of its attendees.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2019

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