Bob
Dylan 1975 – 1981: Rolling Thunder And The Gospel Years
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C Program: C+
It was probably April of my junior year in high school
during a free period in which I probably should have been in the library poring
over my physics notes, a class that I was precariously close to failing, that I
first cracked open Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" while lolling
on the hard, sweating steps outside the principal's office. Suffice it to say that I had to make up my
physics class over the summer, but the Kerouac, well, that went straight in my
eyes, rollercoastered through my veins, and embedded itself in my marrow.
I had already been making my way through Brautigan and
Whitman. Bob Dylan was taking up more
and more of my time and attention.
Stacks of his old vinyl records borrowed from the public library had
been sitting next to my stereo for so long that a film of dust, artfully broken
and smeared by my fingerprints, covered the jackets like powdered sugar. But Kerouac, man, he just blew the roof off
my head and irrevocably altered the way I understood art.
I now saw art as vocation, meaning the full on religious
definition of the word. Art was a
personal search for the source of creation.
You can put that in whatever context you choose to, secular or
otherwise. Not to get all-mystical or
anything but when an artist is creating he/she is dipping into, brushing
against, that great swirling source at the center of all things. Kerouac opened my eyes to that. And I found that the musicians I most
respected exemplified this paradigm; namely Bob Dylan and John Coltrane.
Dylan once described the idealized sound of his music as
being "thin, wild mercury music" which is an apt metaphor for Dylan
the artist as well. Ever searching,
always changing. Never look back. From
high school rock'n'roll hellion, to Greenwich Village folkie, to surrealist
garage rocker, to singer-songwriter stateliness, to ghostface carnival barker,
to born again preacher, and everywhere in between Dylan has traveled an endless
road of self-invention and self-examination.
Director Joel Gilbert highlights the oft-overlooked period
of 1975 – 1981 in Bob Dylan: Rolling Thunder And The Gospel Years. Gilbert ambles leisurely, this documentary
runs over four hours so why hurry, from the jailing of boxer Hurricane Ruben
Carter and the two Rolling Thunder tours to the controversial denouement of
Dylan's born again phase when Bob spent most of his concerts preaching to the
audience like Billy Sunday.
This doc is clearly a labor of love. The interviews with Spooner Oldham, Rob
Stoner, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot in particular make watching this a necessity
to any serious Dylan fan as these folks don't often get this much camera time
to recollect and discuss their time spent working with Dylan. Unfortunately, Gilbert has chosen to liven
up the proceedings with awful clip art and goofy sound effects. This gives the film an embarrassingly adolescent
quality, as though Gilbert's twelve-year-old nephew got a hold of the film and
then proceeded to insert a bunch of stupid junk that tickled his funny bone.
It is a huge misstep on Gilbert's part, almost
unforgivable because it belittles the whole project. If you can manage to ignore this glaring feature of the film then
you'll find much of interest.
- Kristofer
Collins
Kristofer Collins is an editor at The New Yinzer and the
owner of Desolation Row CDs in Pittsburgh, PA.
Visit Desolation Row at www.myspace.com/desolationrowcds
for more.
