We Fear Change. We Fear Change. We Fear Change.

I FINALLY watched this DVD. It was a f-cking great gift, and I'm not sure how I let it sit for so long before opening it. Anyway, I watched most of it Wednesday night (all of Disc 1, and all but the last 20 minutes of Disc 2), but had to stop in time for The Daily Show, with Neil Young as guest. So I popped Disc 2 back in last night and skipped ahead to where I had stopped previously.

What a great film! I had heard that people were pissed off when Dylan "went electric". In fact, I briefly mentioned it in a previous post. Seeing (and hearing) the footage from the Newport Festival in '65, and the subsequent tour, particularly the shows in the UK, is AMAZING! Arguably the biggest musical act in the world being reacted to sooooo negatively is shocking to observe.

I don't really have a lot of time to go into more detail. But, I definitely recommend this to any Dylan fan, or anyone remotely interested in music history. As someone who did not live through these times, I found it very enlightening.

PS - I can definitely understand some of the "critiques" of Dylan's ascension to stardom. I could see the "He used Joan Baez" criticism as a possible interpretation. Of course, it could have just been two young people in a relationship that ended. He also recorded "House of the Rising Sun" for his 1st album using Dave Van Ronk's arrangement, which apparently was unique at the time, before Van Ronk himself had a chance to record it. And, were Bob's visits to Woody Guthrie, and early songs, especially "Song to Woody", sincere? I always thought so. I suppose, in context, they could be seen as calculated efforts at self-promotion. But, that's pretty f-cking cynical, isn't it?! Anyway, watch the DVD. It's great!

And, nothing (I mean NOTHING) can take away from the prolific output of ridiculously excellent songs. One of my favorite parts: watching Allen Ginsberg tell the story of hearing "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" for the 1st time and weeping, because he realized that the torch was being passed to a new generation.

Oh, by the way, the "Final Four" Neil album reviews are coming soon...