Search - Bob Dylan: Phenomenon on DVD

More defects than positives and ONE long track

Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 06/28/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Similar in style to the "Johnny Cash - Music in Review" DVD coming out the same day, this UK produced "overview" of Dylan's career uses interviews and excerpts of performances to cover his whole career in less than an hour.

While the Cash DVD - see my separate review - contains some rare footage from non-US TV shows - there is less on this DVD.

The positives - rarely seen footage of Dylan performing on WBC-TV on a local folk show in 1963, a CBC show from the 60s and great interview segments from a BBC radio show hosted by folksinger Cynthia Gooding. (But only excerpts of these).


The negatives -The MAJOR defect is that the DVD is not "indexed" and is one long hour-long track so you can't go back to find your place without fast forwarding through it. The copyright notices for each excerpt of performance are prominently shows at the top of the screen that I'm sure will annoy many viewers.

The other footage include comes from Woodstock '94 (MTV), Murray Lerner's "Festival" film of Newport Folk Festival, D.A. Pennebaker's doc "Don't Look Back" and Dylan's own "Eat The Document".. All these are from faded prints and - though in color - there is almost no tint to them.

The "interviews" are only with music critics and one broadcaster. All British and all who place Dylan on a level just below God. None offer any negative criticism so it's not balanced, and a few of these men have huge egos.

It seems that many British companies are doing "critical reviews" of Dylan and this one is no better than the others. If they wanted this to be special they should have included full performances from the WBC-TV show and the CBC show as bonus features. (There is only a photo gallery of faded images here.).



Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"


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