Forgotten Bob Dylan Film Projects from 1966: From the Archives

By Steven Rosen
Denver Post, 10-17-98

(When I first wrote this story, the angle was that the newly released Bob Dylan Live 1966: The 'Royal Albert Hall' Concert album might prompt some of this long-unreleased film footage to get out there. It didn't, but maybe now the new Basement Tapes packages will prompt the same thing -- even if the Basement Tapes period is a little later, it's still Dylan in the 60s and demand is great. -- SR)

   It's 1966 all over again in the world of pop music - and the

Denver International Film Festival, which just concluded, was in

the center of it.

   That's because the record "Bob Dylan Live 1966: The ‘Royal

Albert Hall' Concert'' was just released this week - some 32

years after the performance.

   It was instantly hailed as one of rock's great live

recordings. And the publicity surrounding the long-delayed

release has interested old and young music lovers in the story

of how folk singer Dylan switched to amplified rock 'n' roll in

1965 and 1966. He changed pop culture forever.

   Actually taped at the Manchester, England, Free Trade Hall on

May 17, 1966, the new album reveals Dylan and his band playing

majestically loud in response to hecklers who wanted to hear him

solo, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and harmonica. In

July, after the European tour was over, Dylan was seriously

injured in a New York motorcycle accident and for many years

retreated from touring.

   The story of "Dylan goes electric'' has become contemporary

myth on the order of Arthur finding Excalibur and becoming king.

Now, after all these years during which bootleg tapes circulated

among collectors, a wide audience can hear a concert recording

from that time.

   But few people know there are still two never-released films

of Dylan's 1966 European tour, where he and his band members -

including Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard

Manuel of the Hawks - played blistering rock 'n' roll to a

sometimes-resistant audience. (Dylan opened shows with an

acoustic set.)

   But two people who do know about the movies were at this

year's Denver film festival - directors D.A. Pennebaker and

Harry Rasky. Both were involved, to varying degrees, in trying

to make a movie of the tour.

   "It is rather strange,'' Pennebaker said. "You go for a

long period of time and there's not much interest in it and you

think, ‘Well, it's not as great as I thought it was.' And then

suddenly something starts it back up.''

   Pennebaker is one of the pioneers of cinema-verite

documentaries. He was in Denver with his wife and filmmaking

partner of some 20 years, Chris Hegedus, to show their latest

work, "Moon Over Broadway.'' They also received the festival's

John Cassavetes Award.

   In 1965, Pennebaker filmed Dylan's solo tour of England,

which occurred just before the musician's shift to rock. That

movie became the now-classic "Don't Look Back.'' Dylan called

him in early 1966 to help film his upcoming European concerts.

Dylan had contracted with ABC to produce a television special

about his tour.

   "We had a meeting in Los Angeles and Bob said, ‘You got your

movie and now I want you to help me make mine.' And I said

‘sure,''' Pennebaker said.

   Dylan's plan, apparently, was to create a film that was both

structurally and emotionally confrontational and radical - just

like his music of the period. (A spokesman at Dylan's record

company said he was unavailable for comment.) But ABC had other

ideas, and hired Harry Rasky to be the director.

   Rasky, who now produces documentaries for the Canadian

Broadcasting Corp., was in Denver to show his new "Christopher

Plummer: King of Players.'' He recalled his Dylan '66 experience as

"one of the great traumas of my life.'' He had just completed a

program on Fidel Castro's Cuba, including a rare Che Guevara

interview, when ABC called him.

   "It seemed to me they chose me as a free-minded guy,'' Rasky

said. "But the minute Dylan found out I had been asked by ABC

to do the film, he thought I was the voice of authority.

   "He said, ‘OK, you can make the film but I won't listen to

direction.' I thought I could ingratiate myself to him. So we

all went to London and stayed at the Mayfair Hotel. Dylan said,

‘We're going to do things my way.'''

   After a week, Dylan's manager paid him a full salary to

leave. But he did have one unusual experience - attending a

private late-night screening of "Don't Look Back'' with Dylan

and the Beatles. When it was over, he said, he discovered the

Beatles asleep.

   Once the tour began and filming started, Pennebaker recalled,

Dylan intentionally tried to keep people around him on edge.

   "He was getting a big pot boiling, with everybody kind of at

odds and uncertain and confused and even a little ... (annoyed)

and then film that condition in various ways,'' Pennebaker said.

  "It's a way for people who aren't filmmakers but are

consummate dramatists in one way or another to create a kind of

scene for a film,'' he said. "They're not writing; writing

scenes is an art in itself. So Bob just simply said, ‘I'll get a

lot of people together and we'll see what happens.'''

   Pennebaker, who, along with Howard Alk, was filming selected

concert dates, doesn't recall crowd response because he was

watching the musicians. "The music was wonderful,'' he said.

"They were some of the best concerts I ever shot. It was

wondrous. And I was taken up with how to film them.''

   In particular, he wanted to get close - right on stage, if

necessary - to film the musicians. "Dylan and Robbie (guitarist

Robertson) really were into it, and cut themselves off from

everything else, as if they weren't even aware there was an

audience there. It was an amazing thing to watch.

   "Always up to that point, when Dylan would go out acoustic,

he was completely aware of the audience - he dominated that

audience,'' he said. "He almost dared them to make a noise or

get out of line. And in this case, it was as if he didn't ...

(care) what they were doing or thinking. And in order to get

that, I began to think we couldn't film that with long lenses.

   "I had to get out on stage, put a wide angle lens on the

camera and get into it, myself. That was a big decision. It

meant the first time Dylan came out on stage and I was standing

there with a camera, he almost flipped. He laughed because he

hadn't expected it, but it made it possible to get the kind of

performance we couldn't otherwise get.''

   In June, after the tour concluded, Pennebaker said, Dylan's

management found itself with no movie and facing an ABC

deadline. So at management's request, Pennebaker edited his

footage into a 45-50 minute "rough sketch'' called "You Know

Something Is Happening.'' (The title comes from a phrase in a

Dylan song.)

   "It would be like a continuation of ‘Don't Look Back,'''

Pennebaker said.  "‘Don't Look Back 2' - what happened when the

electricity was turned on.''

   But Dylan didn't like it and, with Alk, used different tour

footage to construct his own anti-documentary called ""Eat the

Document.'' ABC rejected it, and both movies have been more or

less forgotten.

   But with the release of the new record, there has also been a

revival of interest in "Eat the Document.'' The Museum of

Television & Radio branches in New York and Los Angeles are holding

special screenings of the film. There are no plans, however, to

make "Something Is Happening'' available.

   Rasky meanwhile said he still regrets not having the chance

to help Dylan make the kind of film he wanted - one that

explores a highly regarded, singer-songwriter's personality and

relationship to his audience while also featuring music.

   "But I made it up a few years later by making that film with

Leonard Cohen – ‘The Song of Leonard Cohen,''' he said.

   That, too, has remained virtually unseen seen since its

Canadian TV broadcast.

   Steven Rosen's e-mail address is srosenone@aol.com.