AllenLowe

might there not be problems ever releasing the Boris Rose stuff, as it was basically bootleg material?

there's a lot of bitterness - Spoelstra felt that way, Van Ronk a bit too; and Dylan treated Phil Ochs like shit -

"He has never described himself as anything but an entertainer who was lucky to be working. His iconic status was thrust upon him by those who wanted to see a serious message in everything he did." I disagree with this - from his first days in NYC Dylan strove to create an iconic mythology for himself, to creat an image of ultra-cool/bohemian/counterculture/bard. This was a very conscious decision, and he used and than discarded people as necessary yto reach his goal. He was a great artist but not a nice guy, rather was manipulative and turned his back, after fame, on many of the people who had helped him out initially.

I agree with these preceding criticisms, but will add that there is so much good coverage here, so much good footage and interview material that this is an invaluable historical document (and also a lot of fun) - also, having Scorcese as director probably opened up a lot of doors in terms of permissions for use of footage -

yeah, well, when it comes to journalists, some things never change - from Howard Reich to Dan Rather -

I guess I see it differently - I find his responses kind of intellectually leaden, unclever and not particulary pithy - just insider references meant to assure the hip that he is one of them and vice-versa -

maybe it's just me, Jim, but this all gets a bit technical for an industry whose best sounding recordings were 3+ microphone analog setups in the 1950s and 1960s - don't meant to sound like a Luddite, but I still turn back to those sounds and basic techniques- -

1) I have, in the past, read numerous references to this mother, whom I know he was in touch with over the years; don't recall about his father, but will have to consult the Howard Sounes bio, which is very good. 2)National Lampoon did a Zimmerman comics years ago, a hilarious send off of Dylan's life; don't know if anybody remembers it - 3)As for Dylan's persona in those films: yes, maybe the interviewers were clueless idiots, but I've always found the Dylan persona of that era to be quite narcissistic/repulsive; he was a complete a-hole, arrogant in a way which detracts from more than a little bit of the music - I was struck during the documentary with how sloppy and lazy a lot of his writing is on songs like Desolation Row - forced rhymes, pseuo-symbolist references, things clearly dashed off by someone who was writing too much, too fast in those days; in my forthocming rock and roll history (self plug) I make the point that I think it's somewhat ironic that, for all our consideration of Dylan the poet, his greatest contribution seems to be musical, in his formulation of the group folk/rock sound, his very smart melodicism and, surprise surprise, in his vocal time and phrasing, whic are absolutely masterful in the 1960s - the arrogance of his lyrics really hurts longs like "Like a Rolling Stone" POsitively Fourth Street" Don't Think Twice", reducing them to personal revenge and re-dress instead of musical poetry. Just my opinion -

well, that is true, and that's Dylan, whose careerism was quite ruthless in his early years, using and discarding people as necessary - middle-class Jewish family probably just did not fit the image -

actually, my favorite performance, and I would love to see the whole thing, was the Gene Vincent -

just to add, so far, only annoyance was the doc's failure to id Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee as performing in the film of Woody Guthrie -

isn't Knudsen deceased? and Chris, do you have any idea what it is Fred Cohen might have had?

yes, excellent, not least because Bobby was so forthcoming - I've always found his past interviews to be like interviews with Cecil Taylor- too hip, too arrogant and extremely annoying - as though they are putting on the world and only they are hip enough to be in on the joke - I loved this documentary, however -

I was at the Jazz Record Center in NYC about 15 years ago, and Fred Cohen pointed to a bunch of recordings he had (I think they were tapes) and told me they were unissued Jerry Newman recordings - don't know whatever happened to them -

nice guy, too - I saw his name in some notes to a Bird collection and called him up when I lived in New Haven -

you might argue that it's Kenny G, when he plays tenor - there's probably more young kids around who think they can make big bucks, thanks to Kenny's success -

I think it just means they're both tall - and shop at the Large Men's Store -

similar intervals, last part VERY close - somebody shoulda sued someboday - of course. this is typical TV - Odd Couple Theme sounds just like Bag's Groove - and Inspector Gadger theme is a direct ripoff of Topsy -

anybody ever notice how much the Get Smart theme sounds like "Walkin'" ?

well, we're all really disciples of Bird, IMHO - and let's not forget that Jesus was Bar Mitzvah'd, and word has it that the band was pretty good (though they did bring in a DJ later on in the party) - as for musicians who played with Bird, there's a guy named Frank Brief, played on the Bird with Strings - still alive up in New Haven, Connecticut -

I would skip the Mehldau - good piano payer, but one who must be punished for his bad amd torturous prose -

youmustbe: tell us about the book -

Barry Harris played with Bird one night at a club in Detroit (it may have been the Rouge; Barry told me about it 25 years ago so my memory is sketchy) - also, thanks, Ron, for confirming that repressed memory - now on to other psychiatric flashbacks -

well, I hear Brigham Young did a mean scat - unfortunately he died before the invention of recording technology - though I heard rumor of a bootleg cassette -

12 CDs? Oy veh -