Bob Dylan Archives Week in Tulsa (September 21-24)

This week, the folks at University of Tulsa are rolling out the red carpet for the first of their Bob Dylan Archives installations. The main event is a film festival with an appearance by D. A. Pennebaker on hand to talk about Don't Look Back.

Here's the link with more information: Film Schedule and Ticketing Information - Bob Dylan Archives »

Highlights for me will be the exhibit of the first items of the collection and a screening of previously unseen Bob Dylan performances on film.

I'll be there tomorrow night, I hope in time to catch the free screening of Festival, but will be in attendance at Friday and Saturday's events. If anybody else reading this thread will also be there, check in with me and let me know. Perhaps we could meet up.

I will do my best to report from the event with any interesting information or visuals I come across. I'll be posting images from my Instagram account, nowthishappens, in case anyone would like to check in there, though I doubt I'll have anything Bob-worthy until Friday.

 

Just posted this on the other thread -- 30 min. podcast -- pretty interesting:
Tulsa's Newly Arrived Bob Dylan Archive Will Soon Host a Dylan on Film Festival »

 

Here's an article and video of item's arriving and being unpacked at the archive.

New Items For Dylan Archive Arrive In Tulsa

 

Ain't that something?

 

It's amazing to me that the items were kept at all. And they're in pretty good shape, too.

 

Where can I get credentials to become a "scholar"? Do they issue them to SHF members? I need to hear all those digitized studio tapes.

 

I just got back from the first showing and exhibition. I have tickets to all the events. It was awesome to see NDH and the artifacts but I'm most looking forward to Saturday night's showing of never seen concert footage from the archives.

 

Did you notice if the 10th anniversary version of NDH had additional footage?

 

I really don't think it did. I've seen the film numerous times and really could swear that it was the same film frame by frame. I could be wrong.

 

Nice score! Please report back anything and everything...

 

I was under the impression that all of this is available for public viewing and consumption, but has to be done on-site

 

Thanks!

 

The Dylan archive might be moved to its own building in the near future:

Lord of the Files »

A building next to a river.

A river that can rise and flood and soak everything.

 

Not much to report from last night, other than a full house attended a screening of Don't Look Back and, at least for me, it was an amazing way to see the film on the big screen. I'd never seen it that way before. The Circle Cinema has a nice enough sound system for the room, and I was able to see and hear every nuance of the film. It felt like seeing it for the first time.

D.A. Pennebaker was there for a Q+A afterwards, conducted by Michael Chaiken who is the archivist taking care of this collection. "Penny", as he was called all night, mainly took questions from the audience. He's getting up there in age, and he never formed a good enough relationship with his microphone that he was consistently audible, but the 45 minutes he talked with the audience was certainly not wasted! He spoke with great eloquence about his work on Don't Look Back, and also his philosophy as a documentary filmmaker. I recorded it so I'll share some of the best passages somewhere down the line.

I did speak with someone familiar with the state of the archives and he said that he's shocked at the high quality of care being taken with these materials. According to him, someone who is familiar with the ways in which collections like these are warehoused in other places, University of Tulsa is pulling out all the stops to make sure these items are cared for to the utmost.

I'm headed back down there in a few minutes to continue the screenings, which include No Direction Home, the Scorcese documentary; '65 Revisited, a cut of Don't Look Back that includes full versions of song performances and a different take of "Subterranean Homesick Blues"; Eat the Document, which will be a real treat to see on the big screen and not on some fuzzy VHS cassette; and the 9:30 pm screening of who knows what...but the possibility of some rarities known and unknown excites the Dylan-loving mind!

 

That part should be very, very interesting. Thanks for the updates, and keep 'em coming. Congrats.

 

I was told the 9:30 presentation will be approximately 90 minutes and it will be a wide enough net of material that the presenter is nervous about introducing each piece because he's worried about breaking up the flow. I was like, "Jam as much in as you can!"

 

So about tonight: I have to say, it was really great to see Don't Look Back and its companion '65 Revisited, not to mention Eat the Document, looking so fantastic. They played well on the big screen. D.A. Pennebaker and his wife Chris Hegedus were back on scene for another Q+A. I never knew Eat the Document could look so good, and had forgotten what a lousy piece of filmmaking it was! (Blame Bob...the stock footage was great, of course.)

Here was the program for the rare stuff. Much of it is well-circulated amongst fans (though some of it was not), although the material we were told was freshly digitized from master reels or tapes. (Some of the TV stuff didn't fare so well getting blown up to the big screen but you could tell the video was high quality; the audio was really great.)

All performances were complete and uncut:

1. 1963, "Man of Constant Sorrow" from Folksongs and More Folksongs
2. 1964, "Girl From the North Country", QUEST
3. 1964, Newport, "Chimes of Freedom"
4. 1965, Newport, afternoon workshop, "Tombstone Blues"
5. 1965, Newport, evening, "It Takes a Lot to Laugh..."
6. 1966, UK tour, "She Belongs to Me"
7. 1966, UK tour, Manchester, "Ballad of a Thin Man" (this was not complete but only because Pennebaker's film ran out at the end)
8. 1975, "Hurricane" (not sure which show, I think the same one the "Tangled Up in Blue" circulates from but it could have been any of them)
9. 1976, "Shelter From the Storm", ABC-TV Special
10. 1981, "Blowin' in the Wind", unknown location, an arena in the US, I presume; pro-shot video
11. 1983, "License to Kill", Letterman show
12. 1993, "Ring Them Bells", Supper Club
13. 2003, "Cold Irons Bound", Masked and Anonymous
14. 1980, "Pressing On", Buffalo, NY

I'm not sure how many of these are pretty common to Dylan fans, although I know #1, 2, 9 and 11 are in wide circulation. #13 has been seen in the movie, of course, but this was unedited, start to finish. The 1966 stuff might be out there, but I'm not sure. It looked fantastic, though. Is the Newport video out there? That "Tombstone Blues" was something! The highlight for me was the 1981 "Blowin' in the Wind", not so much for the performance but the video quality and just being able to take in that stage show. (Steve Ripley, who played on that tour, happened to be in the audience tonight.) And "Pressing On"...not from Toronto, but Buffalo. Pretty cool. The goal with the Buffalo footage was to get some better visuals they could use to punch up the Toronto footage, which they felt was lackluster. I dunno...I love Toronto '80 with every fiber of my being, but it was still cool to see footage from another show not a week later.

All in all, a pretty nice slate of programming. I have to go to bed.

 

I was there and agree with all the praise. My favorite was the alternate Tombstone Blues with the wind whipping all around Bob. Tonight was a highlight for me not only because of the great programming but I got to stop and tell Pennebaker how nice it was to hear him talk about his film the night before.

 

WOW......and you say Eat The Document looked better? Did it look as good as the new performance clips?
Those 1966 acoustic clips have been rare for some reason.

 

thanks for the reporting - sounds very exciting. Hopefully this material will get a wider airing sometime soon, starting with the NDH Blu Ray re-issue - that has extra footage, if I remember right? A cleaned up ETD would be wonderful. Cannot get enough of the '66 video footage!

 

She Belongs To Me definitely '66 not '65?

 

Definitely 1966. Full color, ethereal Bob...

 

The NDH screening didn't include the extra footage, unless my recall of the original film is totally out of whack.

 

Can you link me to the performance clips you're talking about so I can compare? Eat the Document looked all cleaned up and spiffy compared to any other version I've ever seen, that's for sure.

 

The Blu-Ray promises something new then, maybe, hopefully ....?