BBC Four Bob Dylan Season (2005) Vol. I

Perhaps like you, there is a certain limit to how much interest I am able to generate in a DVD which showcases others showcasing Dylan material - I'd just as soon get it from the horses mouth. That being said, this DVD is fun to watch. The section featuring others singing Bob's tunes is notable for clear, crisp, professional sound and footage. Pop Staples' version of 'Serve Somebody' absolutely smokes. It's fun to watch Crosby and McGuinn just starting to let their hair down on 'All I really want to do'. Beware of watching Lulu sing Mr. Tanbourine Man - you may need an antiemetic when you realize that Bob inadvertantly helped usher in the era of disco. Joan Baez is beautiful. 'Blowing in the wind' by Peter, Paul, and Mary, recorded in January, 1966, is notable as a contrast between the table scraps that that others were still serving up based on Dylan's older material even as Dylan was cooking up his own fresh, hot, American gumbo with his band on their now legendary world tour.

Watching the short bio of Woody Guthrie is of equal parts interest for the poignant portrait it paints of Woody as for the backdrop to the stage that a young Bob Dylan walked out onto all those years ago...The section on Hurricane Carter, while no less compelling, is just slightly more tangential to the trajectory of Dylan's star. It was a revelation to me that, while Dylan was traveling to Britian in the 60's to help shape pop culture, Lenny Bruce was banned from that fair island for the brutal honesty with which he skewered the underpinnings atop which sit popular culture.

Interesting viewing. Thanks to Jim.