Original subtitles

[people chattering]

-[man speaking over megaphone] -[brass band playing march]

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[ship horns blaring]

[man] Bicentennial hats here!

Bicentennial hats.

[man 2] Excuse me, do you feel patriotic?

Patriotic is-- is not the real feeling that I have right now.

People like bicentennial hats, I sell 'em bicentennial hats.

[man 2] Uh-huh.

Ladies and gentlemen, of this beautiful day

and this bicentennial day, right here, downtown in New York City,

ladies and gentlemen.

Joseph Hurdley Jr., songwriter of New York City.

Otherwise, Uncle Sam is going to sing

one of his versions of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Ladies and gentlemen, "The Star-Spangled Banner" with new music.

Words by Francis Scott Key and music by Joseph Hurdley Jr.,

dedicated to the future of America, God save the republic.

Are you ready, maestro?

No maestros? I'll sing it myself.

♪ O say, can you see By the dawn's early light ♪

It's one dollar.

Get your copies here.

-I've got four versions of... -[acoustic guitar playing]

[Dylan] ♪ Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man ♪

♪ Play a song for me ♪

♪ I'm not sleepy And there is no place I'm going to ♪

♪ Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man ♪

♪ Play a song for me ♪

♪ In the jingle jangle morning ♪

♪ I'll come followin' you ♪

♪ Though I know that evenin's empire ♪

♪ Has returned into sand... ♪

[Richard Nixon] We're gathered in this historic house

for the celebration of the 200th anniversary

of the United States,

but I refer to the words that were spoken

by those who at the time of the Declaration of Independence

thought of the mission of America,

what America could mean to the world.

And one of them said that we act not just for ourselves,

but for all mankind.

[Dylan] ♪ Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man ♪

♪ Play a song for me... ♪

[older Dylan] Saigon had fallen.

People had seemed to, uh, lost their sense of,

uh, conviction for...

for just about anything.

[Dylan] ♪ Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man... ♪

[older Dylan] Lot of arguments about why...

America was chased out of Vietnam...

in such a humiliating way.

Two people tried to shoot the president in one month.

[Dylan] ♪ Take me on a trip Upon your magic... ♪

[Nixon] Let us set for our goal in 1976

to move forward in the realm of the American spirit.

[Dylan] ♪ My hands can't feel to grip ♪

That the opportunity that everybody in this room has had...

is something that is a realizable dream

that can be achieved

for anyone who has the good fortune to be born in this country,

or anyone who has the good fortune to come to this country.

[Dylan] ♪ Ready for to fade Into my own parade... ♪

[older Dylan] The idea was to put a tour up,

combination of different acts on the same stage

for a variety of, uh, musical styles.

I wouldn't say it was a, uh, traditional revue,

but it was in the, uh, traditional... um...

form of, uh, of a revue.

That's all clumsy bullshit.

-[interviewer] Okay. -Y'know.

-[interviewer] So what-- -I'm trying to get to the...

[interviewer] To the core thing.

To the core of what this Rolling Thunder thing is all about,

and I don't have a clue,

because it's not... It's about nothing.

It's a-- It's just something that happened 40 years ago.

[scoffs] And that's the truth of it.

-Why don't we go down that road? -Okay, we can.

-[interviewer laughs] -Let's go.

All right, let's go.

I don't remember a thing about Rolling Thunder.

-[interviewer] Okay. -I mean, it-- it happened

so long ago, I wasn't even born, you know?

-[interviewer chuckles] -Uh, I... So, what do you wanna know?

♪ And take me disappearing ♪

♪ Through the smoke rings of my mind ♪

♪ Down the foggy ruins of time ♪

♪ Far past the frozen leaves ♪

♪ The haunted, frightened trees ♪

♪ Out to the windy beach ♪

♪ Far from the twisted reach Of crazy sorrow ♪

♪ Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky ♪

♪ With one hand waving free ♪

♪ Silhouetted by the sea ♪

♪ Circled by the circus sands ♪

♪ With all memory and fate ♪

♪ Driven deep beneath the waves ♪

♪ Let me forget about today Until tomorrow ♪

♪ Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man ♪

♪ Play a song for me ♪

♪ I'm not sleepy... ♪

[man 1] Is that Bob Dylan? That is Bob Dylan!

[older Dylan] Life isn't about finding yourself...

or finding anything. Life is about creating yourself.

-[man 2] Playing tonight? -[older Dylan] And creating things.

[woman] And I want to introduce another fine...

entertainer here at Folk City,

so everybody...

[Ginsberg] Summer, 1975.

It was a very odd scene in New York.

Unusual. Sort of. The folk era had died out. Or did it?

-[applause] -[woman] Joan Baez

and her friend Bob Dylan!

Let's have a nice hand for Joan Baez...

[Ginsberg] Rumor came around that the inspired Dylan was back,

gathering all-- all his forces.

[Dylan and Baez] ♪ When ev'rything that I'm sayin' ♪

♪ You can say it just as good ♪

Woo!

And pretty soon, they were all jamming together

as if they were young musicians having fun,

actually in direct contact with each other.

♪ And all the hills echoèd ♪

♪ And all the hills echoèd ♪

♪ My name is Juanano de Castro ♪

[Midler] Lord...

[Elliott] ♪ My father was a Spanish grandee ♪

[indistinct chatter]

[woman] Excuse me, please!

We're really running short of time. I wanna introduce...

Miss Patti Smith and Eric Anderson.

Let's have a nice hand.

-Let's hear it! Get up here! -[audience cheers]

There was a...

There was an archer...

There was an archer who was in love with his sister.

So, the archer looked at his sister

and he said,

"All the madness between me and you is real private."

But the sister was too scared, so the sister...

the sister put down her cigarette and she married the sultan.

So the archer became a... the archer for the king.

So, it was the wedding night, and the sultan and the sister

were gonna get married.

And so...

the archer went out the door, and he had on his armor,

and he was going. There was all, like...

You know how like the gran-- ground was in 16th-century Japan?

It was black and green like a chessboard.

So the archer was walking on the black part of the chessboard,

and he looked at the black part of the chessboard,

and it looked like the back of his sister's hair.

-And so... -[guitar plays]

You know how it is.

-[audience murmurs] -[man] Yeah.

Anyway, it looked... Oh, what a mess.

Looked like the back of his sister's hair,

and so he couldn't advance and be the king's archer no more,

because he looked over at the palace, and over at the palace,

he saw his sister undressing

for the sultan.

So the prince took off a-- took off all his armor,

and he started walking toward the palace.

He started walking in another direction,

started walking in another dimension,

started walking in another dimension.

He moved in another dimension.

♪ I move in another dimension ♪

-♪ I move in another dimension ♪ -[audience cheers]

-♪ I move in another dimension ♪ -[audience clapping along]

♪ I move in another dimension ♪

-♪ And he kept on walking ♪ -[electric guitar plays]

♪ And he walked real slow ♪

[woman whoops]

♪ Here is the first archer ♪

♪ In rock 'n' roll ♪

♪ He walked toward the palace ♪

♪ Toward the palace of answers ♪

♪ He took big steps ♪

♪ He took big steps ♪

♪ He walked seven ways ♪

♪ He walked seven ways ♪

♪ He freed the elements ♪

♪ The hurricane just burst From his hands ♪

[audience applauds and cheers]

[male singer] ♪ You are my sunshine ♪

-♪ My only sunshine ♪ -Let's go!

[all] ♪ You make me happy ♪

-♪ When skies are gray ♪ -[woman] Whoopee!

♪ You'll never know, dear How much I... ♪

[Ginsberg] October, November, uh...

Dylan might have some idea to do something.

Sort of like a... con man,

carny medicine show of old,

where you just get in a bus and go from town--

or a carriage, and go from town to town.

It's like Dylan is taking us out to try and give us each... He's presenting us.

I mean, that's his conception. I mean, it hasn't been made overt.

His idea is, uh...

to show how beautiful he is... [chuckles]

...by showing how beautiful we are...

by showing how beautiful...

the ensemble is.

So, it's to show the actual community.

Which is way-- the way-- the way life is, the way that life of poets is.

-[strumming guitar] -♪ I live in an apartment ♪

♪ Sink leaks through the walls ♪

♪ Lower East Side full of bedbugs ♪

♪ Junkies in the halls ♪

♪ House been broken into ♪

♪ Tibetan thangkas stole ♪

♪ Speed freaks took my statues ♪

♪ And made my love a fool ♪

-♪ Speed freaks took my statues ♪ -[man laughs]

♪ And made my love a fool ♪

-Do you wanna hear more or...? -[Dylan] Yeah.

[Ginsberg] I got this big audition.

[van Dorp] There was this party at Allen Ginsberg's apartment.

[interviewer] And that's where you met Dylan?

Uh, yes.

-[interviewer] What did you think of him? -Uh, Dylan was fine.

[van Dorp] There were all these crazy people,

all getting high and coming up to him

and spinning faster and faster, and Bob didn't react.

I think he just, uh, watched the whole thing.

I think he liked the chaos.

[Dylan] ♪ I am a rake and a rambling boy ♪

-♪ There's many a city I did enjoy ♪ -[fiddle plays]

-[man] Woo! -♪ But now I married me a better wife ♪

♪ And I love her dearer Than I love my life ♪

[slow song playing]

[older Dylan] My idea was to have a kind of a jug band,

uh, for the whole show,

something, uh, along the lines of maybe, uh, Kweskin Jug Band...

but that didn't happen.

[van Dorp] They were in the middle of the rehearsals at SIR Studio,

and I talked to Levy, and he asked Dylan if it was all right for me to shoot

B-roll of the rehearsal.

Dylan was all right with it, but Levy told me there was no budget.

Because I thought that this was really going to go somewhere,

I took all the money that I had,

and I paid for everything out of my own pocket.

-[indistinct chatter] -[strumming of instruments]

-[interviewer] Did Bob like you? -[van Dorp] I don't know, who knows?

He was-- It was like looking into a mirror.

You either saw what you wanted to see,

or you hated what you saw.

I can tell you this, back then I used to smoke,

and I held my cigarette like this,

you know, the European style.

After that night at Ginsberg's, Bob started holding it like that, too.

That was me.

♪ Rita May, Rita May ♪

♪ How did you ever get that way? ♪

♪ When'd you ever see the light? ♪

♪ Don't you ever feel afraid? ♪

♪ You got me burning and a-turning ♪

♪ But I know I must be learning ♪

♪ Rita May ♪

["One More Cup of Coffee" playing]

♪ And I don't sense affection ♪

♪ No gratitude or love ♪

♪ Your loyalty is not to me ♪

-♪ But to the stars above ♪ -[man] Yeah!

♪ One more cup of coffee for the road ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee 'fore I go ♪

♪ To the valley below ♪

[woman] I was going to a jazz musician friend of mine house

in the Lower East Side,

and I was just about to cross the street, and a car cut me off.

It was Bob.

It was Dylan.

And...

[clears throat]

It was never verbalized.

I knew who he was, or he knew I knew.

Just sort of passed, you know.

We just played music all day and all night.

We went to The Bottom Line and played with Muddy Waters,

and we went that night to Victoria Spivey's house.

She's an old blues singer.

And, um...

we played music till about six in the morning.

It was really great.

-[band playing] -[man] She wears a turtle...

-♪ She wears a turtleneck sweater ♪ -[man laughs]

♪ And a nylon shoe ♪

♪ She wears a turtleneck sweater ♪

♪ And a nylon shoe ♪

♪ There's nothing she won't say ♪

♪ And there's nothing that she won't do ♪

[man] There are 52 people. If each person asks him is he okay,

it becomes a long, hard question and answer period for him.

Is the light bothering him?

Is the guitar right?

Does he like the lighting?

Is the sound monitor okay?

He's a big man, and he knows what he wants.

♪ No llores, mi querida ♪

♪ Dios nos vigila ♪

♪ Soon the horse will take us to Durango ♪

[woman] Five ten.

-[Dylan] Five ten? -[woman] Yeah.

So what does he do?

He's a director.

Theater.

Theater?

But that's not...

That's why I'm saying it's tricky because it's not marriage, is it?

I mean, unless you actually make it--

Well, I mean, maybe marriage to the theater.

But when you said marriage,

I assumed you-- you meant marriage between two people.

-Yeah. -Did you?

Well, no, mental marriage.

-Mental marriage? -Yeah.

Ah, well, that's interesting.

[Dylan speaks indistinctly]

♪ Some speak of the future ♪

♪ My love, she speaks softly ♪

♪ 'Cause there's no success like failure ♪

♪ And failure's no success at all ♪

[Dylan] Hey!

[Sloman] I'm doing a-- a thing on a tour for Rolling Stone magazine.

-[woman] Yes. -[Sloman] Okay?

And-- And basically, I saw Bob leave,

uh, after that... uh, um, the dialogue you did with him, the marriage thing.

Yes.

And he said to one of the cameramen, "That is hot. That was a hot scene."

-Okay. -Oh, I'm really flattered. I'm touched.

Okay, now, look, I-- I-- I just wanna know,

how did-- how did it happen? I mean, was it set up?

-It happened-- No. -Was it a set up scene?

It was totally spontaneous.

I was on my way to the bathroom...

Yeah.

[woman] ...when, uh, on my way, uh, Mel Howard introduced me to Bob Dylan.

What-- What did you say? And what was your point--

-What did I say to-- -In the conversation to Bob?

Well, it was a sort of free...

-uh, going from one thing to another. -Freewheeling?

-Freewheeling. -It wasn't--

It wasn't meant to be specifically-- specifically that.

Yeah, but you started talking about marriage.

Out of the blue,

-the subject of marriage came up. -But what did you say?

[Dylan] ♪ Come gather 'round, fellers ♪

♪ So young and so fine ♪

♪ And seek not your fortune ♪

♪ Down in the mine ♪

♪ It will form... ♪

[interviewer] Was the idea to make a behind-the-scenes film of the tour?

[van Dorp] I think that's what they were expecting.

They just thought that I was going to make it a concert film,

but I was trying to make something really serious out of this.

First, what I wanted to show was musicians working together,

making music together.

That was them doing their job.

That was, you know,

that was as if I went to film my father in his shoe store.

Focus in on that.

[van Dorp] What is that, Patti?

I seen th-- this Rimbaud book,

and I saw this picture.

I saw this vogue picture, and I thought it looked like you,

-and I thought he was a neat guy, y'know? -Yeah?

And I thought you were neat, so I used to, like, pretend he was my boyfriend.

Or if-- Or if you were. You know, it doesn't matter, right?

So anyway...

What did you say?

-What did I say? -Yeah.

[clicks tongue] I gave my thoughts on...

He spoke about mental marriage.

-When he asked me-- -Mental marriage?

Uh, Superman takes a piece of coal,

and he puts it in his hand, and he starts squeezing it,

and squeezing it, and squeezing it, and squeezing it,

and then it becomes like a diamond.

-It's real hard. -Yeah.

And then, like, he drops it on the ground,

-on the baseball diamond. -Yeah.

And the kids, the kids keep kicking it, the kids keep kicking it.

-Yeah. -Then it goes round and round.

And after years and years of kids kicking it around,

it gets smooth, but it's not... It's just changed.

It's still the same crystal, but it's smooth, so it's a crystal ball.

So it's sitting there in the middle,

the crystal ball is sitting there in the middle of the baseball diamond.

-Right. -Okay? Now you can look in.

[woman squeals, laughs]

[indistinct chatter]

[van Dorp] I hated the ristelaars...

the, you know, the-- the facilitators.

You know, the-- the people hanging around him.

People pretending that they had access,

so that they could behave badly.

This film was going to show

the counterpoint between the... the excesses of the people

on the tour and the dissolution of society.

-[man] Come on, everybody. -[woman] Allen!

[van Dorp] I wanted to show the land of Pet Rocks

and Super Slurpees from 7-Eleven.

L'Amérique insolite.

[chorus harmonizing]

[van Dorp] I would go on the road with the Rolling Thunder Revue.

-Right here. -[man shouts]

-[camera shutter clicks] -[Dylan] See you Thursday.

[Dylan on recording] This is a true story. Actually, they're all true.

Boy. Sure hope we get to Boston on time.

["Isis" playing]

♪ I married Isis ♪

♪ On the fifth day of May ♪

♪ But I could not hold on ♪

♪ To her very long ♪

♪ So I cut off my hair ♪

♪ And I rode straight away ♪

♪ For the wild, unknown country ♪

♪ Where I could not go wrong ♪

♪ I came to a high place ♪

♪ Of darkness and light ♪

♪ The dividing line ran ♪

♪ Through the center of town ♪

♪ I hitched up my pony ♪

♪ To a post on the right ♪

♪ Went into a laundry ♪

♪ To wash my clothes down ♪

♪ A man in the corner ♪

♪ Approached me for a match ♪

♪ I knew right away ♪

♪ He was not ordinary ♪

♪ He said, "Are you looking ♪

♪ For something easy to catch?" ♪

♪ I said, "I got no money, man" ♪

♪ He said, "That ain't necessary" ♪

♪ We set out that night ♪

♪ For the cold in the north ♪

♪ I gave him my blanket ♪

♪ And he gave me his word ♪

♪ I said, "Where we goin'?" ♪

♪ He said, "We be back by the fourth" ♪

♪ I said, "That's the best news ♪

♪ That I've ever heard" ♪

♪ I was thinkin' about turquoise ♪

♪ I was thinkin' about gold ♪

♪ I was thinkin' about diamonds ♪

♪ And the world's biggest necklace ♪

♪ As we rode through the canyons ♪

♪ Through the devilish cold ♪

♪ I was thinkin' about Isis ♪

♪ How she thought I was so reckless ♪

♪ She told me, though, that one day We would meet up again ♪

♪ And things would be different ♪

♪ The next time we wed ♪

♪ If I could only just hang on ♪

♪ And be her friend ♪

♪ I still can't remember ♪

♪ All the best things she said ♪

♪ We came to the pyramids ♪

♪ All embedded in ice ♪

♪ He said, "There's a body ♪

♪ That I'm tryin' to find ♪

♪ If I carry it out ♪

♪ It'll bring a good price" ♪

♪ 'Twas then that I knew ♪

♪ What he had on his mind ♪

♪ Well, the wind, it was howlin' ♪

♪ And the snow was outrageous ♪

♪ We chopped through the night ♪

♪ And we chopped through the dawn ♪

♪ When he died, I was hopin' ♪

♪ That it wasn't contagious ♪

♪ But I made up my mind ♪

♪ That I had to get on ♪

♪ I picked up his body ♪

♪ And I dragged him inside ♪

♪ Threw him down in a hole ♪

♪ And I put back the cover ♪

♪ I said a quick prayer ♪

♪ Just to feel satisfied ♪

♪ Then I went back to find Isis ♪

♪ Just to tell her I love her ♪

♪ She was there in the meadow ♪

♪ Where the creek used to rise ♪

♪ Blinded by sleep ♪

♪ And in need of a bed ♪

♪ I came in from the East ♪

♪ With the sun in my eyes ♪

♪ I cursed her one time Then I rode on ahead ♪

♪ She said, "Where you been?" ♪

♪ I said, "No place special" ♪

♪ She said, "You look different" I said, "Well, I guess" ♪

♪ She said, "You been gone" ♪

♪ I said, "That's only natural" She said, "You gonna stay?" ♪

♪ I said, "If you want me to, yeah!" ♪

♪ Isis, oh, Isis ♪

♪ You a mystical child ♪

♪ What drives me to you ♪

♪ Is what drives me insane ♪

♪ I still can remember ♪

♪ The way that you smiled ♪

♪ On the fifth day of May ♪

♪ In the drizzlin' rain ♪

-[audience applauds and cheers] -[man speaking indistinctly over speakers]

[van Dorp] Hi, Bob.

-Hi, what you guys want? An interview? -[van Dorp] Sure.

-[Dylan] Ah, wh-- -[van Dorp] How was it, Bob?

[Dylan] How was what?

[interviewer] What did Bob say about the tour?

[van Dorp] I never asked him anything because, you know,

he wouldn't answer direct questions.

[woman] Dylan, you're beautiful.

-[indistinct chatter] -[woman] Bob!

[man] A legend is in town,

and it's not just another... rock 'n' roll show.

I mean, it's rock 'n' roll, but it's a special event.

where rock 'n' roll has four or five legends,

this is one of them, and maybe the biggest one at the present time.

[crowd clamoring]

[man 2] Not to brag, but Rolling Thunder was kinda my idea,

you know.

Bob had done that tour with The Band a few years back,

and that was super successful,

and then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were filling 50,000 seats a night.

And Zeppelin was huge. I mean, there was money everywhere.

You know, all you had to do was bend down, pick it up.

So, I had an idea that some kind of revue with Bob would be a gold mine.

So I went off and pitched the idea,

and a bunch of local promoters were interested.

And then by the time I was done, I ended up with 15 headliners.

-[Baez exclaims] -["Rita May" playing on stereo]

♪ I'm gonna have to go to college 'Cause you are... ♪

[Neuwirth] Now you've asked for it!

We took a big risk. And, uh, you know,

you had to put up the money, get everybody, you know, hotels, catering,

cars, all this stuff, buses.

And you had to keep all these guys happy and, you know, focused.

And so... And that was, you loaded up before you went out on the road.

Then you hope you got paid. And you hope the show worked.

[crowd cheering]

[interviewer] Did you have any interaction with Bob?

[Gianopulos] The only time I saw Bob was when he was onstage

or driving the bus.

You know? Bob kept to himself.

[Sloman] How did it become "Rolling Thunder Revue"?

Well, I asked Bob. He said originally he was gonna call it

Montezuma's Revue,

but then he said he was home,

and he was just kind of trying to think of a name for the tour,

when all of a sudden in the sky, he heard, "Boom!"

And then, from left to right,

punctuating the sky,

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"

So he said, "Hey, let's call it 'Rolling Thunder.'"

So before we even left,

Chesley Millikin, who was on the tour, says,

"Bob, you know what 'rolling thunder' means to the Indians?"

And he goes, "What, man?" And Chesley goes, "Speaking truth."

And then Bob goes, "I'm glad to hear that, man."

Of course, later on we found out that Rolling Thunder was actually

the code name for, uh, Nixon's bombing of Cambodia.

And that Guam, the backup band, was the base that, uh, they took off from.

So, who knows what the real story is.

[man] This is the leaflet for a concert they're having in town next week.

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Jack Elliott.

Right in the Civic Center.

[woman] You know me, I'm too old for that kind of stuff.

Oh, well.

[woman chuckles]

-Okay. -[interviewer] So...

when did you first hear about Bob?

This is like a... a... It sounds like a fairy tale,

but all... a lot of the...

It doesn't happen continuously for more than a few days at a time,

but a lot of my life,

I feel like I really am leading a charmed life,

because miracles start happening in threes or fours.

[older Dylan] One thing I could tell you about Ramblin' Jack,

he's more of a sailor than a singer.

He can tie a bowline, a clove hitch, and he could tie a rolling hitch,

all blindfolded.

If you're ever on a boat or sailing ship,

you would rather have Ramblin' Jack there as a sailor than a singer.

♪ Now, London is a fine town For sailors ♪

♪ California and back to France, so... ♪

[Ginsberg] Which would you rather be, the Pilgrims or the Indians?

-[boy] Pilgrims. -[Ginsberg] Why the Pilgrims?

Why do you wanna be the Pilgrims?

'Cause the Pilgrims all land and they turn into wax dolls,

and they're wax dolls for the rest of the universe.

[girl] So the Indians.

Well, you know, the Indians, that's true-- Well, we're all wax dolls, so...

The first concert will take place in Plymouth...

Uh, where the, uh, Pilgrims stepped off their Mayflower.

We're... as if we're-- we're Pilgrims.

Pilgrims in the sense of searchers,

looking for the, uh, kingdom of a nation

with maybe a different intention.

Making America a kingdom of poetry,

a nation of poetry.

["When I Paint My Masterpiece" playing]

Well, look at this. Lookit.

[van Dorp] Have you ever heard of Bob Dylan?

-Yeah. -Yeah, I've heard of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez,

Bob Neuwirth.

[man] ...performing at Memorial Auditorium. Anybody?

Pass 'em out.

-[crowd cheering] -♪ I left Rome ♪

♪ And pulled into Brussels ♪

♪ On a plane ride ♪

♪ So bumpy that I almost cried ♪

♪ Clergymen in uniform ♪

♪ Young girls pullin' muscles ♪

♪ Well, it sure has been ♪

♪ One hell of a ride ♪

♪ Newspapermen ♪

♪ Eating candy, ooh ♪

♪ They had to be held back ♪

♪ By big police ♪

♪ Someday Everything is gonna be different ♪

♪ When I paint that masterpiece ♪

♪ Train wrecks ♪

♪ Running through the back of my memory ♪

♪ When I ran on the hilltop ♪

♪ Following a pack of wild geese ♪

♪ Someday Everything is gonna be beautiful ♪

♪ When I paint that masterpiece ♪

♪ When I paint ♪

♪ That masterpiece ♪

[audience cheers]

[interviewer] Any idea why he would wear a mask?

[chuckles] Are you being funny? [laughs]

[interviewer] Well, it was kind of a leading question.

Yeah, okay. Well, get to the point. [chuckles]

We didn't have enough masks on that tour.

We should have had masks for everybody.

When somebody's wearing a mask,

uh, he's gonna tell you the truth.

Uh...

when he's not wearing a mask, it's highly unlikely.

[TV announcer speaking Dutch] Shocking Blue!

["Venus" playing]

♪ Her weapons were her crystal eyes ♪

♪ Making every man mad ♪

[van Dorp] I'd been filming Shocking Blue.

Their song "Venus" was at the top of the charts.

-Wow! -[van Dorp] And we needed more footage.

And at the time, I liked psychedelics.

Oh, LSD was my drug of choice.

You know, it was trans-- transformative.

And I filmed a lot of newspeople and things from the TV,

like camera right on the TV, like kinescoped,

and I cut these serious things, these speeches, with the rock 'n' roll.

♪ A goddess on a mountaintop ♪

♪ Was burning like a silver flame ♪

♪ Well, I'm your Venus ♪

-♪ I'm your fire at your desire ♪ -[van Dorp] It was brood en spelen, uh...

You know, like, "bread and circus."

I made an indictment of popular culture.

I called it "Burning Like A Silver Flame."

It played the local art film circuit,

uh, and it started to have a life of its own.

Um, later, when I won the Heinrich Greif Award,

America came calling.

[slow jazz music playing]

[older Dylan] Van Dorp,

I hadn't even heard of him before,

but, uh, he seemed like an okay guy.

I liked his film history.

He did some film work at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

His idea was to, uh, make this film...

appear to be like old newsreels we used to see at movie theaters...

growing up,

which I thought was a splendid idea.

[audience cheers]

Van Dorp, I wanted to tell you something. [chuckles]

I thought Sam would be perfect for van Dorp to, uh, collaborate with,

because Sam's got that special knowledge of the underworld

that van Dorp didn't seem to have a clue about.

I think I asked him once, "Sam, how you write all those plays?"

And he said...

"Man," he said,

"it's like I commune with the dead."

I said, "Yeah, yeah,

uh, you'd have to to write plays like that."

And I asked him if he wanted to, uh, write for, uh,

this movie that this guy van Dorp was making.

And he went to meet with van Dorp, and then he came back, and he said, uh...

he didn't know where the guy was coming from,

but if I wanted him to do it, he would.

So, that's how Sam got involved.

I was living in Homestead Valley, California,

running a horse boarding farm. [laughs]

It was a little bit unclear what-- what exactly he wanted me to do.

I was like a screenwriter or writer for hire, you know.

So, sure. So, I joined up.

I was just kind of there for the ride, basically,

and-- and as an observer

and trying to make sense of something, you know.

[Shepard] New England was just experiencing the backbone

of that economic fallout,

you know, way back then, it was, you know, desolate...

Uh, really, really difficult economic times, you know.

People suffering behind that, you know.

[rhythmic clapping]

[Shepard] Rock 'n' roll was some kind of, a...

I don't know, a kind of medicine or something.

[van Dorp] Do you have tickets for the concert?

-[both] Yeah. -[teen] How come he's coming here?

I know, how come he picked such a small place?

Tickets are on sale at the collis-- the little Plymouth auditorium.

[teens speaking indistinctly]

[interviewer] Wasn't that the year of the bicentennial, also?

[Shepard] The bicentennial,

particularly in the little towns, you know,

they didn't give a shit, you know.

"What is the bicen--" [chuckles] You know what I mean?

They-- They certainly weren't celebrating the-- the birth of America. You know?

-[man] We love you, Bobby! -[woman] Yeah!

-[acoustic guitar playing] -[audience cheers]

[Baez and Dylan] ♪ How many roads must a man walk down ♪

[audience cheers]

♪ Before you call him a man? ♪

♪ How many seas must a white dove sail ♪

♪ Before she sleeps in the sand? ♪

♪ How many times Must the cannonballs fly ♪

♪ Before they're forever banned? ♪

♪ The answer, my friend ♪

♪ Is blowin' in the wind ♪

♪ The answer is blowin' in the wind ♪

[audience cheers]

[Shepard] It always had this feeling of-- of almost a circus atmosphere,

a dog and pony show sort of thing.

It's the first song I ever heard Woody Guthrie sing

on a little radio station.

[strumming guitar]

He was telling a story...

about traveling across the country on freight trains,

and he had a fiddle with him...

in a violin case.

Every time the train would stop,

police would come on and look through, they'd see him with that violin case...

make him open it up,

and look inside.

They was looking for an outlaw...

named Pretty Boy Floyd,

who was also traveling with a violin case.

♪ If you'll gather 'round me, children ♪

♪ A story I will tell About Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw ♪

♪ Oklahoma knew him well ♪

[man] I do recall sort of looking over,

from a distance, Jack Elliott's shoulder as he did his solo set.

You know, that was something so new to me, and...

gee, it seemed so authentic,

I had no idea he was, you know, a Jewish dentist's son from Brooklyn.

You know, you could've knocked me over with a feather when I found that out.

[Neuwirth] Ramblin' Jack! Take a bow, Jack.

[audience cheers]

[Neuwirth] I got another friend for you to meet now.

[audience continues cheering]

["It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" playing]

[Shepard] They-- They had an entity about them, you know.

It wasn't stardom.

It wasn't people were looking at,

"Oh, there's Dylan and there's Joan Baez."

No, they were looking at a band.

♪ Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby ♪

♪ Can't buy a thrill ♪

♪ I been up all night, baby ♪

♪ Leanin' on a windowsill ♪

[man] Once again, good night on behalf of the Rolling Thunder Revue.

We thank you for coming. Good night. Go in peace.

[audience applauds and cheers]

[crowd chatters]

[inaudible sobs]

[Shepard] And particularly with those songs

that had this kind of saga element about 'em, you know,

it had a rejuvenating effect, I think, you know, it was very exhilarating.

It was a feeling of exhilaration, of-- of-- of being alive.

It... That sounds corny, but it's true, you know.

[Shepard] Take, uh, Shakespeare, Will.

[laughing] He grew up in, uh, uh, Stratford-on-Avon,

you know, where the... where these rivers cross,

and it was on the way outskirts of London.

And these troubadours and vagabonds

and carnival people from all over were coming into London to perform.

And they would stop at this crossroads of these rivers.

And as a kid, he's seeing this, and then he writes those fucking plays.

[laughing] You know?

That's... extraordinary.

You know, that somebody is charged up like that

from something passing through their lives, you know.

-[van Dorp] Let me ask you a question. -[man] Sure.

[van Dorp] What were you gonna do on Halloween night?

What was I gonna do on Halloween night?

Just get a buzz on.

[man 2 laughs]

Nothing else to do.

Yep, just party.

["A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" playing]

♪ Where have you been My blue-eyed son? ♪

♪ Where have you been My darling young one? ♪

♪ I've stumbled on the side Of twelve misty mountains ♪

♪ Walked and I've crawled On six crooked highways ♪

♪ Been in the middle Of seven sad forests ♪

♪ Been out in front Of a dozen dead oceans ♪

♪ Been ten thousand miles In the mouth of a graveyard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard rain gonna fall ♪

♪ What did you see My blue-eyed son? ♪

♪ What did you see My darling young one? ♪

♪ Saw a newborn baby With wild wolves all around it ♪

♪ I saw a highway of diamonds With nobody on it ♪

♪ Saw a black branch With blood that kept drippin' ♪

♪ Saw a room full of men With their hammers bleedin' ♪

♪ Saw a white ladder Covered in water ♪

♪ Saw ten thousand talkers Whose tongues are all broken ♪

♪ Guns and sharp swords In the hands of young children ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Oh, it's a hard rain gonna fall ♪

♪ What did you hear My blue-eyed son? ♪

♪ What did you hear My darling young one? ♪

♪ Heard the sound of a thunder That roared out a warnin' ♪

♪ Heard the roar of a wave Could drown the whole world ♪

♪ One person starved I heard many people laughin' ♪

♪ Heard the song of a poet Who died in the gutter ♪

♪ Heard the sound of a clown Crying in the alley ♪

-♪ And it's a hard ♪ -[man] Yeah!

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard rain gonna fall ♪

♪ Who did you meet My blue-eyed son? ♪

♪ Who did you meet My darling young one? ♪

♪ Met a young child Beside a dead pony ♪

♪ Met a white man Who walked a black dog ♪

♪ Met one woman Whose body was burning ♪

♪ Met a young girl She gave me a rainbow ♪

♪ I met one man Wounded in love ♪

♪ Met another man Wounded in hatred ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard rain gonna fall ♪

♪ What'll you do now My blue-eyed son? ♪

♪ What'll you do now My darling young one? ♪

♪ I'm goin' back out When the rain starts a-fallin' ♪

♪ Walk to the depths Of the deepest dark forest ♪

♪ Where the people are many And their hands are all empty ♪

♪ Where the pellets of poison Are flooding their waters ♪

♪ Where the home in the valley Meets the damp, dirty prison ♪

♪ Where the executioner's face Is always well-hidden ♪

♪ Where the hunger is ugly Where souls are forgotten ♪

♪ Where black is the color None is the number ♪

♪ And I'll tell it and think it And speak it and breathe it ♪

♪ Reflect from the mountain So all souls can see it ♪

♪ Then I'll stand on the ocean Until I start sinkin' ♪

♪ But I'll know my song well Before I start singin' ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ Well, it's a hard ♪

♪ And it's a hard ♪

♪ It's a hard rain gonna fall ♪

[audience cheering]

[indistinct chatter]

[men chanting Om]

-[Dylan on phone] Hello? -[Sloman] Bob?

-[Dylan] Yeah. -This is Larry.

-[Dylan] Larry, how you doing? -You got a minute?

[Sloman] I gotta do a story in an hour,

and I just need about two or three paragraphs.

-[Dylan] Okay. -Are you up?

[Dylan] Yeah, sort of.

-[indistinct chatter] -[trumpet playing]

[Sloman] What do you-- Why don't you just talk about the music, okay?

[Dylan] What do you wanna know?

[Sloman] I've never seen you so fuckin' great onstage.

I've never seen you so loose. How come?

[Dylan] Jesus Christ, you really got me early in the morning, I can't even think.

-[Sloman laughs] -[Dylan] Uh...

[Dylan] Well, it's just the element I work best in, you know?

You seen those Italian...

those Italian troupes that go around in Italy,

-those Italian street theaters... -[Sloman] Yeah.

[Dylan] The wagon, the wagon troupes, Commedia dell'arte?

[Sloman] Yeah, right.

[Dylan] This is kind of an extension of that, only musically.

-[Sloman] Music Commedia dell'arte? -[Dylan] Yeah.

[girl 1] Come on, Red!

[girl 2] Riva!

-[girl 1] Jane! -[girl 2] Jane!

[girl 1] Get it, Merty!

[man] If somebody told you Bob Dylan was coming to Providence,

you probably wouldn't believe them, but he is, along with Joan Baez,

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Bob Neuwirth,

and it's called the Rolling Thunder Revue at the Providence Civic Center, Tuesday...

[Gianopulos] You'd book the venues,

make deals with each of the local promoters,

and then you'd show up.

And, you know, you'd have a deal for the gate.

And, you know,

hopefully everything would go out, would go well,

and everybody'd make a little money.

Hey, man, it wasn't your door and you weren't invited.

-Hey, don't yell at me, all right? -Oh, I am yelling at ya.

-[scoffs] Okay. -Go get your cop,

-so you can get some fuckin' help. -Okay.

[Gianopulos] The overall promoter was a longtime friend of Bob's

and a fishmonger.

I mean, he never had managed a tour before,

let alone one of this size.

It's bad for your, uh, high blood pressure.

-Yeah, okay. -Bad for your high blood pressure.

-Read him some poetry, Allen. -Anything you wanna say...

So he was out of his element and underprepared,

and he wasn't very well-liked on the tour.

Then tell him the ushers left. Tell him-- Tell him we're framing it.

-[van Dorp] Hi, Barry. -Nice.

[Gianopulos] This guy, Barry Imhoff, was his second-in-command,

and he'd worked for Bill Graham for years,

but just prior to Rolling Thunder

had got out on his own and started Zebra Productions.

And this was one of, you know, if not exactly, his first tour.

[interviewer] What kind of jobs would the promoter do?

[Gianopulos] I did whatever needed to get done.

So one day, you're delivering pizza to the band,

and the next day,

I'm... got a bag full of $15,000,

and I'm walking through a parking lot looking over my shoulder,

thinking everybody knows exactly what I'm doing.

Well, you did what you had to do. Some things we don't talk about.

[indistinct chatter]

[woman] My mom wanted to go see this tour.

Now, you know, nobody wants to go to a concert with their mom.

[laughs] Especially when they're 19 years old.

So, rebelliously, I-- I wore a Kiss T-shirt.

So, I don't know which one of us was more embarrassed,

whether it was me or my mom.

And we went to this concert.

We're trying to get in,

and the guy's giving us kind of a hard time

and looking at our tickets and the thing, and we can't get in...

And then, this guy comes walking up,

and he doesn't have tickets, and he tries to get in.

And the cop at the door is not letting him in,

and not letting him in.

And so, finally, like, a bunch of people come out,

and they get Bob, and Bob turns around and he's like...

And I'm just like this... And my mom's like, "Come on."

And I don't wanna, "come on,"

but my mother pushes us through, and so we go in with Bob, and, um...

Bob turned around and he saw my shirt,

and he was like,

"Do you like them?"

And then I realized he wanted to talk about Kiss.

I think I was trying to-- to sound like I was...

smart, and so I started saying,

"Well, you know, I think that they paint their faces in this Kabuki style."

And he said,

"Oh, I bet Okuni never spit blood into the audience." [laughs]

And I was like, "Okuni?"

And he's like, "Izumo no Okuni."

Oh, and that's, you know,

it's one of the guys who started, uh, Kabuki.

So...

[Kiss] ♪ I wanna rock and roll all night ♪

♪ And party every day ♪

♪ I wanna rock and roll all night ♪

♪ And party every day ♪

♪ I wanna rock and roll all night ♪

[Paul Stanley] I can't hear you!

[Kiss] ♪ And party every day ♪

♪ I wanna rock and roll... ♪

[older Dylan] Scarlet Rivera was some piece of work.

Most people'd kind of stay away from Scarlet, but, uh, not me.

Her boyfriend at the time was the leader of Kiss.

And she took me over to Queens to see them play.

They were playing in a small club. They had face paint on,

and I thought that was kind of interesting.

I kind of filed that away somewhere.

[Paul Stanley] Clap your hands!

[Kiss] ♪ I wanna rock and roll all night ♪

[yelling in French]

Yeah, I remember a lot of things. They-- They said I had a wonderful time.

[laughs] I think I did.

They said every time we used to do any interviews,

all they wanted to know was, "Ronnie, we wanna hear about the orgies."

I said, "Orgies?"

I said, "God damn, we never had any orgies. That sounds nasty as hell."

I said, "We might have had 14 or 15 people in love a time or two, but no orgies."

[laughs]

Look who's here.

[man] Yo, man.

[older Dylan] Well, Ronnie Hawkins, now,

he looked like a shitkicker, but he spoke with the wisdom of a sage.

He was like a...

a...

gladiator or something...

that wrestled and raced

in, uh, in-- in some nondescript Roman arena.

Uh...

you expected Ronnie to, uh, to wear a toga...

instead of that ratty cowboy hat.

-[interviewer] Remember Scarlet Rivera? -[Hawkins] Oh, yeah.

She fell in love with my rhythm man

from my band, Scarlet did.

Yeah, they put on some interesting shows there, up there in my room.

[laughs]

I think I narrated a couple of 'em. I'm not sure.

But, uh, yeah, she was something else... wore a sword.

She had-- She wore a sword everywhere she went,

that girl, so I didn't...

I was a little bit uneasy about trying to slip her out,

'cause, boy, if you didn't satisfy her, she's liable to stab you.

[Spanish guitar playing]

[older Dylan] She was unusual.

I went to her room once, and there was a box of stuff.

Like, chains and mirrors...

candelabras and...

She had swords.

She had a snake.

Just, uh...

many things in... in a trunk.

And, uh, that told me more about her than anything she had to say.

["One More Cup of Coffee" playing on violin]

[older Dylan] She didn't say much.

But she didn't have to.

-[van Dorp] What's that? -[Rivera] This? This is my friend.

He keeps me company while I play.

He's playing the dance beyond his limits.

Something that most people would say is impossible.

But artists like to challenge the impossible, I guess.

[Rivera] That's why we wear the makeup we wear, I guess, too.

[van Dorp] It's a striking image you have onstage.

Mr. Tambourine Man gives us the opportunity

to be whoever we wish to be. [laughs]

[plucking violin]

-[audience applauds] -[acoustic guitar playing]

[Dylan clears throat]

[Dylan] This, uh, young, beautiful, young lady over here is Scarlet.

She plays with us, too.

[speaking Romani language]

I'd been at the high holy gypsy holiday at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer,

South of France.

It happens to be on my birthday, so it was like going home.

[guitar music continues]

Manitas de Plata was there,

and he played all night along the campfire.

I mean, he was fantastic.

And, uh, I stayed up till dawn just listening to him play.

["One More Cup of Coffee" playing]

Some time after that, couldn't have been more than a week,

that song came to me in a dream.

♪ Your breath is sweet ♪

♪ Your eyes are like Two jewels in the sky ♪

♪ Your back is straight Your hair is smooth ♪

♪ On the pillow where you lie ♪

♪ But I don't sense affection ♪

♪ No gratitude or love ♪

♪ Your loyalty is not to me ♪

♪ But to the stars above ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee for the road ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee 'fore I go ♪

♪ To the valley below ♪

♪ Your daddy, he's an outlaw ♪

♪ And a wanderer by trade ♪

♪ He'll teach you how to pick and choose ♪

♪ And how to throw the blade ♪

♪ He oversees his kingdom ♪

♪ So no stranger does intrude ♪

♪ His voice, it trembles as he calls out ♪

♪ For another plate of food ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee for the road ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee 'fore I go ♪

♪ To the valley below ♪

♪ Your sister sees the future ♪

♪ Like your mama and yourself ♪

♪ You've never learned to read or write ♪

♪ There's no books upon your shelf ♪

♪ And your pleasure knows no limits ♪

♪ Your voice is like a meadowlark ♪

♪ But your heart is like an ocean ♪

♪ Mysterious and dark ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee for the road ♪

♪ One more cup of coffee 'fore I go ♪

♪ To the valley below ♪

[audience applauds and cheers]

[van Dorp] Are you used to going to rock shows?

No, it's one of the very few I've seen.

I finally realized, after last night, I've been missing an awful lot.

I thought it was the most unusual occurrence.

I never-- I never noticed...

as a-- as a part of an audience,

I never paid attention to a...

to a response between an audience and people on the stage,

performers onstage.

That, to me, was like a show all by itself.

It was like one battery charging another.

And...

you not only could feel the vibes, you could-- you could almost see them.

There was a...

a love affair between the performers and the audience.

[Rivera] Uh, I was thinking about the forces

that draw people together.

The magnetism that makes the unit that's now formed as Rolling Thunder.

And, uh...

to me, the future already exists.

For some people, maybe for everyone.

It's just a matter of tuning yourself to it.

[Ginsberg] "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,

starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn

looking for an angry fix..."

Allen Ginsberg was a saintlike figure.

It was like having a... kinda like a father figure.

He was always very sober.

No, Allen Ginsberg was anything but a father figure.

He was definitely not a father figure.

[Mansfield] Allen Ginsberg,

a guy I really-- I really miss, of the ones that are gone.

We became very friendly, I mean, you know, he-- he...

I wasn't a bad-looking, you know, little 19-year-old at the time,

and he had a thing for straight,

talented...

um...

teenage boys. [chuckles]

So, that probably added to it, I suppose.

[jazz piano playing]

[older Dylan] One thing people don't know about Ginsberg

is that he was an incredible dancer.

Um... who...

he would just do these steps that were so unusual and exciting.

You know, and he'd always have a good dance partner, too.

Uh, usually somebody from the tour, somebody we'd pick up along the way.

Uh... He danced a lot, Ginsberg.

[applause]

[woman] "& shaman he swings a skinny leg to the sky

& shaman he desires you be there watching

shaman don't care about eating now

he's got his paint on he's ready for jive

& shaman's going to sway & gesture in space

& shaman's shouting yeah for you & singing your sorrow

shaman's not faithful except to you

shaman does it for you you know all this

shaman's got his eyes on the violin."

[woman] There was this yearning, Allen's yearning,

to either be Bob or...

have Bob love him more.

And I remember Bob saying,

"Just go out and sing on the street corners."

So Allen was essentially doing that.