Product Description

Barry Feinstein was the exclusive tour photographer on Bob Dylan and The Band's legendary 1966 and 1974 World Tours. In this documentary feature film, Feinstein and Director Joel Gilbert chronicle these epic Bob Dylan tours, featuring over 150 selections

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76061 in DVD
• Published on: 2004
• Released on: 2005-03-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
A treasure trove of heretofore unseen photographs of Bob Dylan will likely be the main attraction of Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974, a labor of love directed and produced by Joel Gilbert. Gilbert, leader of a group (called Highway 61 Revisited) that he bills as "the world's only lookalike, soundalike Bob Dylan tribute band," is obviously a Dylan fanatic (and he does bear a passing resemblance to a younger version of the singer). In the course of this two-hour documentary, he travels to Woodstock, New York, where he and Barry Feinstein, the official photographer on Dylan's trips to England in '66 (when he unveiled his new electric sound, to the dismay of many folk purists) and his '74 "comeback" tour with the Band, examining dozens of photos, many of them quite revealing. Elsewhere, Gilbert interviews journalist Al Aronowitz (who introduced Dylan to the Beatles), filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (who shot the Don't Look Back documentary), and "Dylanologist" A. J. Weberman (a genuine kook who gained notoriety mainly by rummaging through Dylan's garbage). These encounters are only of passing interest, due both to the fact the subjects are recalling events that took place decades ago and to Gilbert's amateurish interviewing skills; asking Feinstein whether he gave Dylan a birthday present, or wondering if Weberman considers himself "an obsessive fan" (gee, do you think?) may not be the best way to elicit fascinating revelations. While Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974, which also includes an exceedingly lame "re-creation" of Dylan's late-'60s motorcycle accident and a visit to "Big Pink" (where Dylan and the Band recorded), was made without Dylan's participation and contains none of his music, it's obviously a sincere effort. Whether it will find favor with anyone other than Dylan completists is another matter entirely. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Tedious
I'll be honest --- I sat through about 45 minutes of this documentary [...]. It's not that the photos aren't interesting; but I'd rather have them in a coffee table book so I could look at them at my leisure.

What I saw of this film is mostly zooming in and out of Barry Feinstein's photographs. Not only is there no footage of Dylan performing, but there are almost no photos of Dylan performing, either. In fact, Feinstein states that he was only interested in photographing Bob's personal side, and that if you want to see performances, you should go to a show. So you see a lot of pictures of Bob talking to kids in the street in England, and so on.

Interviewing is an art, and the director who interviews Feinstein doesn't have the talent. His style is leaden and ponderous and Feinstein seems a very dull interview subject. A skilled interviewer might have drawn out more interesting stories, but Feinstein talks about himself and his views on photography and has very little to say about Bob Dylan.

This disc is for hard, hard-core Dylan fans only. In my opinion, you're better off buying one of the numerous biographies or checking out "Don't Look Back" or several of the other videos that actually have musical performances.

A book of these photographs would be much more interesting [...].

Maybe worth it for hard core fans
My two star rating is primarily because of the deliberately deceptive packaging, which is shameless and inexcuseable. Some of the content is actually better than I thought it would be. My Mom bought this for me, expecting it to be concert footage. SHE felt ripped off! However, I had already read these reviews, so I knew what to expect when I played it. The presentation is amatuerish, the motorcycle accident "recreation" is ridiculous, the Bob Dylan "act" I find rather pathetic. Given that, I actually enjoyed the interviews and found them fairly informative. It seems that Feinstein, Pennebaker and Aronowitz all happily participated. One wonders why--does that give Gilbert more credibility?--I don't know. Of course, all them play it pretty close to the vest and are clearly protective of Dylan's privacy.(Of course, I would have loved to have heard more about the nubile female "poets" zooming in on Bob during his '66 tour--he was already married then--but we get no juicy details.) I actually liked hearing Feinstein's explantions about how he composed shots, what equipment he used, why Dylan made such a great photographic subject, etc. The pictures are great, some of the best ever taken of Dylan. But many of them have been published, (some have not). I enjoyed seeing Dylan's Woodstock homes, Big Pink, etc. The A.J. Weberman interview really brings home the craziness that Dylan had to contend with. I give Gilbert some credit for giving him a hard time, yet you hate to see the guy get screen time also.
So I would call this a minor guilty pleasure for a hard core Dylan fan like myself. I doubt that I would have bought it for myself, yet I'll probably go through the picture galleries from time to time.

Not an official Bob Dylan release...
A friend of mine works for a music publication, and had this sent to her (to review, perhaps). So, she gave me this DVD. I was about to eBay it, but figured I'd have a look.

There is NO Bob Dylan music, nor any live concert footage. This is NOT an "official" Bob Dylan release. One must read the fine print on the back of the DVD case to learn this. So, buying online MIGHT fool some people... if they purchase going on the DVD's title alone.

The Director, Joel Gilbert - who happens to be the "Bob Dylan" in the tribute band "Highway 61 Revisited" - does an ok job on this DVD. He's a good guy who knows his stuff on Dylan. Although I've never met him in-person, I've e-mailed him back and forth a couple times regarding Bob Dylan's guitars. No, he may not be the world's premiere interviewer, but just watching him interacting with old-timers and former hippies living in Woodstock and in Manhattan is amusing.

This IS for the Dylan fan who must have everything. It's like a half-step above a film school student's final project. But, there is some entertainment value in it.

So, having watched it once, I'm off to sell on eBay! If anyone wants a cheap copy of this DVD, head on over!