Showing posts with label folk rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folk rock. Show all posts

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps - The Concert Film (1978) Review

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps - The Concert Film (1978)
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This is Neil at the top of his game. The decade preceding this release saw Young put out all the strongest material that would carry his reputation for the next 25 years. Sure, he would return to form in the late 80's for another strong run, but this is where he and the Horse hit their stride. Crazy Horse is a one trick pony, but that trick is something else when they have it all together, and they have it all together all the way through this DVD.
The stage show is a bit silly in retrospect, the kind of grandstanding he must have done, tongue in cheek, but the music is undeniably powerful. In many cases, these are the definitive versions of these songs, and Young clearly revels in their glories. You'll not find a better version of "Cinnamon Girl" or "Powderfinger" anywhere, and the proof is how well these renditions in particular have stood up.
Of course, it would all go south almost immediately after this tour. Becoming a father to two severely handicapped sons, dealing with failed relationships and a new marraige and trying to keep his private life out of the public eye and out of the manipulating hands of David Geffen would result in some truly awful, often bewildering, constantly changing directions that would span the 80's. Not until the Bluenotes Cd and then FREEDOM would Neil find his groove and court passionately his muse again, but at least at this point, it is as though he is that kid on the dock in "Powderfinger" who is just about to see his face flash in the sky.
This is a landmark concert, well worth watching over and over again. The sound transfer is great.

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RUST NEVER SLEEPS - DVD Movie

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Masked and Anonymous (2003) Review

Masked and Anonymous (2003)
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You would probably have to go back to early Godard to find a movie as audacious, shockingly funny and brilliantly incisive in its analysis of the uneasy alliance between art and commerce as the sci-fi/film noir/spaghetti-western/Shakespearean musical-tragicomedy, Masked and Anonymous, the new movie from Bob Dylan and Larry Charles. As with some Godard, I can't say whether it's a comedy or a tragedy - but it's definitely a masterpiece.
To direct the Hollywood cast to speak in the script's poetic, ornate language could not have been easy but the actors do an exemplary job. Nearly all of them manage to hit just the right note of cartoonish hysteria to give the film a sense of unity and harmony. Except, that is, for Bob Dylan. His character, Jack Fate, is the calm in the eye of the storm, the one rational character surrounded by a world of swirling insanity and director Charles gets a lot of comic mileage out of the contrast
between Dylan's deadpan delivery and the over-the-top performances of nearly everyone else; it's like taking a Humphrey Bogart character out of the '40's and plunking him down in the middle of a massively absurd science-fiction landscape - the resignation and world-weariness of the film noir hero remains hilariously intact. The very idea is inspired and the execution is flawless.
The performance footage of course is terrific. Dylan and His Band play eight songs live on camera and there is a warmth, an intimacy and a relaxed quality to the performances that you will only see at Dylan's best club shows. Although none of the songs are heard in their entirety, these sequences are nonetheless beautifully filmed. There is none of the rapid-fire editing and pointlessly roving camera that mars the filmed footage of so many live musical performances. Instead, Charles' strategy is to have the band crowd together and film them in close-up with a wide-angle lens. There are numerous long takes in which all of the band members can be seen and when the camera does move, it's deliberate and meaningful.
In a recent interview, Larry Charles said he never worried about
finding a distributor for the film and that Dylan had told him long ago not to worry about the film "in the short term." However the film _is_ received in the short term, the richly orchestrated tapestry of sound and image that is Masked and Anonymous is sure to keep Dylanologists and film fans alike busy for decades.

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In a fictional America caught up in a civil war that is tearing the nation apart, a benefit concert is being organized. A traveling troubadour named Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) is sprung from jail by his scheming former manager (John Goodman) to headline a concert with the expectations to bring peace to a country that is entrenched by chaos, lawlessness and pandemonium. Star-studded cast includes: Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson. Cameos by Mickey Rourke, Angela Basset, Giovanni Ribisi, Val Kilmer, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris and Bruce Dern.

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