Martin Scorsese’s 2019 documentary covers Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour from 1975, and Simon Weitzman’s recent doc presents the life and career of Tucson native and rock n’ roll tour manager Chris O’Dell.
Bob Dylan’s 1975 “Rolling Thunder Revue” was a unique idea for a concert tour. Dylan and his band at the time (which included the violinist Scarlet Rivera) were the headliners. Joan Baez and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott were also on the bill. Allen Ginsberg came along as a spiritual guide, and he recited some of his poetry in the shows. Various other guests hopped on the bus along the way, including Joni Mitchell, Roger McGuinn, and Ronee Blakley. The tour played smaller venues, which made the experience more intimate, but ultimately less profitable.
In 2019, Martin Scorsese came out with a film about this called, naturally, Rolling Thunder Revue. It’s a celebration of Dylan and the creative energy that went into these shows. The music is fabulous. I have to say I’ve never seen Dylan as relaxed leading a band on stage as in the footage from Rolling Thunder.
It was conceived as a kind of carnival or medicine show, with a stage curtain and colorful costumes, Dylan himself wearing “white face” and clearly enjoying being up there. At times it seems like a final flowering of the ’60s rock scene: staying close to the audience, not playing the huge stadium game. The music and the original footage would have been enough to make the film great. Indeed, the movie gives us a rollicking good time. The story behind the tour is another thing. Along with real interviews, often fascinating, we are told that the original footage was shot by an independent filmmaker called Stefan Van Dorp, and there are recent excerpts from interviews with him. The actress Sharon Stone says she met Dylan at one of the shows, and there are other odd stories, but when I recognized a supposed congressman saying he’d been given a ticket from Jimmy Carter, as the actor Michael Murphy, I realized I’d been pranked.
Scorsese, with the full cooperation of Dylan, has inserted fictional elements in the film as a kind of spoof of tell-all musical documentaries. Sharon Stone’s story is made up. Van Dorp doesn’t exist: he’s played by an actor. The original footage was actually shot by Dylan himself for his film Renaldo and Clara. Rolling Thunder Revue is a wonderful film with great music, but along the way we also have to put up with Dylan trying to mess with our minds.
In one brief shot in Rolling Thunder, we get a glimpse of a blonde woman who was in fact the tour manager, Chris O’Dell. Chris O’Dell is a Tucson native who was working in Los Angeles in 1968 when a chance encounter led to her being hired as an assistant at Apple Records in London and getting to know the Beatles. George Harrison wrote a song about her called “Miss O’Dell.” Now, based on her recent memoir, there’s a film called Miss O’Dell, with a special focus on her time with the Beatles. It’s a fun and interesting portrait of a remarkable woman and a strange time, featuring lots of interviews of her and those who’ve known and worked with her. It premiered here in Tucson at The Loft last month, and O’Dell herself, as lively as ever, was there for a Q&A. Miss O’Dell is now available streaming, and on DVD. I recommend you see it.
