Thusspokejade - Jade

George Harrison and Bob Dylan, Concert for Bangladesh, 1 August 1971; photo by Bill Ray (?).

Q: “One of the coups of [the Concert for] Bangladesh was Dylan’s appearance, because he had done so little since his motorcycle accident in 1966. Was he initially reluctant to do Bangladesh?”

George Harrison: “He was. He never committed himself, right up until the moment he came onstage. On the night before Bangladesh, we sat in Madison Square Garden as the people were setting up the bandstand. He looked around the place and said to me, ‘Hey, man, you know, this isn’t my scene.’ I’d had so many months… it seemed like a long time of trying to get it all together, and my head was reeling with all the problems and never. I’d gotten so fed up with him not being committed, I said, ‘Look, it’s not my scene, either. At least you’ve played on your own in front of a crowd before. I’ve never done that.’ So he turned up the next morning, which looked positive. I had a list, a sort of running order, that I had glued on my guitar. When I got to the point where Bob was going to come on, I had Bob with a question mark. I looked over my shoulder to see if he was around, because if he wasn’t, I would have to go on to do the next bit. And I looked around, and he was so nervous — he had his guitar and his shades — he was sort of coming on, coming [pumps his arms and shoulders]. So I just said, ‘My old friend, Bob Dylan!’ It was only at that moment that I knew for sure he was going to do it. After the second show, he picked me up and hugged me and said, ‘God! If only we’d done three shows.’” - Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987 (x)

George Harrison during Robert Whitaker's Yesterday and Today photo session | 25 March 1966 © Leslie Bryce

George Harrison’s purple jacket, worn when he and John were on the David Frost Programme September 27, 1967. Designer unknown.

My scan from “You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-70.” This was the catalogue from the Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition of the same name. Book edited by Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh.

Rollin’ Rain and Hard Thunder - A Compilation Film by Swingin’ Pig from Swingin’ Pig (alternate account) on Vimeo.

PLEASE READ:

Here it is. I spent about a month editing this video together. I ripped the footage from a bootlegged tape of “Renaldo & Clara,” a 1978 film that was edited by Howard Alk and Bob Dylan himself. Some snippets are from Martin Scorsese’s incredible Netflix documentary “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.” If you’d like to see “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “One More Cup of Coffee” (both of which are in this compilation) in 4K quality, do yourself a favor and watch it. There are other incredible performances in it that weren’t in “Renaldo & Clara.”

Anyway, as I was saying, this footage is from a source tape and some of the best quality versions that are available at the moment. Someday these performances will be rescanned, restored and released, but for now, this is what I have to work with visually. I did my best to correct the faded colors, correct the lighting, and sharpen the image a bit, but please realize that this was recorded from a television broadcast in the 1970s, and unaltered since then, so the images won’t be perfect.

The audio is a different story, luckily. It took a long time to do, but I successfully overdubbed all of the original low-quality audio (it had a lot of hiss and was broadcasted in mono) with the soundboard recordings released on the Rolling Thunder Boxset. This took longer than I had expected because the footage and audio were sped up in the bootleg tape. But I eventually calculated the difference in speed and was able to synchronize them.

So, please enjoy this labor of love! Below is somewhat of a setlist and some of my personal thoughts on “standout” performances in this video.

CHAPTERS: 0:07 - It Ain’t Me, Babe 5:26 - It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry [Excellent, rocking version] 8:32 - Fascinating historical commentary by David Blue 9:20 - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall [released on YouTube and on Netflix’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” documentary] 14:15 - Romance in Durango 19:05 - Isis [Incredible performance, superior to the one in the documentary. His voice is sheer power and cuts like a knife. I dare say it’s Dylan’s best-filmed performance of the tour. The way he moves his arms and hands makes you feel like you’re looking into another dimension] 24:20 - Never Let Me Go [feat. Joan Baez] 27:05 - Interesting footage of the revue visiting Niagra Falls 27:32 - One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) [released on YouTube and on Netflix’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” documentary] 31:35 - Sara [Gorgeous version with some beautiful footage I edited together in the beginning. The verse starting at 34:54 has incredible enunciation] 36:21 - Just Like a Woman [This is my favorite version of the song. Just watch listen to the whole thing, uninterrupted. It’s just phenomenal. The bridge (“It was raining from the first”) is some of the strongest singing I’ve ever heard from Dylan and then in the subsequent verse, he abruptly drops into this sweet tone. Just phenomenal] 40:32 - Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door [Beautiful version, superior to the one released in the Netflix documentary. The instrumental at 42:56 gives me chills] 44:35 - An emotional and cathartic ending.

Enjoy this gem while you can!

George Harrison’s purple jacket, worn when he and John were on the David Frost Programme September 27, 1967. Designer unknown.

My scan from “You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-70.” This was the catalogue from the Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition of the same name. Book edited by Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh.

To be a hero—in the most universal sense of the word—means to aspire to absolute triumph. But such triumphs come only through death. Heroism means transcending life; it is a fatal leap into nothingness.

Emil Cioran, “Disintegration,” On the Heights of Despair (via emilcioran)

The First U.S. Visit (1964)