I wonder how many of the people saying how Dylan put Donovan in his place singing "baby blue" are really saying that because either they think it's a better song, or they just like Dylan better? Expecting down votes, but in that scene Donovan's song was much better - guitar work nothing major for either one, but his voice and singing was much better.With that out of the way, Dylan is not a favorite. But I still found this pretty interesting as a snapshot of the times and to see the debates with the press. It kind of confirms how Dylan wanted to play the 'artist' but knew that being difficult with the press would actually sell more records and help give him the credibility he wanted so much.So even if you aren't of a certain age, or don't think Dylan was the big thing, you might still like this as a look back to a different time.

There are new talents in music today who try to do what Dylan did back in this era. They perform like Dylan, but the difference is they lack the message and the passion shown by Dylan here. Dylan was willing to rebel, take things to the edge. He did not have to deal with the political correctness stuff when he was doing live concerts in this era.This film captures it perfectly during the live London concert tour in this era. The director here gets a lot of credit for capturing that edge in this tour. Sadly, Dylan's politics and protests have become largely forgotten because back in this era, the media was so corporate that they would censure anything this edgy. This film captures a lot of the essence of Dylan so well.It is great having Donovan and Joan Baez here for Dylan since they were on the tour. While Dylan is the star, his encounters with them behind the stage are not held back on. Director D.A. Pennebaker knows what he is doing here and he does it again with Monteray Pop which is more Conservative and later he did a documentary on Woodstock, the clone of the Monteray concert that was more Liberal. An out take of the opening of this film - Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues- was also released in 1967. The camera angles of many of these concert clips used by the director were innovative when this was made. Dylans film is about Dylan so unlike Monterey Pop, this film does not focus much on the audience. Instead it has more concert and backstage stuff. It is like Pennebakers other concert films, outstanding work. This is the essential Bob Dylan.

History only matters to the living at least, and among them to those who can consume the packages we devise to understand what happened.Sometimes I really do believe it requires elite skills, a term used by people without the training and discipline. But most of the time, its just about cultural wrappers, and this is such a case. I can imagine a young person, say a 25 year old, watching this and wondering what the big deal was. Why is this pretentious gnome at all interesting?I think you had to be there, which is another way of saying that you had to be culturally tuned to accept the possibility of major change. For whatever reason, we were, from say 65 to 70, a hundred million in the US and countless others elsewhere. And where we invested our hopes was in these artifacts of the popular culture. In films, yes, but more so in the music. It was religious, with the artists serving more as receptacles for what we sent them than as creative geniuses. Well, yes they were that too, but we have many of those today but miss this huge investment.When Dylan made records from about this period on, each of them (until, say he was lost to Jesus) — each of them anticipated where the poetry we were imagining was going. It was open, liquid, sexually ideal. Powerful stuff, because we felt power. Collective because we did most things collectively then, not just purchasing as now. This little film is so imperfect that its embarrassing that it is all we have to cling to. It just happens to be rare.It has three parts. One is some stage performances. These aren't interesting at all, in large part because he had already changed but hadn't told us. This same period is covered by Martin Scorcese's rather precious "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," which at least tells a story for those who weren't there.It also hangs around in hotel rooms, interviews and backstage and hears Dylan rattle on. Its embarrassing this, because we still have this notion that great art comes from great men and women and that they know what they are doing. He's basically a twit that we chose, and we see it here. The only really interesting element of this is a glimpse of Sally Grossman. You'll know her from the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home." She's an important woman in the transformation of our poet. She's perhaps the key, a mystery, a poetical story we still can fill after all these years, because it still carries things we accept. If not power and change and better futures, honest politicians and ideal government, enlightenment, at least love from a wise woman who transforms a willing soul.A third part of this really is great and is something you really should see. Dylan's first electric song was "Subterranean Homesick Blues," originally inspired by Alice in Wonderland meets a Guthrey "dream" song, but loaded and transformed with the sort of open images that would characterize his best work. He hadn't started performing it in shows yet. Alan Ginsberg decided to make a text — a residue in words — of the song, introducing puns and annotations of the already open lyrics. These were put on large sheets. Then, while the camera and record were rolling, Dylan flipped through them as the lines appeared, Ginsberg in the background.Its wonderful, a film of a poem of a song of a life of an imagined future revisited from that future.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Follows Dylan through England as he rises to the peak of his powers. The Holy Spirit surrounding him oozes out of the screen and can be tasted if you pay attention. Dylan dominates his surroundings, on stage and off, with lightning in his pocket and angels in his prose. Sure he's smug and arrogant, but why shouldn't he be? His genius comes through here bare-bones and free of the ornaments and apologies Scorsese recently felt obliged to cushion him with. Dylan will be the first to admit he doesn't have the ability to channel the Divine like he was when this film was made, which makes it all the more important that we have it. Prophets still grace our presence, and it's up to us to pay attention. Watch this film. Pay attention.