I worked with Neuwirth on Bob Holman's album back in the late 90's. He couldn't have been kinder, funnier, a better storyteller. Two days of good work and a pleasant pal for the duration. He was a perfectly fine rhythm player, too.
Did they carve "Dylan's wretched, unfunny sycophant" on Bobby Neuwirth's tombstone? That's precisely the epitaph he earned. Burn in hell, Bobby--you hateful, talentless, approval-seeking schmuck.
Maybe it's just me. But I prefer more from movie-making than just pointing a camera at anything that moves, along with a lot of incoherent babbling for dialogue.
Bobby the original D rider. Dylan did say to him let's get some leather jackets and go on the road with me, but if you watch "Don't Look Back", you see Bobby was doing wayyyy too much l. He was desperately riding Dylan coattails and obnoxious about it. His only skill for the tour was lighting Dylan cigs and holding the drugs in case the cops came around. This clip is the epitome of a male groupie for a man. Gross
This will be a long and very personal comment. I was a few years too young for the Woodstock generation, born in 1957. Not too young though to learn guitar when I was 7 and play Dylan, along with Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, etc. In college I fell deeply in love with a girl, she was still in high school although only two years younger than me, we had a clandestine semi-relationship for several years because of her parents' objections, but we saw each other only rarely. We both graduated (me college, her high school - I was a prodigy) in 1977. We were both highly liberal, teetering on the edge of Marxists (which wasn't as out of fashion in those days). She went away to college and I hoped maybe her being away from her parents would finally light the fire that had been just a candle for several years. I invited her to go to New York with me on a business trip, hoping she would finally say "Yes" to all I dreamed of. We had a nice time but her feelings just weren't what mine were. But - we did go to see Renaldo and Clara at the Waverly in Greenwich Village, I think in the last week of February, 1978. I can't think of anything more iconic than she and I, Dylan, this obscure piece of pop culture, at the genuinely iconic venue. 40 years later we still stay in touch, the fire isn't even a candle anymore, more like a nightlight, but for a brief (?) moment, I was in the perfect place with the perfect person, almost as though this movie neatly bisects my life.
Ahhh Bob Neuwirth, perhaps the most iconic hanger-on. Dresses like Bob, shades like Bob, smokes like Bob, mocks like Bob. Just missing the originality is all.
It is a litmus test of great rock stars completely in the zone of peak creativity that they look amazing and how they dress is magically part of that. They can wear larger than life flamboyant clothes and it doesn't look stupid, just natural and appropriate.
I saw this film when it first came out, but not in a theatre. It was attended by a smallish group of groupies, in a bare classroom at Toronto's York University. We sat in rows of foldout chairs and watched as the clickety clack projector cranked out the celluloid for the next four spellbinding but confusing hours. It was a home movie that was watchable mostly because of who was in it. Dylan's music makes it all worthwhile. It is also a kind of historical document of a special moment in time
I wish I could find a coat like Bob's. I'm a woman, but I loved his Desire era style. I would find some way to incorporate his style into my wardrobe. His 60's mod look to the 70's was everything....even his cowboy look of his later years is stylish. Always been a stylish man
If your still around after 3 years, that coat of Bob's was given to him by John Phillips of the Mama's and the Pappa'.s It actually belonged to John and I guess Bob loved it and he gave it to him.
They used sell a Desire-style cardigan sweater (same design), that I DEARLY want, but it's sold out. To add a level of cool, that coat was a gift to Bob from Dennis Hopper, who can be seen wearing that coat in his film, THE LAST MOVIE. If the coat belonged to John Phillips, it makes sense bc Hopper married Michelle Phillips, the marriage lasted 8 days. Hop said, "that was a good honeymoon. 7 days were wonderful, it was the 8th that did it..."
+hello123 More or less... Makes about as much sense as anything else in the this film. Dylan was one of the most acclaimed musicians and songwriters of the 20th Century, but as a filmmaker ... um.. he wasn't exactly Spielberg.
To those looking for it, as someone who bought the film at a fair in Tel Aviv, go to Ebay; the film was recorded from British television. One can find it if he/she is savvy.
Because he wanted a wife who would stay at home and raise the kids, Joan would be traveling all over the world. Plus she wasn't Jewish, that may have had something to do with it altho I couldn't prove it. Poor Joan, you can tell she was so much in love with him.
I honestly believe her commitment to political and social justice/activism was more than he could bear. In Sara, he just could retreat and raise a family. With Joan, her intense desire to causes like the Vietnam War and such were frightening to Bob because he knew he was vulnerable to push back from the powers that be. He wanted like Elvis to play the “Entertainer “ card and absolve himself of being the Social Messiah Joan expected him to become.
That's Sally Grossman, Albert Grossman's (young) wife. In addition to being on the album cover for Bringing It All Back Home, you see her pop up in photos and footage from the 1964-66 period.
