New Bob Dylan DVD "Down In The Flood"

I'm not so much against the notion of The Band's greatness, but I'm one of those realists that think their best work came early on, and maybe their ending was a blessing in disguise.

I'm also one of those guys who thinks Robbie Robertson's ego was frighteningly inflated and that Levon Helm was probably the band's spiritual center, and that he was incredibly important to their legitimacy.

All of this, we wouldn't even be arguing about things like this had the band never received that phone call from Bob Dylan, when he asked them "You guys feel like going on the road with me and get boo'ed?"

There's a new documentary out detailing Dylan's relationship with the band and how they were witness to Bobby's first of many transformations, one that transitioned him from a mere folk icon into someone who ended up changing the face of rock music.


Bob Dylan & The Band Down In The Flood
Comes to DVD on September 25

"In 1966 Bob Dylan began his first electric world tour. It was a landmark moment, both for Dylan and for the history of rock music, and it bitterly divided his audience. Backing Dylan on stage was an obscure group of Canadian musicians collectively known as The Hawks. In the months following the tour they would join Dylan during a lengthy convalescence in New York's Catskill Mountains; when both parties re-emerged, Dylan had undergone an artistic transformation that sent ripples across American music and The Hawks had become simply 'The Band', one of the most important recording groups of their generation.

This is the story of the relationship between Dylan and The Band, the legendary amateur recordings that they made together in Woodstock, their re-invention of American music and their continued albeit sporadic relationship during the 1970s. Featuring new interviews with Garth Hudson; Band producer John Simon; The Hawks' 66 tour drummer, Mickey Jones; the man who assembled and tutored the Hawks and from whom they took their name, Ronnie Hawkins; Dylan guitarist, Charlie McCoy; Band biographer Barney Hoskyns; Basement Tapes Archivist, Sid Griffin, Isis magazine's Derek Barker and Rolling Stone's Anthony De Curtis. Also features rare footage, archive interviews, seldom seen photographs and the music that changed the world, all at once making for the finest program on this element of Bob Dylan and The Band's respective and communal careers yet to emerge."