Present (XXIX) - RTR 75 / 19

      In spring this year, the media began to widely report the appearance of new and revealing materials about one of the most fascinating stages in the history of Bob Dylan’s tours: that of the Rolling Thunder Revue. On 7th June, a collection of 14 CDs would go on sale titled The RTR: The 1975 Live Recordings, and five days later Netflix would release what it was advertising as a documentary about the tour, directed by Martin Scorsese. The poster showed one of the most emblematic photos of Dylan (his favourite one (in black and white), he stated at one point), taken of him in three-quarter profile by Ken Regan, his impenetrable eyes framed between a hat with the brim covered in flowers and a scarf that suggests the movement of somebody who, when walking, hears his name (or perhaps another one), and turns his head seeking the source of the voice. The Netflix poster rotated the image disconcertingly and coloured the flowers and scarf with intense watercolour shades. Under the title, seven words accurately defined the contents of the film: “A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE”, all in capitals, the two names revolving around the central concept. The rotation of Dylan’s profile, the colours superimposed on the greyscale of the photo and the prominence of the word “story” could act as warning signs in the face of a certain type of expectations, it might appear afterwards. However, suggesting an interpretation of the symbolic meaning of the ingredients of this poster after seeing it for the first time would have required something I do not have: remaining invulnerable to the suggestive beauty of the image, that face suspended in time, looking you in the eyes as if in order to dissuade you from following or to invite you to do so.

      I cannot be immune to it, because I accepted that invitation from Dylan long ago. In November 1975, I joined the Rolling Thunder Revue. Now, nearly forty-four years later, the time has also come for me to conjure up that magic once more.