New York Times Critic Janet Maslin Talks Rolling Thunder

1975-11-06, Civic Center, Springfield, MA (two shows)

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Daniel Kramer via Fahey Klein Gallery

If you’ve read the New York Times’ arts section at any point in the last forty-plus years, you probably know Janet Maslin’s byline. From 1977 to 1999, she served as one of the paper’s film critics - “Chief Film Critic“ by the end. One of her first reviews was of Renaldo & Clara. Then in 2000, she switched to become one of the paper’s main book critics, just in time to review Chronicles.

But before she was a film critic or a book critic, she began her career as a music critic. In 1975, she wrote one of the most comprehensive contemporary reviews of the Rolling Thunder Revue after seeing the shows in Providence and, today’s show, Springfield. You can read her article for New Times - a national magazine, not to be confused with the New York Times - over on former guest newsletter author James Adams’ Twitter feed.

Last week I called Maslin up to talk about Rolling Thunder, Renaldo & Clara, last year’s Scorsese doc, and what other Dylan books and movies maybe the most credentialed person in the world on those two particular subjects would recommend.

Oh, and about the time she had dinner with Bob…

What was your history with Dylan’s music before Rolling Thunder?

Oh, I was a fan in high school. I graduated in 1966.  I lived on Long Island and we all went to the city to hear various folk singers. I don't know that I ever heard him, but we were all 100% aware of every single thing he did.

Do you remember when the first time you saw him was?

I'm not sure. I worked for the Boston Phoenix, which was an underground paper. I was reviewing records for them, then I started reviewing records for Rolling Stone. I was married to the music editor who did the record review section, Jon Landau. In the time I was married to him, I would bet I went to a Dylan concert or two with him. During those years I went to everything. I went to see Elvis at the Boston Garden. I went to Mick Jagger's birthday party. There was no big occasion that we didn't go to.

In terms of Rolling Thunder, you reviewed two shows, Providence and Springfield. 45 years later, what sticks out in your memory?

By then I was commuting to New York once a month for New Times. I was their music columnist; that was how I got accredited. But it turned out you didn't really need that. You just needed to drive to one of those venues and wait around for tickets.

The concerts weren't that crowded. I know I went to Providence and Springfield. I think I saw it in Worcester also. And I think I saw one of the two Boston shows. I just drove around with a bunch of friends following it. They were the best concerts I've ever seen. I was just completely smitten.

Remember, I was a movie critic by then too. It was the year of Nashville and he had Ronnie Blakely with him. Just the whole combination of who he had with him and what he was playing was a huge magnet for everybody.

I think [the New Times review] is maybe the most accurate thing I ever wrote. Because when I saw the [Scorsese] film, I remembered the sense of having been so caught up in the acting that they were doing. The thing with Baez when the curtain comes up and she and Bob seem to be reunited - you get all caught up in that and you really believe it. Then the second time I saw it, the fact that it was exactly the same and that they were performing it, not feeling it, I remember being both let down by that, but really impressed with how staged everything was.

I mean, I don't think he's been in that mood any other time on stage. The fact that he really seemed to be enjoying himself was different. I don't think that's what he does. I haven't seen him in a long time, but, for once, he seemed really excited and exuberant and like the audience wasn't the enemy. It was just a very special moment in his life, for whatever reason.

Those concerts were so good that they were just draining. Rolling Thunder was in small venues with audiences packed tightly together. There was no other way you could ever see him that would elicit that kind of response. Not at Newport, not anywhere, because he usually played to gigantic crowds.

I cried like that girl in the audience after the first time I saw it. I felt so ecstatic and so wiped out by it. I understood exactly what [that girl in the movie] was doing. I remember that feeling.

Do you remember any differences between Providence and Springfield? I mean, I know the setlists, but just in terms of the venue or your experience.

It didn't feel like seeing the same thing twice. It felt like they were making it up as they went along, except for things like the curtain rise with Baez.

Did you end up seeing more shows after Rolling Thunder in later years?

Not so much, because by then I was a film critic, and I was very busy and I had little kids.

I had dinner with him once. I was supposed to do a piece for the Times Magazine about him. I think I was being auditioned for it. So I went to dinner at Jerry Wexler's apartment and sat next to [Bob] at dinner.

The whole idea of having to talk to him throughout dinner, and just like watching him eat salad, was more than I could handle. He was very nice, but the idea that he was human was just overwhelming to me. He was with a black woman who was a singer, who might have been his wife [Carolyn Dennis]. He kept telling me, "Why don't you write about her? She's a much better story than I am." We talked about very banal things, but it was a constant drumbeat, "you should write about her." Nothing was accomplished in terms of my doing a piece about him.

Maybe you should have done a piece about her! You might have gotten the scoop about that marriage, which no one knew about for years.

Well, I wasn't assigned to write about her! I had been sent there with one mission. I wasn't there looking for assignments. I had one.

Anyone else notable at that dinner?

I'm sure they all were! But I had eyes for only one person. I was working, you know. Everybody else either knew him very well, or they were professionally ignoring him on purpose. You weren't supposed to stare at him. And he was making every effort to act like a normal person. I think he is a normal person, in a lot of ways. But I had no preparation for that. I had no idea what to expect.

Do you ever get a sense of why the story didn't work out? Was it just a lack of interest on his part?

I don't think he bothers with most things he's asked to do.

I'm surprised he even assented to your trial dinner.

I think he knew who I was. I'd written about him an awful lot. I had reviewed Renaldo and Clara in the Times. And I wasn't as stupid writing about him as I was sitting with him! It was a very pleasant high-powered music business dinner, but being seated next to him was just too much.

I just read your Renaldo and Clara review. It was positive, at least compared to a lot of the other ones. Maybe that was part of it. Do you still feel the same way about that movie so many years later?

I haven't seen it again, but I imagined I probably would. I was more interested in him than most people would have been. Everybody else was saying, get out of town with that. I think he probably knew that.

The longest movie review I ever wrote for the Times was about The Doors. I was always the person who cared about the rock stuff in some way when nobody else did. No one understood what he was doing until they saw [the Scorsese doc]

You’ve mentioned that Scorsese movie a few times. You’d left the film beat by the time it came out - what did you think of it?

I just adore it. The idea that I can have that movie on my iPad and I can turn it on at any time and just queue it up to "Hard Rain" is the most exciting thing. I think the artifice in it is really a smart, interesting way of putting that material together. Marty did a brilliant job with it - which I don't think about all of his music films at all. I'm just happy it exists in the world. I know it almost by heart, I've seen it so many times.

There's a funny story. I have two sons and they're both married and they know how I feel about this. They were not having any part of Rolling Thunder. I tried everything. I got a bottle of his bourbon, so I could try to bribe them with it [to watch the movie]. They weren't going to even touch that. Then, for Christmas, they all surprised me. They had t-shirts made up that said Rolling Thunder Revue with my name, special screening by invitation only with a date on it, and his picture on the front. And they all sat down to watch it with me. I'm not sure they enjoyed it one bit. But they did it. That was my Christmas present.

It drives me crazy that people watch the scene with Joni Mitchell and think that's the best scene in the movie. No it's not! She wandered in there for one or two songs. But it's not about her. She just happened to be there. It's about him and it's about all of his tricks. About him as a collector of people and a terrible manipulator. Kind of a seeker, but also a really mean person too. Most of all, it's about the music.

I'm glad there's finally some tangible record of what I saw. Because it's been lodged in my head like that for all these years. I could see it, hear it, smell it, and couldn't make anybody else see it, because there was no way of transmitting it. It's the most accurate memory I had of a concert. I was shocked when my memory turned out to be so close to the real thing.

Any other Dylan related movies you'd recommend?