Bob Dylan has shared a new video for his classic song, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," featuring rare, previously unreleased footage from the folk icon's 1965 and 1966 European tours filmed by director D.A. Pennebaker. As Rolling Stone reports, the new video's release marks the arrival of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966, a collection of previously unreleased studio recordings including outtakes, rehearsal tracks and other tracks recorded during a 14-month period that resulted in the albums Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde; the new video's release also coincides with the restored release of Don't Look Back.
The video was produced by Damian Rodriguez using Pennebaker's footage of Dylan on the road, backstage and onstage while touring the British Isles. The black-and-white clips are from 1965 and the color clips are from 1966. As he sings about being "lost in the rain in Juarez," searching for meaning while away from home, we see the iconic folk singer sitting broodingly in the backseat of a car or on a train as he drifts between stops on the tours, adjusting his shirt before going on stage and greeting fans backstage. Towards the end of the video, you can catch a bonus cameo of John Lennon as he and Dylan drive around.
This version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is slower and moodier than the version that made it onto Highway 61 Revisited. As NPR reports, it's actually the third take of the song, whereas the 16th and final take was the one that made the cut; Dylan had recorded more versions of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" than he usually did for any album in his discography. This new mellow version is just one of the many alternates featured on The Bootleg Series Vol. 12.
