There remains only one full length concert movie that Bob Dylan has ever released: “Hard to Handle,” featuring Dylan backed up by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, performing in Australia in 1986.

The video begins not with the first song of a particular show, but with a song plucked from the middle of a gig. It begins, in fact, not with music at all, but with some words being spoken by the “hero of the counterculture” to his concert audience. It’s got to be noted that this was five years after what’s considered to be his last gospel album (Shot of Love) and three years after many critics and analysts reacted to his 1983 album, Infidels by theorizing that he had left his “Christian phase” behind. He says:

I wanna do a song about my hero. Everybody’s got their own hero. I don’t know who your hero is. Maybe Mel Gibson (audience cheers loudly, and Dylan grins) Alright! Let’s hear it for Mel Gibson (Dylan laughs). … maybe it would be Michael Jackson (pause) – Bruce Springsteen (moderate cheer from audience).

Anyway, I don’t care nothing about none of those people. I have my own hero, and I’m gonna sing about my hero now.

Then Dylan and the band perform In the Garden, which is from his 1980 album Saved.

Click here for a low-res audio clip of the performance.

You can view a video clip via YouTube by clicking below. (Warning: this clip won’t be on YouTube for very long.)

[ video no longer available ]

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That “Hard to Handle” video is not the easiest thing to come by at this point. Though it’s an energy-filled performance by Dylan which most fans would enjoy, it seems with hindsight that he wasn’t too happy with where he was at, musically, at the time (see Chronicles), and apparently he also felt burdened by expectations and the whole “legend” thing. The video has been out of print for quite a few years. However, versions of it might be found on eBay, and apparently you can also get it on VHS via Amazon, below.

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