TV REVIEW : An Ambitious 10-Hour ‘History of Rock’

You know you are in good hands in the 10-hour “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which begins a five-night excursion tonight on KCOP-TV, when the first shot of Bob Dylan isn’t from the concert stage, but from a movie set.

In a scene from Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” actor James Coburn asks Dylan, who plays a mysterious character named Alias in the film, just who he is. Dylan replies teasingly, “That’s a good question.”

The footage, at the start of tonight’s opening chapter in the series, which runs two hours a night, alludes nicely to the riddle that has long surrounded rock’s most enigmatic figure.

Tonight’s episodes don’t solve the Dylan puzzle, but the Coburn/Dylan exchange shows us that the team behind this ambitious series is out at every turn to brighten the journey with imagination and, crucially, rare footage.

In chapter one, which focuses on the social upheaval of the late ‘60s, most viewers will see for the first time the angry reaction of the folk fans when Dylan moved from folk to full-throttle rock ‘n’ roll.

In an equally fascinating moment in chapter two, we see the hostile crowd at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, caught up in its counter-culture spirit, accusing the performers of selling out because they are getting paid. Joni Mitchell ends up pleading with the boisterous crowd to give the performers a chance.

When tonight’s episodes turn from the vintage footage to recent interviews (Pete Townshend to Bono), the results are uneven. It’s also disorienting that the series starts in the mid-’60s rather than with the birth of rock in the ‘50s (that early history will be shown in Saturday’s chapters). Even so, “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll”--which will be available on home video starting Tuesday--gets off to a generally promising start. The key to the remaining episodes: the amount of rare footage.

* “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” airs tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m., and concludes Sunday at 7 p.m., on KCOP-TV Channel 13.