Let's start with an important point. This was not solely a Bob Dylan concert. This is The Bob Dylan Show, something that Dylan has been doing in the summer for a number of years now. Dylan gathers two or three other acts and goes out on the road playing ballparks and other venues. The show is as much about the other acts as it is about Dylan, who finishes the night with a tight, ninety minute set.
I saw The Bob Dylan Show in Frederick, Maryland in the summer of 2006 and loved the concept. I particularly liked the exposure for lesser known acts. In Aberdeen, people did not need much introduction to Willie Nelson or John Mellencamp, who drew many of their own fans. The opening act, The Wiyos, however, surely benefited by performing about 45 minutes at the very beginning of the show.
The Wiyos are Joseph deJarnette, Parrish Ellis, Michael Farkas and Teddy (Tetlow) Weber. Their music is loosely described as "Americana." On their Facebook page, they list as influences:
mountains, cities, silent films, street-corner musicians from the last 100 years. stringbands, jugbands, hip-hop, country, washboard swing, beatboxers, ragtime and piedmont blues, We love music that doesn't suck and isn't formulaic boring derivative mediocrity.The Wiyos performed a wonderfully lively set of traditional songs and their own compositions. As they perform acoustic, they actually had the best sound of the night. In what might be construed as an indirect tip of the hat to Mr. Dylan, they announced that they were going to play a non-original song written after 1940 and proceeded to romp through The Band's "Ophelia." You mayl not hear The Wiyos on a lot of radio stations, but you should check them out if you have the chance.
Willie Nelson came next. Playing to many of his fans, he moved briskly through a relaxed set of his familiar songs and had the crowd engaged. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm rolled in and shortened his set. After announcing that he would have to cut things short, he played a couple more songs and then asked everyone to head for cover. The rain delay lasted about 45 minutes.
John Mellencamp followed with a vibrant set of his classic songs. He and his band played well, but the muddy mix of sound in the stadium took away much of the dynamics of his music, which at times include a violin and an accordion. From the beginning chords of "Little Pink Houses," he had the crowd on his side and clearly many of his fans were there just to see him. He responded with strong performances, filled with familiar songs, and he had the crowd singing along.
By the time Dylan arrived on stage it was dark. With a tight band, Bob started off with new versions of two classics, "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." (Full set list is at bobdylan.com or at boblinks.com.) Atypical of the Frederick show in 2006, when Dylan never left his keyboard on the side of the stage, he played guitar on these first two songs. He then retired to the keyboards for the rest of the night. His band was blistering hot and Dylan's voice was strong (if throaty and cracking) all night. Dylan has fallen deeper into a blues mode, and most of the songs in the set were from his more recent albums. He did include a spirited rendition of "Highway 61 Revisited," which is a blues-based song to begin with, and finished with "Like a Rolling Stone," "Jolene," and "All Along the Watchtower." As mentioned in my Introduction, however, the sound quality could have been much better. If you wanted to just listen, you probably heard a better set in the parking lot. Still, Bob's performance was tight and his band was white hot. (Bob Dylan - keyboard, guitar, harp; Tony Garnier - bass; George Recile - drums; Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar; Denny Freeman - lead guitar; Donnie Herron - violin, viola, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel. Courtesy of Bob Links.)
Some important considerations about any Bob Dylan performance:
His voice seems to have been a source of contention all his career, from the very early days of his fame, when he took to reminding interviewers that whatever they thought of his voice, he was hitting all those notes. Without question, Dylan's voice now creaks and cracks at times, but he still hits the notes. He also has incredible knowledge of the musical roots that he is mining.
Yes, his phrasing remains a mystery some times. He persists in changing the way he sings his songs, particularly the classic in his repetiore. This is nothing new, however. I first saw Dylan in 1974, and even then, he was reinventing his own songs, changing their arrangements and changing the way that he sung and phrased the words. Go listen to the live recordings that you can get a hold of. Despite having been released somewhat randomly, these live recordings interestingly illustrate significant points in Dylan's long career. Listen to songs on "Before the Flood" with the Band. Then go and listen to the same songs on At Budokan or The Basement Tapes. Dylan is always changing things. As he says in "Maggie's Farm":
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
Don't expect Bob to engage the audience. Except for the early days, when he joked and kidded with the audience (Live 1964 at Town Hall in New York), Dylan has moved away from much interaction with his audience and his fans. This is certainly true after he went electric. Listen to Live 1966 in comparison to Live 1964 and watch D.A. Pennebacker's Dont [Don't] Look Back and the end of Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home), which document the tension between Dylan and parts of his audience and the press when he played Newport and tour England in 1965 and 1966. As he played electric, parts of his audience became openly hostile, prompting acidic responses from Dylan. Following his mysterious motorcycle crash in 1966, Dylan stopped touring until 1974, when he decided to go on the road with The Band. By then, when I first saw him, he was not speaking to the audience at all. The Band worked the crown during their own set. (When I saw him 1974, he opened and close the show with the same song, "Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)". Perhaps, that was meant as a message too.) So, accept the fact that it will be a rare night when Bob comes out and tells a joke or takes a request. He is going his way now. Take it or leave it.
Finally, many reviewers note that Dylan now plays a lot of newer songs, which pale in comparison to his "classics". I doubt Dylan cares. He keeps writing songs. Dylan may constantly rework the songs we all list as his classics, but he cannot recreate them. Those songs are welded together with the times in which they were written. Many of us cannot be separated them from the greater context those times gave those songs. Times have changed, and Dylan has never been much interested in repeating himself, so he has moved on. We tend to forget that throughout his career he has written songs that are less then great. Comparing his songs is like comparing Shakespeare's plays; there are some unparalleled works, some merely great ones, some lesser works, and some we just pass by.
And Dylan continues to write great songs. The Grammy Awards may being trying to make up having ignored Dylan throughout the 1960s by recognizing Dylan's recent work repeatedly, but Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times are exceptional recordings. Dylan won an Academy Award in 2000 for "Things Have Changed." (Has anyone done a thesis on how often Dylan deals with time and change in his lyrics?) Dylan keeps on working and changing and the results continue to amaze. Last year's Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989 to 2006 is a good example, revealing how Dylan not only performs different versions of his songs, but records different versions too. And he works on side projects, like film scores and collaborations like the wonderful version of "The Lonesome River" with Ralph Stanley. And when he performs, he puts everything into the songs, old or new, playing full-tilt with a band of excellent musicians. So catch him if you can; it will be well worth it.
August 22, 2009:
From an interview about his new record, Together Through Life, here is Dylan himself talking about his songs and his audience:
There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.Read the entire interview on Dylan's website.
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