Bob Dylan

[medjuck]

Saw Dylan last night at the final stop of the latest leg of his Never-Ending Tour. Great show. I usually warn people that if they go to see Dylan they won't be able to make out any of the words, recognize any melodies or even know which musician is Dylan since he hides off to the side behind a keyboard ( usually inaudible and when you can hear it, he doesn't seem to play it very well.)

I keep going back anyway, since very so often there's a show like last night's at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I was in the ninth row but off to the right side. Since Dylan placed the keyboard on that side I was often looking at his back. However his vocal mike was on the side so he turned his profile to us when he was singing and lo and behold: you could make out almost every word, and even recognize the songs from the the instrumental intros. He even took some great keyboard solos!

He did manage to change his phrasing so that it was impossible to sing along but I think he approaches his songs like a jazz musician: he sticks to the original words but improvises his phrasing. Sang a lot of old favorites from the 60's interspersed with songs from Clem's favorite, Modern Times.

My theory on the old sings is that the 67 year old Dylan has a cover band-- the guy they cover is the young Bob Dylan.

[RDK]

Saw him in Santa Monica last week. I'm getting a bit old for the general admission shows, but was nevertheless pleased to get as close to the stage as we were. Can't say I enjoyed the show as much as I have in the past. His band was strong, but Dylan's vocals (at least in a live setting) are increasingly disappointing to me (and the sound mix was pretty rough, at least at first). Funny comment about his changing up the tunes to prevent audience "sing-alongs" - I was thinking the same thing. I will say that Dylan appeared to be having a swell time.

[AllenLowe]

does he still color his hair?

[Soul Stream]

does he still color his hair?

zing.

That said. I know he takes measures to rework his songs and interpretations to keep them interesting to himself, not sure he cares too much about whether joe front or back row give a damn. Also find it interesting he and his band rehearse everyday before the show when they're on tour. That demonstrates a level of commitment for a traveling group I doubt many on his level would care to attain.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Soul Stream

[Adam]

I was at the Santa Monica Civic show as well (how did we miss each other RDK?), and had a similar response. I didn't even recognize a couple of older songs. But I know what I'm getting into. I thought the band was good. Some new versions of old songs work; others, not so much.

[GregK]

I'm really looking forward to the latest volume in the Bootleg Series, due in October, covering 1989-2006.

[medjuck]

And BTW except for the last song and the 2 encores, he didn't play anything he'd played in Santa Monica.

[papsrus]

Funny -- out of the blue I ordered "Bringing It All Back Home" today.

He still has hair? ...

[mjzee]

My wife and I saw him at Foxwoods a few weeks ago. It was great seeing him, but it was more for the concept of Bob than the actual concert. He was in great spirits, very energetic. We sat in a mezzanine a good ways back. It's notable how little he cares to engage the audience. To me it seemed like he's anxious to get through each song - it wasn't very relaxed. He's also not very user-friendly...I was able to recognize most songs, but to my wife, less of an aficionado, it all sounded alike. Say what you will about Charlie Parker, re improvising, but each time he played Ornithology, it was recognizably Ornithology, and very enjoyable. This Dylan performance? Less so.

True story: as we were finding our seats, we overheard someone else ask an usher how long the show will be. Usher's reply: he plays two hours, on the dot. And that's exactly what Bob did.

[AllenLowe]

he doesn't color his hair - he's prematurely orange -

[AllenLowe]

sorry to be so flip - I just find Dylan unlistenable since, maybe, 1968 - it's like hearing Sinatra with laryngitis - once you've heard it the way it CAN be, it's just to painful to hear it done badly -

[Christiern]

Allen, you're not supposed to listen to the performance (that was back then), you're supposed to take in the aura that surrounds a legend. Presence, not presentation.

[RDK]

you're supposed to take in the aura that surrounds a legend.

That and the sweet smell of weed...

[Soul Stream]

I just rented the Stones "Shine A Light" DVD. Not sure what we should expect from people like the Stones or Dylan at this point. Pretty boring watching Mick and crew be millionaires onstage. At least Dylan seems to at least aspire to an artistic goal, even if he fails in many's eyes. Rock + Age just isn't a good combination.

[RDK]

I just rented the Stones "Shine A Light" DVD. Not sure what we should expect from people like the Stones or Dylan at this point. Pretty boring watching Mick and crew be millionaires onstage. At least Dylan seems to at least aspire to an artistic goal, even if he fails in many's eyes. Rock + Age just isn't a good combination.

Yeah, I really went into this concert thinking it may be the last time I see Dylan on stage. I love his music beyond any other - and I hope he continues to make many more albums - but he can't possibly tour much longer with any relevance and I'm more apt to see a younger, more vital act - or at least someone I haven't already seen so many times before.

[RDK]

FYI for Joe and Adam (or anyone else interested): both the Santa Barbara and Santa Monica shows have turned on Dime in audience recordings. (And Dylan apparently doesn't mind for those worried about such things.)

[Adam]

I've never been able to become a DIME member - always maxed out.

[Chuck Nessa]

Saw Dylan in the '60s and '70s. Two times in the '70s - with The Band in Boston (1974) and at a tv show shooting a couple of years later. He's ok but nothing I'd spend money on.

YMMV.

Forgot to say I rode a bus with him on the way to a club in the '60s. Not a great conversationalist.

Edited September 12, 2008 by Chuck Nessa

[Larry Kart]

I heard Dylan play in a dorm room at the U. of Chicago in 1961-2, when he was still Bob Zimmerman, later at Gerde's Folk City in NYC when he had just become Dylan. He was far from the best player in that dorm room (there was a yeasty old-timey folk scene, a la the Harry Smith anthology, on campus), but those playing with Dylan that day sounded better than usual, probably because he had some leadership genes. His own music -- lyrics in particular -- makes me want to throw things/throw up. But then I've never known what is happenin' here or which way the wind is blowing.

[jazzbo]

Larry, you spent time in U of C dorm rooms too? You have my sincere condolences.

[Larry Kart]

Larry, you spent time in U of C dorm rooms too? You have my sincere condolences.

Some of my darkest memories, though I did escape to hear Coltrane at McKie's.

[jazzbo]

Some of my darkest memories too. . . though I did meet my (late) wife there, though we became a couple sixteen years later! So fortuitous in an important way too.

Also got to talk to Allen Ginsburg and William Burroughs there one afternoon as well. . . which has never happened since.

Edited September 13, 2008 by jazzbo

[medjuck]

I heard Dylan play in a dorm room at the U. of Chicago in 1961-2, when he was still Bob Zimmerman, later at Gerde's Folk City in NYC when he had just become Dylan. He was far from the best player in that dorm room (there was a yeasty old-timey folk scene, a la the Harry Smith anthology, on campus), but those playing with Dylan that day sounded better than usual, probably because he had some leadership genes. His own music -- lyrics in particular -- makes me want to throw things/throw up. But then I've never known what is happenin' here or which way the wind is blowing.

Sure this wasn't earlier? He began to claim his name was Dylan by '61.

[Larry Kart]

I heard Dylan play in a dorm room at the U. of Chicago in 1961-2, when he was still Bob Zimmerman, later at Gerde's Folk City in NYC when he had just become Dylan. He was far from the best player in that dorm room (there was a yeasty old-timey folk scene, a la the Harry Smith anthology, on campus), but those playing with Dylan that day sounded better than usual, probably because he had some leadership genes. His own music -- lyrics in particular -- makes me want to throw things/throw up. But then I've never known what is happenin' here or which way the wind is blowing.

Sure this wasn't earlier? He began to claim his name was Dylan by '61.

I was class of '60, entering in the fall of that year. The dorm room thing might have happened in the fall-winter of that year. Bob Zimmerman was how he was addressed/introduced himself; Dylan never came up. I'm sure of that because when I heard of him/went to see him in NYC at Folk City a while later, I was aware then that Bob Dylan was the guy I'd heard before as Bob Zimmerman. If he had made the change earlier, perhaps he didn't yet use Dylan under all circumstances. It might have been, now that I think of it, that one or more of the people he was playing with at the U. of C. knew him from before, and Dylan felt funny about telling them that the guy they already knew as Bob Zimmerman now called himself Bob Dylan. It might have sounded pretentious and also, since most of the people in that dorm room were Jewish, like an uncomfortable attempt to disguise/deny his background.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

that is crazy u saw dylan like way way that far back in the day! i respect the fact that u guys can be so flippant about it, cause compared to seeing Big John Patton that same year, i see how bobby suddenly seems a little less exciting, lol