Bob Dylan

G

groveChuck

U-matic Member
You probably either love him or hate him (or mock his singing)- I don't think many are indifferent to him.
I just saw him and his band- what a great show! Twangy electric blues filtered through his songwriting prism.

He growled, didn't mumble. Almost all electric, as noted below.
He played more organ/electric keyboard than guitar (all electric, his rhythm guitarist played acoustic once), and he played blues harp, not harmonica on a rack.
An excellent hour and 40 minute show, closing with Like a Rolling Stone.


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1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Bob center stage on guitar)
2. It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob on guitar)
3. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Bob on guitar)
4. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again (Bob on guitar)
5. The Levee's Gonna Break (Bob on keyboard, Tony on standup bass)
6. Just Like A Woman (Bob on keyboard and harp)
7. Honest With Me (Bob on keyboard)
8. Tryin' To Get To Heaven (Bob on keyboard)
9. High Water (For Charley Patton) (Bob center stage on harp, Donnie on banjo, Tony on standup bass)
10. Desolation Row(Bob on keyboard, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
11. Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on keyboard)
12. Workingman's Blues #2 (Bob on keyboard then center stage on harp)
13. Thunder On The Mountain (Bob on keyboard)
14. Ballad Of A Thin Man (Bob center stage on harp) (encore)
15. Jolene (Bob on keyboard)
16. Like A Rolling Stone (Bob on keyboard)
Band Members
Bob Dylan - guitar, keyboard, harp
Tony Garnier - bass
George Recile - drums
Stu Kimball- rhythm guitar
Charlie Sexton - lead guitar
Donnie Herron - banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel
 
My friends in college used to make fun of the fact that I was a Dylan fan. That is, until they heard "Desolation Row".

I've only seen him once, when he performed at my university 18 years ago. He came to Israel recently but tickets were obscenely expensive.

Looks like a fine performance, based on the set list. I'd like to see how he'd treat "Blind Willie McTell" live. I know he alters songs for live performance (as any worthy artist would) but I was wondering if there were any dramatic differences between this concert and the studio recordings a la At Budokan.

I love hearing "Thunder on the Mountain" while driving open roads with the windows down.

I got the porkchops, she got the pie
She ain't no angel and neither am I
Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes
I'll say this, I don't give a damn about your dreams
 
It was incredible. I really like what he's been playing the last decade or so, and love 1997's Time Out Of Mind.
I don't know At Budokan very well, but his versions of older songs were, not surprisingly, extensively reworked.
Some barely resembled the originals, but all were good.
Just Like A Woman and Like A Rolling Stone most resembled the originals, and they were changed up quite a bit, too. Sometimes he'd sing the chorus just off beat or delayed a half beat to give it a new feel and edge, but was always completely and totally in control.
Highway 61 Revisited was very different and very good.

The words legend and icon are tossed about freely, but just the experience of being there, seeing truly, an icon of the times was wonderful.
I said to my wife, literally a half dozen times, "We're watching Bob Dylan!" or "That's Bob Dylan!" and she'd just give me the biggest smile and nod!

He created the modern singer-songwriter.
The man singlehandedly changed popular music, gave it meaning and relevance, made it political and poetic. Before, it was merely pop.

I saw him originally at college too, more years ago than I'd like to admit. OK, it was the Rolling Thunder Revue tour (... a long time ago, I was in a galaxy far, far away...).
He's still playing lots of colleges, those times they are not a changin'.

Here's the stops on his tour, and after each show, the set list is posted.
It looks like maybe half the songs stay on the setlist and about half are changed every night or so.
It kills me that he played All Along The Watchtower on some stops (no telling how it was reworked), but not last night!

http://www.boblinks.com/dates.html#cur
 
Wow. You're a lot older than I had thought. :evil: Did he wear whiteface at your show?

Every performance and every new album are truly gifts considering the fact that he's had a few health scares. How he keeps such a busy performance schedule is anyone's guess. He's driven and views it as his mission. It makes me wonder what we could have heard from John Lennon in the past 30 years had he not been murdered.

Listening to At Budokan requires the same type of attention required while absorbing Stockhausen or Miles' electric-funk period. In other words, it ain't background music. Before the Flood, on the other hand and, in case you are unfamiliar with it, is a lot more accessible. Like any other adventurous artist, sometimes he strikes out. But it sure beats listening to a live band attempt to replicate what they recorded in the studio.
 
Yeah, but I'm a perpetual 25 (that was a big reveal for me- ha ha)! But apparently (fortunately) you're one of the few that get the Rolling Thunder time reference. But the Revue (and Blood on the Tracks) was an incredible "He has returned" revelation, because he is yes, a driven man on a mission. And Before the Flood, with The Band? Yes, a very good, very straightforward live concert- not the major reworkings of songs seen on the current tour.

Couldn't tell if he was wearing whiteface (I think not) because we were seated above/beside the stage,and he was wearing a wide brimmed hat.

Never thought I'd hear Dylan and Stockhausen mentioned in the same sentence, but I get your point, that they (like Bird and Schoenberg, too?) shake up our assumptions of harmony.

But yeah, it is (and was, the other night) sad to hear people say "It didn't sound like so-and-so song." And I'm thinking "You mean the one he's been playing for 45 years, and has tonight blessed you with a new vision of?" Yeah, just stay home and listen to the "original" next time." If I could, I'd become a "Bobhead" and follow him for a half dozen stops. :Drogar-SunGlass(DBG (that gives me an idea- shouldn't there be Bob bobbleheads?)

Interesting that you raised the question of Lennon. In doing my day after homework on Dylan, I read that Blonde On Blonde's (a must-have!) 4th Time Around was a playful dig at Lennon, suggesting that John had ripped him off on three Beatles songs (You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, I'm A Loser and Norwegian Wood), and that Dylan could write the fourth one for him. And that only after seeing Dylan and his... "flexible singing key" did Hendrix decide he could be a singer, too!

But this singer who became the reluctant "voice of his generation," then spent decades running away from that deification, careening wildly between inspired and "headscratching" releases, but always following his muse, whether his fans wanted to follow or not? The man is a true artist.
 
Jordan_S said:
But it sure beats listening to a live band attempt to replicate what they recorded in the studio.
Click to expand...
In the words of Billie Holiday "I can`t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain`t music, it`s close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music."
 
kyotonils- thanks for the link- great take (a waltz?) on The Times They Are A-Changin (love the lighting, too!).
 
Grabbed a copy of The Witmark Demos, Volume 9 of the Bootleg Series. Interesting to hear a few different words and lines from songs, in addition to slight changes in strumming and vocal inflections. However, the differences between his demos and the official releases are not so great in these early songs, mostly due to the fact that they are acoustic. Still, it's interesting. Just not like listening to the Lost Lennon Tapes, to mention him again.

Funny to note that Elvis' cover of "Tomorrow is a Long Time" is reportedly Dylan's favorite cover of any of his songs.


Now we know to whom Dylan was listening circa Nashville Skyline.
 
wow that was nice(Elvis version)......Bob Dylan.....well that's just history......you must've had chills running up and down your spine.
 
New Dylan album coming out in a week. You can stream it here. Strange and disturbing music video made for Duquesne Whistle which I can't seem to link here. Not sure what to make of it but the song and album are great.
 
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