I was at the Nottinham gig too, and was also amongst the large crowd singing along with the busker.
I came down from Glasgow with my 20 year old son to see Dylan especially, and we couldn't be any less angry with his performance. The emotion in his voice, his piano playing, was all on top form. It's interesting what you say about the audience not being able to sing along to songs that have a different structure, and so we hang on to every nuance of his voice, because I can't remember ever being so attentive at a concert.
I remember reading a quote from Dylan years ago that he wrote and recorded songs only as a way to get out and sing them live, and as he largely recorded the songs as live as he could, they're only a snapshot of how he approached the song on that particular day. I would say there's a lot of artistry in that.
I saw the RAH show on Wednesday, third time I've seen him, and he was clearer and in better voice than he has been for years. It was a great show. It always amazes me how Dylan fans are surprised that he won't go through the motions. He's been doing his own thing since 1964. His whole career has been a 'fuck you' to the people who would put him in a box and make him perform like a trained chimp. Have these people not been paying *any* attention?!
I saw Dylan in Kilkenny in Ireland in 2007, I think it was, and he mostly played unfamiliar versions of some of his less famous songs. I remember for the encore he and his band did an unfamiliar version of Like a Rolling Stone, while the whole crowd sang along with something more similar to the original album version. It was fun, and pretty surreal. Not sure how Bob felt about it.
Saw Dylan in 1998 at Birmingham NEC and each song was essentially played at an identical tempo, so as each one started the crowd would hold their breath and listen carefully until he mumbled the first line, when we would recognise the lyric and cheer. Most concerts, you recognise the song in the first few notes it starts with, this show it was 30 seconds to a minute into the song before anyone got it. Still, it was an experience to see him live.
Great read! Missed this tour sadly, but if anyone has earned the right to do what they want, it's Dylan. We should just be grateful he's still doing it
Artists, and Dylan is truly one of America’s greatest, don’t, and shouldn’t, give a hoot what the audience expects and will credit as an acceptable version of their art. If there is any one artistic lesson Dylan has taught us, its that even he doesn’t expect anything specific when he creates his art. He produces by letting it flow through him and it comes out different each time.
1. BE ON TIME. He's become punctual. If you're 10-15 minutes late, you're going to miss a couple of songs. And at most shows, he only does two songs in the recognizable style. The first two. If you're late, those are the ones you're going to miss.
2. ACTUALLY, BE EARLY. He's playing a lot of old theatres where the access is really poor. Bottlenecks, stairways, spotty elevators, crowds at the bar .... If it's sold out or nearly so (and it's always sold out or nearly so), it's gonna take you half an hour from the door to your seat. So get there more than half an hour early. More if you like to spend time at the bar or in the loo.
3. LET THE ART WASH OVER YOU. The guy is a really talented musician. His band is made up of really talented musicians. The rest of the show is going to be arrangements you don't recognize? Who cares? They're going to be good. Open your mind, and enjoy.
4. Have dinner and drinks AFTER the show. Not before. See #1 and #2.
He’s been doing it this way for quite a while now. We saw him in WV in 2001. The conversation in this post was a near perfect replica of the one my wife and I had afterward.
Saw Dylan in 2014 in Toronto, and it was exactly as described. He played no guitar, only piano, everything was dramatically rearranged, and his vocals were difficult to decipher. I recognized snippets of lyrics from a couple songs, and that was it.
But I knew this would be the case going in, and wasn't upset. I'm most intimately familiar with his trio of 1965/66 albums and I knew that particular version of Dylan was long gone. I enjoyed the show for what it was, rather than focusing on what it wasn't. I respect him for not turning into a cover band version of himself.
The only thing that surprises me is that anybody is still surprised this. We always have the albums.
Interesting essay, and interesting comments. I've never seen Dylan live but at this stage in his life and his career my view fwiw is that he could stand on the stage and howl and it would be okay with me. For me, his glory days will always be the early days and I have recordings and memories for that. It seems to me that in Nottingham you got the best of both worlds! Lucky you!
"....with our without an axe to cut Dylan’s power cables..." What the heck does that mean? Never heard 'with our without' before and Google does not help me.
I saw Dylan twenty years ago and it sucked. When Dylan first came on the scene, people would say he was a great songwriter, but he had such a terrible voice. Times change. When he was given the Nobel for literature, I thought, yes, who else has given the world so many great narratives? Shit, what great songs and singers do we have now to match Dylan? What great poets do we have to match Ode to a Nightingale? We don't. It's all small potatoes. We lost something. Until music gets back to real sound of the human voice, it can't get better.
Most people go to see a legendary artist for the experience of the art, sure, but moreso for the memory and catharsis the performance provides. It seems like Dylan provides the art but very little memory and catharsis.
I was at the Nottinham gig too, and was also amongst the large crowd singing along with the busker.
I came down from Glasgow with my 20 year old son to see Dylan especially, and we couldn't be any less angry with his performance. The emotion in his voice, his piano playing, was all on top form. It's interesting what you say about the audience not being able to sing along to songs that have a different structure, and so we hang on to every nuance of his voice, because I can't remember ever being so attentive at a concert.
I remember reading a quote from Dylan years ago that he wrote and recorded songs only as a way to get out and sing them live, and as he largely recorded the songs as live as he could, they're only a snapshot of how he approached the song on that particular day. I would say there's a lot of artistry in that.
And yeah, the busker was fantastic!
I saw the RAH show on Wednesday, third time I've seen him, and he was clearer and in better voice than he has been for years. It was a great show. It always amazes me how Dylan fans are surprised that he won't go through the motions. He's been doing his own thing since 1964. His whole career has been a 'fuck you' to the people who would put him in a box and make him perform like a trained chimp. Have these people not been paying *any* attention?!
I saw Dylan in Kilkenny in Ireland in 2007, I think it was, and he mostly played unfamiliar versions of some of his less famous songs. I remember for the encore he and his band did an unfamiliar version of Like a Rolling Stone, while the whole crowd sang along with something more similar to the original album version. It was fun, and pretty surreal. Not sure how Bob felt about it.
“A car stopping at the lights nearby honked its horn, and it came in on time, and on the exact same note as the harmonica.” ❤️
Saw Dylan in 1998 at Birmingham NEC and each song was essentially played at an identical tempo, so as each one started the crowd would hold their breath and listen carefully until he mumbled the first line, when we would recognise the lyric and cheer. Most concerts, you recognise the song in the first few notes it starts with, this show it was 30 seconds to a minute into the song before anyone got it. Still, it was an experience to see him live.
Great read! Missed this tour sadly, but if anyone has earned the right to do what they want, it's Dylan. We should just be grateful he's still doing it
Artists, and Dylan is truly one of America’s greatest, don’t, and shouldn’t, give a hoot what the audience expects and will credit as an acceptable version of their art. If there is any one artistic lesson Dylan has taught us, its that even he doesn’t expect anything specific when he creates his art. He produces by letting it flow through him and it comes out different each time.
A few tips for Dylan shows in the current age:
1. BE ON TIME. He's become punctual. If you're 10-15 minutes late, you're going to miss a couple of songs. And at most shows, he only does two songs in the recognizable style. The first two. If you're late, those are the ones you're going to miss.
2. ACTUALLY, BE EARLY. He's playing a lot of old theatres where the access is really poor. Bottlenecks, stairways, spotty elevators, crowds at the bar .... If it's sold out or nearly so (and it's always sold out or nearly so), it's gonna take you half an hour from the door to your seat. So get there more than half an hour early. More if you like to spend time at the bar or in the loo.
3. LET THE ART WASH OVER YOU. The guy is a really talented musician. His band is made up of really talented musicians. The rest of the show is going to be arrangements you don't recognize? Who cares? They're going to be good. Open your mind, and enjoy.
4. Have dinner and drinks AFTER the show. Not before. See #1 and #2.
Have a good time!
He’s been doing it this way for quite a while now. We saw him in WV in 2001. The conversation in this post was a near perfect replica of the one my wife and I had afterward.
I saw him last year and he was great. If you want to hear the record, stay home and listen to the record.
Sing alongs have their place.
But let an artist be an artist fgs.
Saw Dylan in 2014 in Toronto, and it was exactly as described. He played no guitar, only piano, everything was dramatically rearranged, and his vocals were difficult to decipher. I recognized snippets of lyrics from a couple songs, and that was it.
But I knew this would be the case going in, and wasn't upset. I'm most intimately familiar with his trio of 1965/66 albums and I knew that particular version of Dylan was long gone. I enjoyed the show for what it was, rather than focusing on what it wasn't. I respect him for not turning into a cover band version of himself.
The only thing that surprises me is that anybody is still surprised this. We always have the albums.
Interesting essay, and interesting comments. I've never seen Dylan live but at this stage in his life and his career my view fwiw is that he could stand on the stage and howl and it would be okay with me. For me, his glory days will always be the early days and I have recordings and memories for that. It seems to me that in Nottingham you got the best of both worlds! Lucky you!
"....with our without an axe to cut Dylan’s power cables..." What the heck does that mean? Never heard 'with our without' before and Google does not help me.
I saw Dylan twenty years ago and it sucked. When Dylan first came on the scene, people would say he was a great songwriter, but he had such a terrible voice. Times change. When he was given the Nobel for literature, I thought, yes, who else has given the world so many great narratives? Shit, what great songs and singers do we have now to match Dylan? What great poets do we have to match Ode to a Nightingale? We don't. It's all small potatoes. We lost something. Until music gets back to real sound of the human voice, it can't get better.
Most people go to see a legendary artist for the experience of the art, sure, but moreso for the memory and catharsis the performance provides. It seems like Dylan provides the art but very little memory and catharsis.