I feel like I finally came to understand Bob Dylan as a live
performer on Friday. This was the 5th time I’d seen him and by far
the best. The last time was at the Albert Hall in 2013 and, after a slightly
muted show where I had a bad view, the sound was a bit muddy and the set didn’t
inspire me (though there were still fine moments) I thought that would be it in
terms of seeing him live.
Lured back by a bill shared with Neil Young and the promise,
with it being a Hyde Park BST show, of a summer’s day filled with excellent supporting
acts (as these BST shows tend to have), I was dismayed when Young kicked up a
fuss shortly after the show was announced, because he didn’t want to be sponsored
by Barclaycard. The show would remain, though without the corporate sponsorship.
I assumed the support bill would suffer too.
And the day seemed even more ill-fated when the person who I was due to go with couldn’t make it. I decided, generally dispirited, to sell both tickets. I got to the ticket site and something stopped me. I may seriously regret it, I thought. So I sold one and kept my own.
And the day seemed even more ill-fated when the person who I was due to go with couldn’t make it. I decided, generally dispirited, to sell both tickets. I got to the ticket site and something stopped me. I may seriously regret it, I thought. So I sold one and kept my own.
I won’t write a huge, full review of the day – here is a
really good one of those from an even bigger Dylan fan than me, which says a lot of what I’d say
There were also some really, really bad reviews, bad as in terrible,
dull-brained bits of reviewing, in mainstream newspapers. Normally, I’ve found
Dylan live reviews to be pretty solid, pretty even-handed, able to take the
thing at face value. But, this time, perhaps because of the central setting and dual headliners,
the gig attracted some pretty spectacularly amateurish and by-rote takes: if,
in 2019, you’re writing about a Dylan gig “he doesn’t sing like he used to and
these versions of the songs are unrecognisable”, you’re not really excelling in insight and originality. I
mean, that was a dull take in 1966. Fair enough for some casuals fans to be a bit
nonplussed, but actual music reviewers?
The frustrating thing about that kind of unimaginative
response to this gig is that it really wasn’t like that. The songs were
perfectly recognisable. I recognised all 19 he played within the first 30
seconds or so. Yes, I’m a big Dylan fan, but “Dylan plays fittingly reworked versions
of classic songs in ways that are recognisable to Dylan fans” seems fair enough
… and people around me were loving it, no grumbling, laughter, big smiles, rapture,
whoops, attempts to sing along etc.
And there were, for me, other very significant improvements from
the Albert Hall show in 2013. Firstly, there have been (reasonable) grumbles in
recent years that Dylan doesn’t allow himself to be shown on big screens at his
big gigs. The screen was on all day for other acts, but I was still worried it
would be switched off for Dylan. But, thankfully, it wasn’t. Whatever his
reservations had been, it does not only the audience but also the artist a real
service. I was relatively near the front (more of which later) but he was still
a bit of a speck to me without the screen. The screen allows the audience to
see how much fun he’s having and how much effort he’s putting in. Considering
(as always) he didn’t talk to the audience, this massively helps the audience
to feel connected.
Furthermore, while Dylan and his piano were side-on the last
couple of times I saw him, now he was head-on and front-stage – much better.
And this was where my big moment of understanding came.
Of course, to most people, Dylan is the definitive man-with-guitar
troubadour (acoustic or electric) and he did play guitar for most of his live
career. But he hasn’t led on guitar for most of the last two decades. There’s a
fairly strong chance that this move has at least partly forced by some kind of
arthritic condition. He hasn’t confirmed this, at all, though; he’s said he still
plays a bit of guitar but piano suits the band now.
And the truth is, it really does. Piano lies at the heart of
many of the arrangements. But there’s more to it than that, which this front-on,
big screen Dylan showed me - Robert Zimmerman’s stated high-school yearbook ambition was “to join Little Richard” … and here, more than 60 years later, you see little
Robert’s finally living his dream.
In the past, I’d thought of Dylan’s piano as a bit of a prop
for an aging performer. But, here, with the piano loud and high in the mix and
the big screen on it, you can see that Dylan, mainly standing at the piano,
occasionally sitting, in a fantastical cowboy pimp outfit, is having the time
of his life on it – hammering away like Jerry Lee Lewis or, yes, Little
Richard. Dylan’s band is famously superb, but it was only this time I realised
how fundamental his rock’n’roll piano is to the whole sound. Maybe it was all
those years on the guitar that were the aberration, eh?
And the key thing is, he plays songs which suit that set-up –
leading on Ballad of a Thin Man (piano-led even in ’65) and picking perfectly
from throughout his back-catalogue. This set is such a crowd-pleaser,
especially compared to 2013, where there was an awful lot from recent albums, not that there’s anything wrong with that per se … again, worth remembering
that Dylan’s albums between 1997 and 2012 were all not only highly acclaimed
but highly successful – they’re hardly “obscure new stuff,” certainly not for
him and the many fans that watch him regularly.
This set leaned mostly on ‘Highway 61 Revisited’(65) and ‘Time
out of Mind’ (97) but there are selections from throughout his career (apart
from the 80s … what I’d have given for Blind Willie McTell, but you can’t have
everything).
Here is the setlist …
- · Ballad of a Thin Man
- · It Ain’t Me, Babe
- · Highway 61 Revisited
- · Simple Twist of Fate
- · Can’t Wait
- · When I Paint My Masterpiece
- · Honest with Me
- · Tryin’ to Get to Heaven
- · Make you Feel my Love
- · Pay in Blood
- · Like a Rolling Stone
- · Early Roman Kings
- · Girl from the North Country
- · Love Sick
- · Thunder on the Mountain
- · Soon after Midnight
- · Gotta Serve Somebody
- ENCORE:
- · Blowin’ in the Wind
- · It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
There was, among lots of great moments, one clear and
acknowledged highlight, the rare moment of transcendence I’d hoped for but not
previously experienced at a Dylan gig. And once again, we need to go back to
Dylan’s childhood for context.
Zimmerman’s first serious girlfriend in the mid-late 50s,
back in Minnesota, was called Echo Helstrom (good name, eh … there have been
literally been books written triggered by her name being Echo …). Girl from the
North Country is understood to have been inspired by her.
Girl from the North Country was written in late 62/early 63
when Dylan was 21, written with a sense of longing and deep nostalgia for a
time and person 4/5 years earlier, because when you’re 21, 17 feels like a
lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
Echo Helstrom died in early 2018, and here, in 2019, is this
78-year old guy, singing Girl from the North Country with a reverence he didn't give
any other of his songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0Rkfe_fxk
The musical setting is beautiful, the singing is beautiful
(if you don’t think his singing is great here, then there’ll be no persuading
you on any more of this), it raises the bar even further for what Dylan is
still capable of.
Not that I am complaining about the rest of the set or the
singing – again, I saw more clearly than before that he employs quite a few
different styles – yes, there’s the staccato rasp which is off-putting for new
comers, but there’s an impressive range and hold on things like ‘Can’t Wait’, tenderness
on ‘Soon after Midnight’, something close to rapping on others. I think the (frustrating) Sinatra covers albums have really improved his voice, actually.
Anyway, it’s Girl from the North Country I’ll remember above
all.
Despite my misgivings, the whole day was pretty great – the supports
on the main stage were Sam Fender, Cat Power and Laura Marling. I’m probably a
bigger fan of Marling than I am of Neil Young. She was superb, though it’s a
tough gig doing support at these big all-day shows, especially at Hyde Park
with its “Golden Circle” at the front for people prepared to pay over the odds.
It’s a bit shit, though an understandable money spinner.
Particularly shit for support acts, where the enclosure is nowhere near filling up, so there’s this huge gap not far in front of you. I can imagine it felt to Marling and co that they were playing to a bit of emptiness and indifference, whereas in fact, 200 metres away, at the front of General Admission, there were a few thousand people who were really into it …
Particularly shit for support acts, where the enclosure is nowhere near filling up, so there’s this huge gap not far in front of you. I can imagine it felt to Marling and co that they were playing to a bit of emptiness and indifference, whereas in fact, 200 metres away, at the front of General Admission, there were a few thousand people who were really into it …
Neil Young was very good – didn’t go too heavy on the guitar
stuff – played plenty of classics. Funnily enough, on the way out and the train home, I hear several Neil Young fans say that he was ok, a little disappointing, whereas they'd loved Dylan. This being the first time I'd seen Neil Young, I was pretty happy, His voice holds up really well, and he seemed to be having a great time.
When he finished, I was actually worried Dylan might be a damp squib. Needn't have worried ...
When he finished, I was actually worried Dylan might be a damp squib. Needn't have worried ...
