Still Dylan
3 days ago , by Richard Lutz
RICHARD LUTZ watches an 84 year old man play alot of his music that either mesmerises or bores an audience
Well, here we go. My last Bob Dylan concert. I think after hearing his stuff, good, bad, brilliant, tedious, it’s time to say adieu.
I first heard him around 1963 on late night AM radio station. The jock was a little mystified. ‘I’ll leave you to decide’ he told his listeners. ‘But first The Madisons, with their smash hit Do The Madison.’
Well, we kind of know what happened to the groovy Madisons. Or didn’t. They tanked. As for that slightly cranky voice from somewhere called Minnesota, gosh, it never left us though it nasally transformed to sound more and more like an angry hornet trapped in a jam jar.
So, to this final concert along with 3000 other folks willing to lay out chunks of cash in Glasgow. First we had to shove our phones into a locked protective pouch.
This was to help us enjoy a phone free environment. But nonsense aside, it was to stop bootleg recordings. Onto a sparse stage Dylan arrived. An aureole of wiry grey hair was backlit by low angled lights, awkward lights that helped block a clear view as he sat behind a piano. A quartet of sidemen grouped around him.
The 100 minute concert was a solid run through of a man’s back story. There were nods to his early stuff (‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, ‘’When I Paint My Masterpiece’ …) but most of the list was centred in his latest album Rough and Rowdy Ways.
There was no nod nor acknowledgment of the audience which was, if anything, reverential. No Drill Hall antics here as in 1966 with crazies yelling ‘Judas’. And remarkably, a noticeable slice of folks were under thirty probably getting a taster of a man who has been banging out thousands of songs for 65 years.
Afterwards, there were a range of instant comments. As the crowd was leaving, someone shrugged ‘Underwhelming…,’. Another liked the sidemen: ‘New drummer. He did OK.’ ..a reference too far, too Dylanworldish, for me.
Most, I think, saw an ending. Per usual with this enigmatic man, there were rumours and idle tales, this time of one last tour with all things musical coming to a last bow in Rome in 2026. With guest stars. Maybe with Old Willie Nelson, or the remnants of The Travelin’ Wilburys. Or for that matter, the ghost of Dave van Ronk.
We’ll see. We’ll see.
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Tony Fitzpatrick
….and were you in the overwhelmed or underwhelmed camp…?
Dick S
Few artists achieve the heights he has – and for so long, in so many guises – and left the rest of us so much. I listen to his recordings frequently – old and new………
Martin McCrindle
Seen him very good (Earls Court 1978) and very bad (Glasgow maybe 6 years ago).
Mesmerised by him and Johnny Cash on tv early 60s.
Unique, unfathomable, awesome.
Tony Brown
I was there on Monday and thought he was great. I’m not the most objective judge though.
David R
I decided to pass as the last time we saw him, a decade ago he was dreadful
Stephen Cooke
I saw the show in a warehouse/shed attached to the CBS Arena in Coventry last week. The first time he’d ever played in my home town so I had go. Plus of course I’m only too aware that this might be my last chance – he has to stop sometime. The last time I’d seen Dylan was maybe 20 years ago at the NEC in Birmingham. A vile venue and an awful performance.
But it was very different this time, though the venue was equally bad. I liked the no chat to the audience (cf Grateful Dead), I liked it that we knew how long the show would be and no pissing around with encores. I liked knowing the set list in advance.
There were a few moments when I knew that I was in the presence of greatness and a few moments when his voice soared and suddenly there was true meaning. And all the time a valedictory tone to the show, songs of love and loss and the end of things. Maybe it really is all over now, baby blue.
Laurel Rice
Everything is Broken is one of my favorites. 60 years we’ve been listening.
Ellen Vannin
👍👏🙏
Vicky Berne
I wish I had seen him with The Band on the “Before the Flood” tour – still one of the best live albums ever made.
Anon
The last lap of something that will never be seen again…
JSB
I haven’t seen Dylan since his Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976. But for anyone interested in excellent recorded material from the second half of his career (1989-2006), check out “Tell Tale Signs” on CD.
Rose Daniel
Bless his talented and prolific heart.
Andrew
Oh Bob! How do you do it?
How do you keep going?
Why do you keep going?
Just a song and dance man? I don’t think.
More an enigma.
A genuine legend in his own lifetime.
I have more of his music stored in one form or another than any other artist or composer. This does not make me a super fan. It’s just that more of his music makes the hairs on my arms stand on end than any other.
Never seen him perform, and never actually wanted to.
Enough that his music has followed me through life.
And that my younger son plays his music on guitars, both acoustic and electric.
Bob may have faded somewhat at 84 (Rough and Rowdy Ways takes some effort) but the poetry lives on. And played regularly in this household – as long as she can’t hear!
Will Travel
– he could read the back of a Cornflake packet and it would sound like art.
Jim Ferguson
I must say I was very disappointed in his Rough and Rowdy concert in Edinburgh
last year.
Before his final concert whenever,he should get a band that can project his voice, perhaps with fiddle and accordion.
Bella Houston
I last saw him at the NEC in Birmingham …underwhelming indeed
Adam/ Chicago
Did the spirit of Robert Burns inspire Dylan tonight? Something sure possessed him
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