The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
Published August 13, 2004
We wait. This is what it has come down to. We are at a small baseball stadium somewhere south of Boston (Brockton; Campanelli Stadium). Usually, this is a local baseball field, but last weekend, the B-52s performed here, and tonight, so we hear, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson will be performing. But that's hours away, and I'm having trouble believing it's really true. For now, it is us and a crowd that is growing considerably, winding our way around the stadium. Many people have brought chairs, picnic baskets, blankets etc. They hang out in groups, giving other people the eye-ball from beneath their leather hats. Those of us who came unprepared, sit on the hard dirt or cement, the unforgiving sun searing the skin, getting hotter and hotter and knowing what it must be like to be a hot dog or some kind of grilled food. Come to think of it, there is some weird funk in the air that smells a lot like grilled food, but I have this awful feeling that it is some collective BO from the sun, sweat, and frankly, what is an edgy and somewhat hostile crowd. It's like an old photograph from the sixties - the women with their sort of blonde hair and leather hats and crochet tops; the men with knitted caps and tie-dyed shirts. Take that photograph and bump the contrast down and the brightness up so high that it is almost a white out: good. Now you begin to see the white heat of the sun. We wait here for hours.
7:15pm. We've been here since 3 pm or so, and since 5:45pm, we've been in the actual stadium. People are filing in, and it's filling up pretty quickly. Behind us, is a duck-faced woman and her family. She keeps commenting loudly about how she hates cigarette smokers and cigarettes and would burn us all at the stake if she had her way. She says she hates country music. She says she hates the south and "everything it stands for", and I'm not sure what that is exactly, and I doubt she is, but whatever it is, she hates it. She also hates folk music. She really hates my dress, which is yellow with pink cherries on it and backless and why anyone or how they could hate it is beyond me, but she feels strongly about this. Her husband, on the other hand, really seems to like it and even though he keeps trying to peek down the top, we decide that it's okay because it's probably the most action he's gonna get for the next several months.
Duck Face wouldn't matter very much, except sadly, although this is a momentous night for me, because I have never seen Bob Dylan live, I am surrounded by too many people who are like Duck Face. They seem bitter and worse, seems to begrudge the presence of anyone who is not exactly like them (failing to see the irony, which is that many of them are exactly alike which may be the problem). Sure, there is a more mellow element here as well, but they are quieter and seem a bit intimidated by Carla's loud-mouthed tale of how she now insists that her ex-boyfriend Stevie get his porn delivered to some other trailer because she ain't having it (yes, this is true). But why is everybody so hostile? We talk about it for a while, since we have nothing better to do and we have to wait for Willie. M. says that maybe it's some tension between the Willie crowd and the Bob crowd. Maybe, but frankly, I think these people hate everyone. I'm not sure why they are here at all. In an effort to ignore this constant prattle, I focus on Bob and Willie. For over three hours, they are always on my mind.
- The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
- Published: August 13, 2004
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- Section: Music
- Writer: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
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thanks - i'm glad you liked it.
interesting that the show in Poughkeepsie was so different, but i would imagine so - it's such a different vibe there anyway and more apt for a show like that. And yes, i hear what you're saying about the Dylan/Nelson comment - we endured MANY such comments from Duck Face, as above. Ah well. Tant pis.
thx. for checking it out -- did Dylan seem less distressed at your show? just curious...
cheers
srp
actually, the show i saw was in cooperstown.
i was so far off to the left i really couldn't see Dylan all that well.
he was very into it though...jumping around a lot behind that keyboard.
yeah, he was off to the left a lot in MA too...but i heard he was jumping around, though i didn't see.... sounds like he was having some fun at least. certainly made MY evening...
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Why were we all off to the left, huh?
We were pretty happy to find ourselves at the front of the stage in New Haven (thanks to all the folks who would rather buy beer than find a place to stand), but we, too, were far enough to the left that Dylan was hidden behind a couple of big amps for much of the time. He came out between every song to confer with the bass player, and while he was pretty into his performance, his interaction with the audience was nonexistent for the most part. Judging from the t-shirts, I'd say that the crowd was about evenly split between Willie Nelson fans and Dylan fans, and they both got really great receptions from the audience, which was demographically all over the map.
at cooperstown it as pretty obvious about half way through Dylan's set that some folks had lost interest.
i think people were expecting the folky, jangly kinda music that Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits presents....but when this big, snarlin' rock band showed up they just didn't know how to deal with it.
the only words spoken to the crowd by Dylan was during the band intros. he did make a joke about one of the band members getting a baseball bat for his wife. something like "...worst trade in baseball history".
har, har, har.
good question. why WERE we off tothe left, but really, it was Dylan...
he did seem to hide a great deal, as you noted as well. same with our crowd, demographically all over the map, but a real split. but hey, if Bb and willie can get along, and i like them BOTH, why couldn't they like eachother? was that infact the problem? weird hostility vibe, that others noticed too...i can't figure that part out.
as for Bob, i don't know if my observations and intuition are correct -- it's just the way i saw it -- but who knows. he did seem QUITE melancholy.
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srp
good point about the band - they didn't expect a big snarlin' band as you said, mark, so that's part of the problem, though i could have used a bit of both - the jingly jangly and the snarl; it's all good.
what do ya'll think of my friend's comment about bob intentionally not saying the lyrics as a joke? Pure mirth.
Interesting idea - wonder if it's true.
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srp
i saw Dylan last year up and meadowbrook farm and was shocked to see him not touch a guitar once.
not sure why this is. i'd like to see him at least attempt an acoustic number.
don't know about the lyrics trick, though it wouldn't surprise me.
me too!!! an acoustic number would be nice. i kept hoping for "Don't think twice" or "i want you" which would have really made my night... but alas.
Did he play guitar at the Brockton show at all? i think so - maybe once? - anyone? - hmmmm...
well -- with any luck, i'll see him again, but never general admission like that. that was a freakin' nightmare. ugh ugh ugh.
srp
lovely and lyrical Sadie: the difference seems to me to be that Willie is comfortable in his skin, Bob isn't, and all that each implies. Thanks!
yeah, Eric ~~ i would agree with that. Willie is more of a Pro in some ways - he's a real showman, as a friend said, "In the vegas way", not like vegas, but has the same professionalism and continuity. Bob on the other hand is a mixed bag ~~ no doubt, a genius, which i strongly believe, but also a real moody mercurial guy and he's going to do whateverhe feels like doing ~~ and if he's feeling pissy then that will show. REgardless, i still think he does an incredible show. I only wish he had come forward more -- because i came, after all, not just to hear him, but also to see him.
thx. as ever -- SRP
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geezuz! great review.
interesting, that vibe. the crowd in upstate new york was pretty much the opposite.
though i did hear a woman behind me say something like "i just don't know why they put dylan above willie".
i did not comment.