The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
Published August 13, 2004
Just as the sun is setting - about a half hour at 7:30, Willie appears on the stage. From where we sit in the stands behind what would normally be home plate (and a good view), the stage is miles away, and it's much, much smaller than I would have imagined (a bad view). When I hold my arm out and separate my fingers an inch, I can hold Willie in the half-inch space. The only way I know it is him is his red bandana, tied as always across his forehead. I can just barely make out two long, thin grey plaits.
Willie opens with "Living in the Promised Land." It seems a little preachy which is great and gets the crowd hopping a bit. Not as much as I, and no doubt, he, would have liked, but still...it's the best we're going to do with this lot. He's pumped and full of energy and still as that incredibly, molasses voice that manages to be soft and rough at the same time and is one of the few men that I would marry just to hear him speak all the time. Who could resist such a voice?
There's something strangely narcotic about Nelson's voice. It's in the pitch and tone. It's where it hits in the ear, curling in and touching in just the right spot. It makes me want to say, "again" to every song. (For all I care, he could sing Georgia over and over again tonight and I would die a happy girl.) As Willie belts out one after another, including "Always On My Mind", "Georgia", "On the Road Again", and most of the best (I can't think of any that he left out that he should have included; he seem to hit on every count.) With each song found myself growing calmer, more at peace.
People are still milling about, making smooth laps around the main field and stage. Really, it's a very retro scene. The sun has almost set, the sky is that mauve, pale blue pink color and there are kids and adults all doing their own funky dance to the music. A really tattooed guy in a wheelchair makes huge, fast circles around the circumference of the field, using two Mexican, shamanic looking and painted walking sticks to propel himself faster. Willie begins On the Road Again (I think he sings it twice, once now, then again later, but I could be wrong.) Mid-way through his performance, a huge Texas flag unfurls. Duck Face, who still hasn't shut up, says "Is that a Confederate Flag?!!! I hate country music!! I hate the South and everything it stands for!!" This is not an exaggeration. This is, sadly, what she says, and anyway, it's not a confederate flag, it's a Texas flag, which could have something to do with Willie's origins, but hey, just a shot in the dark (why, why o why did you have to sit behind me...! ).
- 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.