The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
Published August 13, 2004
I keep trying to get into the spirit of being at a show - and maybe it's because it's not quite dark out yet - but it still feels more like entertainment than a real heart-thumping- jump-out-of -your-seat show. I'm sure that a lot of this has to do with the crowd, which is apathetic and apparently, moved by very little except the desire to forage for more hot-dogs and the like.
Willie's songs all seem hopeful to me. Despite the bad attitude of the crowd, I find that I'm moved nonetheless. Every ballad sounds like a guy who is hurt, tired, run down by life and all that he's been through and is looking for that sacred and scented breast of a nurturing woman who will provide that ever-critical soft place to fall. The way he sings it, you can see it. You also hope that he finds it - and in some ways, want to offer this. There's a real element of desire in Nelson's songs and it's often about the need to be nurtured, to be forgiven. When he at last sings, "Always On My Mind", I admit, I can feel my heart melt. Oh, laugh all ye cynics! I can hear you, but I tell you, I literally feel the soft down on my arms raise in goose bumps and my heart soften and a warm, growing smile comes to my face.
Years ago, I used to find this an offensive song. Used to think, Oh, fuck you, I was always on your mind!! As if that does me any good! I used to think about how angry I would be if someone used those lines to explain some slippery indiscretion. Now, so many years later, I know it's never quite so simple. That perhaps despite all of my naturally cynical ways, I know that to grow older and wiser is to master the fine art of knowing what is truly important and what isn't. Still, at my core I want to say it's not enough to be on someone's mind and only that if they are out there awfully betraying you with various method, yet the fact that this registers enough as somehow not quite right, that Willie knows that at the end of the day, there is only one who was always on his mind - and yes, maybe he didn't show it, maybe he didn't treat her, maybe he didn't love her quite as often..., maybe he didn't do all those things he should have, but shit, he knows it - and he's man enough to own up to it and that has to count for something. On this night, it counts for a lot. A few people have tears on their faces during this number. I am almost one of the, which is mortifying, but so the fuck what. Isn't that why we go to concerts anyway? To be moved, transported, to sometimes, admit it, make utter fools of ourselves and do things we wouldn't normally do?
- 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.