The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
Published August 13, 2004
Dylan addresses us only once that I recall. "Everybody enjoy the show," he says. Something along those lines. The crowd cheers loudly as they can, but it doesn't seem to be enough for Dylan. This is the first time I have ever seen this man who has been such an integral part of my upbringing. Dylan whose lyrics wound silver threads around my youth, my coming of age, the yearning and aching, the fervent, heated desires I have felt, the anger and the desperation - it's all there in Dylan's lyrics. "Aw honey, I want you... Soooo baaad. I want you." How many times have I told myself, told others, "Don't think twice it's alright..." (For the record, he sings neither of those on this night.)
He opens with "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", which is the only song that most of the children here know (and I mean little kids). He sings it faster than I've heard it before, but it's a good song to get the crowd moving and into it. During the show, the shows that touch me most are "Forever Young," "Things have Changed," "Saving Grace" (which is just gorgeous) to name a few, not to mention an encore of three songs including "Like A Rolling Stone" and others, which stupidly, this reviewer missed ~ alas.
For the most part, Dylan hangs back to the left of the stage behind the keyboard. He takes center stage only a couple of times, and seems to be hiding a bit from us. A bit angry or upset, like he's given up. Like this is what it has come to: performing a mid-size stadium in southern Massachusetts with a crowd that is only half-present - or actually, for this crowd, doing pretty well, but nothing compared, no doubt, to the crowds of Dylan's youth - those masses of people who saw him as the poet and speaker of their generation. Nothing less than a prophet of his time. Like Willie, Dylan too seems to be looking for that "soft place to fall." It is apparent in the songs he sings, the way he sings them. No matter that the words are almost unintelligible - one knows the music, recognizes some turns of phrase.
Just as Willie Nelson had such a spirit of hope in his music, hope that shone through in bright glimmers, it's not the same with Dylan. With Dylan, the theme is the same, I think, but it's an entirely different take - perhaps that of a younger man who hasn't yet quite come to terms with age, with heartache; who hasn't reconciled these things yet. Like Nelson, Dylan is looking for that soft place, but here there is more of a yearning. Willie seemed to know that even if all we have is tonight, there will undoubtedly be a tomorrow. With Dylan, I get that the sense that it's more that although we have had today, I desperately need this tonight, because there may not be a tomorrow. If his intention was to express this desperation, then he succeeds.
- 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.