The Dylan - Nelson Double Bill: Still Lookin' For a Soft Place to Fall
Published August 13, 2004
Behind me, Duck Face is going on about how Dylan has "ruined his voice" which may well be true, but so the fuck what. My friend B, who has seen Dylan more times than is fair, and when he was younger too back in the day, says that she believes that Dylan does this mumbling incoherent thing on purpose. "Imagine!" she says, "He's so sick of singing the same songs over and over again - he does that on purpose; what a great sense of humor." I hadn't thought of it that way, but I must say, I really like this interpretation. If it's true, how very pithy and pissy and clever of him, and shit, though I miss the old Dylan and wish I could get the lyrics, I can't say I would blame him. Perhaps this interpretation is too optimistic, but I like it nonetheless.
Dylan is making this huge effort to appeal to us tonight - almost a flirtation, a kind of tango, a push-pull thing of "go away closer." It's clear that Dylan hasn't quite come to terms with some of the issues that no doubt plague every one as they get older, especially must be a contrast to rock stars as they age. A rock star is not meant to age. At least, that's the common notion. The idea of Mick Jagger doing his rooster dance on the stage seems a bit odd - still, I'd go see it. Perhaps Dylan judges himself so harshly that he believes this performance at his age is somehow sad or pathetic or needy - as if he desperately needs or wants to prove to us that he's still "got it." He wants the love, but he doesn't - the way a child sulks, petulantly in the corner. To me, although this is my first Dylan performance, it is nonetheless still incredible and immensely touching. There is real melancholy here, but it works.
Granted there is a certain mythical quality to those poets, rock stars, movie stars who reach tragic ends, particularly at their own hands. Still, does that mean we can't respect perhaps even more those rock stars and writers who see it through the way Dylan has. Those who push forward through the long and often hard good night to middle or old age and still have the goolies to get out there and belt out a song for us.
Rock stars are supposed to stay Forever Young - forever the heart throb, the poet, the prophet. If only Dylan could see that even on this night, in this nowhere suburban stadium that even if the whole crowd is not responding as he would like (which again, I think they're doing quite well), that there are still those of us out there in the dark night who remain Forever Young. That we reach you swiftly to him, but he's not quite meeting us. All this yearning and heartache I hear in him tonight, I want to tell him it will be okay. That getting old, getting hurt, getting screwed, and shit, playing a suburban stadium at sixty some odd years old is still pretty great - that I need him on this night. "I need my song always to be sung when the winds of change shift."
- 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.