Bob Dylan is so old and weird and vocally ravaged that there’s been muttering on the Internet and in more respectable quarters that the septuagenarian Bard should bring the Never-Ending Tour to an end, and hang up his dancing shoes for good.
Balderdash. On Wednesday night, Dylan played the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park. Sure, he often sounded like a dying bullfrog scat-singing difficult-to-decipher Bob Dylan songs. (Was that “Leopard-Skin Pillbox-Hat,” he opened with in a predictably unfamiliar arrangement? Indeed it was.)
And yes, when he stood stage center without an instrument and sang with arms extended while wearing a broad-brimmed white hat and black cowboy outfit, he did look like a macabre cross between Maurice Chevalier and Vincent Price.
But when he was singing in a scorched-earth voice – and sometimes, playing a keyboard you could actually hear, or blowing into a harmonica on “Tangled Up In Blue,” or playing a tasty, surprisingly well-thought-out guitar solo on “Simple Twist Of Fate” – he was singing incomparably great Bob Dylan songs.
More importantly, he sang the lyrics of a revamped “Desolation Row,” faithful to-the-Chicago blues original “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” and swaggering, rugged, despairing “Blind Willie McTell” – like they were of importance to him.
Maybe of not as much importance as they were to the devoted Dylanologists among the crowd of 6000 or so, who were warmed up with a mildly ingratiating blues boogie-woogie opening set by Leon Russell, the 69 year old pianist who was a vision of blinding whiteness in matching cowboy hat, shirt and a Cousin It-style beard and hairdo that didn’t appear to have been trimmed since “A Song For You” was recorded in 1970.
But if Dylan himself didn’t sing as if ascribing as much meaning to every word as his reverent multi-generational followers do, his performance did disprove a key line in one of his best latter-day songs. “I used to care, but things have changed,” a disingenuous claim that adds up to “one big lie,” to crib another line from “Things Have Changed.”
Dylan has been acting blasé and pretending not to care since … I don’t know, 1966 or so? But you don’t keep on keepin’ on as productively as he has in his senescence without investing a great deal of yourself into your work. Even in the case of songs that wearily claim, as Dylan did during “Mississippi” on Wednesday, that he has “Got nothing for you, had nothing before / Don’t even have anything for myself anymore.”
Skeptical fans who have grown weary of Never-Ending tour dates and chose to sit this one out picked the wrong time to bail on Bob, who was engaged and frisky, increasingly so as the 90 minute evening wore on. And the nimble, up-for-anything band, which currently features Tony Garnier on bass, George Receli on drums, and, in their front man’s elocution, “Stu Kimball on rhythm gee-tar, Donnie Herron on steel gee-tar, and Charlie Sexton on lead gee-tar,” is as good as it’s been in a decade.
And if you could only understand select lines as the singer scratched and moaned and bellowed his way with feeling through a revved-up and rumbling “Thunder On The Mountain,” powerfully doomy “Ballad Of A Thin Man,” or boldly ringing, satisfying sneering “Like A Rolling Stone,“ well, that was okay. Because you knew all the words anyway.
Previously: Bob Dylan Setlist Follow In The Mix on Twitter here
Great review, Dan. We saw Bob last week up at Bethel Woods, NY. Sorry we missed him at the Mann last night. The show at the site of the original Woodstock festival was great. Focused, tight and sounded great. Awesome venue, by the way, in case anyone plans on going up there.— tim_kerr- Sounds like an awesome show...and I'm one who really doesn't care much anymore either.— sillybilly
- Been to Bethel Woods...a fine and obviously historic location for a show. It was reverence for me, too young to have gone when it mattered so long ago. And not a bad drive from these parts if you make a day of it and do the Woodstock museum that's part of it.— PhillySubsMac
Comment removed.- Who gives an ef about Bethel Woods? Bob Dylan at the Mann. Now that was a show! Chills and belly laughs...what more could you ask for?— Lord Baltimore
- I was there last night - Dylan was good but not great - to me the whole thing sounded soft for lack of a better word. Overall though, I'm glad I went.
However, the Mann Center is a dump. We had tickets in the balcony in the front for of the back section - they should have been sold as obstructed view as they had set up folding chairs right in front of us. Also that balcony was brutally hot - it was a temperate day for August - what would it have been like on a hot day.
Last thing - our seats collapsed half way through - they were a bit titted when we arrived and midway in we heard a snap and dropped a few inches - the bolts holding the chairs to the concrete appear to have snapped off - how this was not caught by employees is beyond me - we were all fine, but someone could have been hurt.— offtopic - Dylans place in music lore is guaranteed, but you should take the time to see the new documentary on Phil Ochs. In it, Dylan is a self centered, ego maniac who turned on his best friend in his most dire time. As good as Dylan was or is, I can't ever take him seriously again, knowing what a despicable human being he really is.— 42Homestead
- This guy is a loser, always has been and always will be. Absolute no-talent. If it weren't for the drug ravaged hippies, nobody would know who the hell he is.— waterdog
- Maybe the folks who saw him sing Blowin' In The Wind on the mall in Washington right before MLK made his "I Have A Dream" speech would know who he is...The guy's only the most celebrated songwriter of the 20th Century, waterdog...50 years is a long time to maintain a career for an "absolute no-talent," wouldn't you say? Maybe you should turn off your Rick Astley records, eh? — SAG1015
- @ waterdog - go jump back in the lake.— manyhats
- Waterdog- You may or may not like his voice or his live perfromances,and there are good arguments both ways. But he is universally recognized as the greatest song writer of his generation, as well as an artist on par with the Beatles for his influence on modern music,particualrly the blending of country and folk into mainstream rock. So to say he is a "loser" with "no talent",when he has been a vital artist for the last 50 yeers, suggests that you know very little about music and American culture.— diverjm
- I LOVE his songs... when they are performed by those who can sing.— Moi
- Comment removed.
- Considering the breadth of his career and quality and quantity of his creative work, he's America's greatest artist ever. Who's better - maybe Twain, Whitman, Hemingway - but you can make the case for Zimmy. If you hear hear only the croak in his voice, you're missing the mystery and the history. Thanks, Bob - keep on keeping on— Rotobobfan
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