Bob Dylan 2022

  Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour “was coming to the Bay Area. This was a must show for me. If I missed it, I knew it would haunt me. Dylan had just turned eighty one! It was unusual for me, but I jumped on the pre-sale. I probably could have gotten better tickets, but I got confused and pressed the button too soon. I would be up in the balcony for about a hundred dollars. Not a bad deal for a big Rock show these days. I was chasing legends again! 

There would be three shows in Oakland’s beautiful Fox Theater. June 9,10,11. I would be going to the first one on Thursday night. About a week later I was surprised to get a paper ticket in the mail. This would be a “cell phone free show.” I’d seen this at The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco. Your cell phone is locked in a pouch. You keep it in your possession but you can’t open the pouch to take pictures, video, text or call friends on the phone to show them how cool you are. The pouches are unlocked after the show. 

The show was in Oakland’s Fox Theater. A minor pain for me. I’d have to take BART across the Bay. I was a little concerned about missing the last BART train. I was being a bit paranoid, but I didn’t want to get stuck in a long line waiting to get my cell phone unlocked. I did the unthinkable. I left my cell phone at home! Surely I could survive eight hours without my cell phone.

I’ve gone to a couple of shows at The Fox. It’s a movie palace from the thirties. It holds 2,800. An intimate gathering for a Dylan show. The place had been closed and abandoned for years. It’s now operated by the Another Planet corporation.  They recently made big news in San Francisco when they bought The Castro theater. Film fanatics freaked out. Would they still show films? If The Fox is an example there is hope they will do a great job saving The Castro. The old theater does need some renovation, but I hope they don’t change it too much. The Castro is more than a movie theater.  

I made it to The Fox without my cell phone, but I kept feeling that I was forgetting something. It’s funny how dependent I am on it. A little scary, really. When I got to the venue I wanted to take a picture of the marquee. “Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways.” The cell phone wasn’t in my pocket! Oh yeah. I left it at home.

It was an older crowd. A lot of Hippies with Dylan, Grateful Dead and other Sixties related tee shirts. There was a smattering of canes and walkers. There were some youngsters. I saw a family group with matching Bob Dylan tee shirts on. The kids looked excited. Passing the torch to a new generation. It wasn’t a Rolling Stones show, but there was that buzz in the air. This would be a big, special show.

I knew what I was getting into. This was my fifth Dylan show. There was the drama of the first one, but I learned that Dylan usually doesn’t show much enthusiasm. There isn’t much onstage show business patter. But at every show there were several songs that were over the top and made the whole thing worth it.

And I had gotten recent reports from Dylan fan and Chicago Dip colleague Tom McEntegart. He attended the shows in Milwaukee and Chicago. I knew most of the songs would be coming from “Rough and Rowdy Ways.” Dylan was putting on great shows. So, I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen. 

Most of the crowd were veteran Dylan fans. People just started talking to each other. “How many times have you seen him?” “Where did you see him first?” Everybody seemed to have a Dylan concert story. I was able to brag about being at the Chicago Stadium show in ’74. It was the comeback show after his motorcycle accident. 

Who were we going to see? Is he America’s greatest poet? America’s greatest writer? He won a Nobel Prize! If he’s not America’s greatest poet or writer, he’s certainly the greatest songwriter. One guy exulted, “He’s our Shakespeare!” 

Some other comments I overheard:  “He was the first guy! He was the first celebrity Rock star!” “He started it all!” 

I heard the same conversation several times. Long time Dylan fans know it’s not going to be a greatest hits kind of show. “He’s not going to play that.” 

“But it’s my favorite song!” 

“He’s not going to play that.” 

This would be a serious show. We didn’t really come to have a good time like a “normal” Rock show. There wouldn’t be dancing in the aisles. 

It was a great view from the balcony. The Fox Theater was a classic movie palace for almost forty years. The web site says the architecture “can’t be labelled.” It’s a combination of “Moorish, Medieval and Baghdadian.” There are two large Buddha like figures on the walls near the stage. There’s a lot of gold leaf. It’s a great venue.   

An e-mail had warned us: “Show starts promptly at eight.” It took a while to get people seated. I’d guess they started about eight fifteen.  

Some classical music played while the band took their spots onstage. The crowd is pumped from the beginning. The band started playing. I thought it was an intro song, and Dylan would walk onstage. The stage was darkly lit. It took me a while to realize he was sitting at a keyboard in the middle of the stage. Duh. They started with a slow but rocking version of “Watching the River Flow.” Yeah. I remember once that this song might make a good life plan. “Just sitting on the banks of sand… watching the river flow.” Dylan’s Zen Buddhism song.  

The lights were up a bit, but Dylan’s face was still dark. I had brought a small pair of binoculars, but they didn’t help much. His voice was raspy from the start, but we expected that. Long time Dylan fans certainly weren’t going to complain about his voice. The band was very slick and polished, but they still had a rough, rocking edge. It was great Americana music. They did sound like a road house band. 

Dylan changes the arrangements so much that it can take a couple minutes to figure out what even some of the more popular and well known songs are. “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine.” He made a few short, unintelligible comments after the song. Very rare for Dylan, who usually doesn’t address the crowd in any way. 

I always liked the “new” album. Rough and Rowdy Ways was back to the basics. Its sound reminded me of the old Bluesmen. The show’s pace slows a bit with “I Contain Multitudes.” A song only Dylan could have written.

There was enthusiastic applause after every song. There were cheers and a few whoops from the crowd after songs ended. It reminded me of what a friend said after the ’74 Dylan show in Chicago. “It was like the crowd was afraid of him.” That’s unusual for a Chicago Rock crowd which is usually, well, rough and rowdy.

“False Prophet.” Sometimes it was hard to make out the lyrics. Was it the sound or was it his voice? The band is sounding crystal clear. I could still make out most of the lyrics. 

Another old song. This one was recognizable from the start and drew cheers of recognition. “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” It might have been worth the commute to hear just this one.  

I had to think of my brother Kevin. He left us over forty years ago. He was obsessed with Dylan. I thought I would get sad or maudlin, but I had good memories. It’s been over forty years now. Kevin would have loved this. Dylan was still touring at age eighty one with a real band cranking out rocking music. Just amazing.

“Black Rider.” A slow inexplicable ballad. If any of Dylan’s songs can be explained.

Since it was hard to see him, sometimes it was like hearing a disembodied voice. The lyrics just kept coming. Intense. Almost a chant. He growled the pounding lyrics. Dylan can get inside your brain. Then he’d slow it down and do a love song. It wasn’t all intensity and rage. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.”

Band can’t be praised enough. It must be a special challenge to play with Dylan. You never know what he’s going to do.

“My Own Version of You.” It’s a bit of a slow Blues chant. 

I wondered if he used a teleprompter. I’ve seen Rock bands with much less complicated lyrics use one. It can be discreetly hidden onstage. Sometimes it’s just used as a timing device to keep everyone on the same page. He wrote the songs, but how does he remember all the lyrics? Does Dylan use a teleprompter? I don’t think he does. The thing would probably explode.  

“Crossing the Rubicon.” Maybe my favorite of the night. The band does a slow, slightly ominous Blues shuffle. It reminded me of Lightning Hopkins. The intensity grows with each verse. At the end of the song he says thank you to the crowd.

 

There are reasons Dylan is so cool and aloof. I just reread Rolling With the Thunder by Larry Sloman. He describes the frenzy during the Rolling Thunder Review in 1975. Everyone wants a piece of the counter culture icon. Everyone wants something from Bob. “Would you read my novel?” “I just finished a screenplay that would be perfect for you.” There are endless requests for checks to “tax deductible charity organizations.” A “Dylanologist” went through his garbage! Even in ’66 he was sick of the endless press conferences and interviews. That was fifty six years ago! 

Dylan might not be a performer in the traditional show business sense, but he’s certainly intense. He pours himself into performing his songs. Dylan’s brain is still churning. He was certainly into every song tonight.   

The no cell phones policy really worked. I doubt Dylan really cares about his music being posted online. There are posts of this tour on YouTube already. He’s been bootlegged a zillion times. This veteran crowd would probably have been focused on every line anyway, but with no cell pones being waved around they were spell bound. It made the whole show more of a theatrical, almost operatic experience. It did make a difference.

“To Be Alone With You.” I learned later this is a song from Nashville Skyline. I thought it was from Rough and Rowdy Ways. The band stretches it out with some old fashioned Country and Western. 

 

“Key West (Philosopher Pirate.)” An obvious crowd favorite. He said something after the song. I couldn’t make it out. He’s being very chatty tonight. For Dylan.  

“You’ve Got to Serve Somebody.” Great version, but almost unrecognizable. Not as rocking as the original. 

“I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself to You.” Slow love song from Rough and Rowdy Ways. 

The crowd sounds surprised and then amused when he breaks into a Frank Sinatra cover. “Melancholy Mood.” It was about as show biz as the night would get. “And tonight in our piano lounge… Bob Dylan!” 

“Mother of Muses.” A slow, but powerful song.  

“Goodbye Jimmy Reed.” A spirited shuffle, but I don’t know what the song has to do with Jimmy Reed. 

Things were winding down. Dylan made the band introductions. I don’t remember him ever doing that. The band: Charlie Drayton, drums. Doug Lancio, guitar. Tony Garnier, bass. Bob Britt, guitar. Donnie Herron. “Multi-instrumentalist.” 

“Every Grain of Sand.” It seems like an abrupt ending. The band waves to the applauding crowd, but everyone is gone pretty quickly. 

BART is a short walk away. A small group of us were still buzzing while we waited for the train to San Francisco. A grizzled fan enthused: “I saw him in Seattle last week! Every arrangement is different!”  

So, a great show. You just have to remember. It’s Dylan’s world. We’re just living in it. 

“Things aren’t what they were.” (Motto on the logo of the Rough and Ready Tour.)