..from people who are familiar with the records who then go to hear Dylan live, Fraser.
For those of us who've grown up with Dylan in concert it's just expected that he will "mangle" his own work.Occasionally these manglings are inspirationally different, and worth all the pain that every Dylan fan goes through as the song we thought was "To Ramona" turns out to be "Mighty Quinn"
My personal theory about the lack of communication to the crowd is that after he watched himself in "Don't Look Back" he decided to clam up for ever.

I'd want to mix them up/ mangle them a lot too.

Similarly his diction. He has played them so often and probably figures that the audience have heard them so often that even just a slurred hint of the lyric should be enough as we will get our cue from that.

As noted on a recent podcast he regards a song as permanently in flux. What you get , even in the studio, is just how it was at that moment.No version can be considered definitive. Plus with a voice in rapid decay and hands increasingly arthritic (I suspect) you'd expect the shows to change a lot.

The enjoyment of his concerts can vary dramatically with your seating / sound. I got front row for the Tom Petty tour- reviled by many- and loved it. For other concerts praised by many the I got sound was appalling and in turn so was my enjoyment.I dont think he cares what the sound is like for his audience and probably doesn't even care about on stage sound.His Bobness will go with the flow and say the evening brings what it brings.That's fine for him but not at $150 Aussie per show.

I vowed not to go next time and if it is in a stadium I wont - probably !

Started well with a rattling Leopardskin Pill Box Hat, Don't Think Twice and Tangled Up In Blue which I didn't think he mangled. Agree that Highway 61 was given a right kick up the bum. Thought Rolling Stone was great and Watchtower. Really enjoyed hearing 'Tryin To Get To Heaven' as well

In comparison to other gigs I felt he was projecting and more expressive than usual.

However there are songs in his set that have been there for nearly a decade now that I could do without. Tweedle Dum And Tweedle Dee was wretched when I first heard it and hasn;t got any better. Summer Days, High Water and Sugar Baby just sound tired.

The arrangement of 'I Don't Belive You' just didn't work and substituting the rocking 'Thunder On the Mountain' for a dull 'Ain't Talkin' was a mistake.

The closing Blowin In the wind seemed to follow the melody of 'The Gary Shandling Show' sitcom theme to the point its still going round my head. But he's being playing that song for 47 bleedin years, its got to be interesting for him too.

The old adage 'if you want to hear the songs like the records, stay at home' applies to Dylan x infinity

I liked a lot of it, what can i say?

....if he's so bored with the old songs that all he can do is mangle them, why play them at all? If ever there was an artist who had a big enough catalogue to be able to put together a great show without doing things he was bored with, it's Bob Dylan. Nobody's going to go to a Bob Dylan show and come out complaining about the favourites he didn't do. They're more likely to complain about what he did to them.

ON the basis on my experience of seeing him live this idea that he gives things new life in concert is The Emperor's Old Clothes. Mostly he sounds like he's going through songs while somebody tests the P.A. and lines up the lights. He always sounds in a hurry to get to the end of each song. There's no sense of dynamics to either individual songs or to the songs as a whole. There's no space, no drama, just a dutiful trundle through his Greatest Hits.

Why do people go? Sentiment, history, curiosity, because he's there, I suppose. But the rare flickers of critical enthusiasms are the things I find most dismaying. It's like when a once-great footballer begins a long slow decline. Sports reporters always point out how there was one flick in the second half that recalled the young player. People seize upon rare moments when he manages to be average and convince themselves that in those moments he was great. As they say in sport, the disappointment we can live with; it's the hope that kills you.

For the last twenty-five years Bob Dylan has gone on stage largely to give himself something to do and to pay his bills. There's nothing wrong with that. But you would have thought that in that time he would have come up with a way of playing music that doesn't leave such a huge proportion of the audience feeling puzzled and shortchanged.

"if I'd played those songs as much as he has I'd want to mix them up/ mangle them a lot too.

As noted on a recent podcast he regards a song as permanently in flux."

--------------------------------------------------------

At least part of the reason we loved his songs in the first place is the wonderful melodies. So if he changes those is it any wonder people complain?

He never regarded a song as "permanently in flux" until sometime around the start of the never-ending tour. On the Tom Petty tour mentioned above, which I saw at Wembley, the songs were still recognisably the songs we loved. It's been downhill ever since.

it makes me laugh when Dylan apologists try to excuse his contempt for his own back catalogue by making out that he's rather courageously re-interpreting his own work. He isn't. He's ruining it.

Any by the way, whose fault is it that he has played all those songs so often? Why has he on tour virtually permanently for the past 20 years? It's rather sad. Get a hobby. Take up a sport. Give everyone a break.

..like it or not..I know it's not common practice in "pop" music, but that's not where Dylan lives, is it?
This is precisely why Miles Davis more or less refused to play "Kind Of Blue" for the rest of his career, because of the dolts who wanted it note for note.
I don't see myself as an "apologist" by any means (Jeez Johan!) but some of it works (spectacularly..his "Desolation Row" in Sydney a couple of years ago was magical, and totally different)and some of it doesn't.
One is reminded of those people on the 1966 tour who carped at Dylans electric re-interpretations of some of their favourites.
Hasn't he always done this?
I'm glad David thinks Dylan is just going on stage to pay the bills..I'm sure he's as poor as a church mouse, but I'd rather have Dylan's unpredictability than ooh say Springsteen's ahem ,prosaic approach any day.

well the entire red sea. But recently he aligned himself not with pop music/culture but the his old favourite the circus and fairground folk. In that case he seems to ahve stopped beinga travelling troupadour entertaining the crowds with familar songs but a rather board bearded lady croaking out her lines and checking her watch.

That or New labours class war legislation has kicked in Bob swapping places with Elizabeth windsor, Old philip is swapping with Phil collins and lucky of Charles rather pleasingly with Bonnie prince Billie!

I attended last night's no-frills Roundhouse concert and the Van Morrison Astral Weeks extravaganza last Sunday at the Albert Hall.

I strolled around Hyde Park with friends before the Van, had a nice drink beforehand, sat in a comfy expensive seat with a good view of the stage and greatly enjoyed the wonderful sound and cleverly revamped running order of the songs. Van's voice was a thing of wonder, GLORIA was beautifully rendered and we all had a jolly marvelous evening.

I queued for the Bob from 3:30 and, despite being about 75th from the front, somehow managed to get stuck behind two monstrous geezers in the standing room crush (I'm 5'4") so that I could only see Bob maybe 50% of the time , standing on tip toes, glimpsing him between the hairy ears of my fellow Bob-fans. The musical arrangements were willfully perverse and Bob did, indeed, "sing" like a choking frog.

By the end, I was physically exhausted and emotionally enriched. Half-seeing him parp his harmonica alone, centre stage, at the end of the evening during the entertainingly- butchered BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, will stay with me forever - in a very good way. The Bob Roundhouse concert felt like hard work and this morning I feel like a man who is happy in his work.

Oh, and he did a silly little almost-dance whilst wailing away at the organ and kept experimenting with a weird, Bogart-like rictus smile during some of the numbers. You have to love the guy. OK, maybe you don't, but I sort of do.

I suspect the joke is on us when it comes to shelling out our sheckles on the Never Ending tour (a phrase becoming more apt as the years pass).
Whatever the rabid fans argue (stand up Rolling Stone), his voice is shudderingly bad and his use of his patented "upsinging" technique only hides his now paper thin range.

Time out of Mind (and a few isolated examples since) was the last time I detected real melody. The lyrics may still be interesting but the chugging bluesy accompanyment is wearing thin.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it, Fraser. You sound pretty much like I did after my first Dylan gig. For some reason, though, I kept going back. Another five times over the next sixteen years, and every time he was better than the last. In all honesty, this must be viewed along with my ever decreasing expectations: as I expected less and less, I was more and more surprised - and, let's face it, probably more and more forgiving. So that when I praise a performance such as this:

as being the high point of one of the best Dylan gigs I've seen, I listen back to it and think: am I mad? Is my love of Dylan's music so great that I have become one of those awful apologists who can never see the truth? I don't know. All I know is that when I was in Wembley Arena two years ago, I thought that he was making a real effort. Singing properly; and by that, I don't necessarily mean trying to hit the notes, I mean using his voice to effectively articulate the song and the emotions in it. Actually bothering to pronounce the words. Because, in my head, I'm always hearing that first, crushingly disappointing evening in February 1991 when I thought: he's not even bothering to look like he cares. He's had it. Every gig for me since then is a pleasant surprise. Having said that, I don't want to push my luck: I don't go and see him every year.

First of all, I believe if you want to criticize you better be more accurate, "Po' Boy" is certainly not from the new record.

Second: I think the first paragraph you wrote says it all: "I absolutely love Desire, and I probably own another dozen albums but would be equally happy with a decent Greatest Hits package". Can't see how you can enjoy a Dylan show today if you're not even a fan... like people that know only the beatles hits collection, to me is like they don't know anything about the Beatles.Nothing bad, just a matter of taste but it just seems that Dylan does not get into our heart, fair enough.

Anyway. I understand if somebody did not like his show but people that expect him to play over and over again the same hits through the years really did not understand nothing of this artist who does not even sing a song in a same way twice in the studio. And sure he can do the old stuff revisited... Have you ever seen his paintings? Pretty awesome (critics say that not only me) and they often follow the same pattern: same object with many variations, like he does with songs. He likes that, take it or leave it.

I was there last night and I totally enjoyed it, it was not my first time... and I loved to see his weird look when he sings. But "it never gets weird enough for me!"

have a nice week everybody Dylan haters and lovers

All the above comments are valid. I was at the show and still enjoyed it, despite the inevitably awful toilet-duck vocals. It's the band that carries it, full stop. He uses guys half his age or less and they always rock. Obviously it's an honour and prestige gig for them to do, but I bet that his (non) voice and delivery drives them all nuts - I play in a band and it would do my head in to be in one with such a lousy singer, no matter who he is. But that's their job, so no complaints, huh. I'm sure Bob could still sing reasonably well live he wanted to - he does ok(ish) on record, even on the new stuff, so imho he's actually been taking the piss out of his audience for years now, but so what. It's a rock show, the playing is the main enjoyment and we all just put up with the crap vocal. The other side of the coin is that Bob was one of the first to realise that playing live regularly is what it's all about financially, with the records becoming secondary income. He's no fool that cat...

Yes, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the moment ... that's a pity. I think you were lucky to be there. I wasn't. However, I shall be listening to last night's Roundhouse performance in a matter of minutes and I shall then discover how wrong or right you were in your comments. Thanks for the review, anyway. Cheers ... and better luck next time.

is pointless. The fanboy/apologists will come out in their droves to defend their hero. There are none so blind, etc. Your experience reminds me of seeing Van Morrison in 1996. I love Van's work dearly and had never seen him live before so I was very excited at the prospect. He was f*cking awful. I will never see him live again. But I learned a lesson, if you haven't managed to catch a musician early in their career, when they still give a shit, don't bother. This is something that may change as we go forward into the brave new world of music, where musicians can no longer make fortunes from their trade and actually have to be worth seeing for their performance, rather than the achievement of still being alive.

Ive just got back from the show and it was not his best. I think people were expecting songs off the new album but Bobs never played that game it was an average set list nothing special. I prefered the Sheffield show where I had a seat and a much better set list. Ive a few days off then its off to Brum, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

As so often, the very sage David Hepworth nails it: "the disappointment we can live with; it's the hope that kills you".

I saw Dylan ten days ago in Milan. It was (I think) the 15th time and it fits perfectly the descriptions offered of his London shows over the weekend. Of all the times I've seen him he's only ever been good once! A pretty dismal record. And yet I keep coming back for more...

While I bow to no one in my enthusiasm for Dylan's work the contrast with the recent tour by Leonard Cohen could hardly be more marked. Both unquestionably outstanding practitioners of their craft, Dylan seems to feel he's paid his dues while the more modest Cohen is "still paying his way every day in the tower of song". And of course the unmistakable conclusion that anyone seeing them perform live will come to that one is a gentleman and the other a slob.

..and "apologist"?
I consider myself neither ("fan" yes, "fanboy" never)
I don't really know why people still go to see Dylan, but if, as David writes it's nostalgia, sentiment, history or curiosity, why are the same numbers not flocking to see Roger McGuinn, or more tellingly, Tom Paxton?
I like those emperors old clothes, so much of what else is around is unredeemable shit.

..does exactly the same show every night with exactly the same jokes.
Sounds like death to me.
(and let's face it, if we're talking about singing, Len makes Dylan sound like Caruso..I know it's fashionable to love Len just now, but he sounds horrible to these ears)

makes me look forward to the two Dublin gigs next week.

And so does this from a few weeks back (the bunny is a nicely surreal touch too ...):

I saw him once and he was breathtaking - Hammersmith Odeon, Oh Mercy tour, GE Smith on guitar. They played a whole series of songs in the middle, just the two of them, and it was like being in a dream. The best gig I've ever been to, possibly better than any live album of his I've heard, and I am a sizeable Dylan obsessive. The other 10 or so times have ranged from miserable to appalling. Eventually, being in the same room as the unwashed phenomenon is not enough - for me, it was Brixton a few years back when he started playing keyboards. I wish he'd write Chronicles II instead.

...why can't Bob?
Neil Young may churn out barely listenable albums like his current one about a car but his concerts are consistently enjoyable and sometimes even exhilarating. He's been playing the same songs for decades too, but he never seems bored. Last year he played the first half of his gigs in intimate, acoustic style and blew the audience away, then got the band together for a rip-roaring electric second half. Imagine Dylan putting that much thought into a live performance.
My theory is that Bob's mystique allows him to milk audiences willing to pay money for the experience of being in his company and that at the same time he somehow feels it would be a betrayal of that mystique to ever "pander" to what the audience might want. It's some kind of vicious circle.
After seeing him at the godforsaken, thankfully now defunct, Docklands Arena a few years ago, I know it's not worth bothering ever again.
His new album's quite good though.

Having also been part of the greying throng at the Roundhouse last night, I feel I should say my piece. Firstly, I'm by no means a diehard (or even ‘big’) fan. It was my first Dylan show and he gets only a fairly brief cameo on the Palaceben Ipod. However, despite (and most probably because of) this, I thought the show was fantastic.

I’d been expecting a pedestrian couple of hours – lots of chin-stroking, a surfeit of slow numbers, po-faced stage presence etc. The reality, to my eyes and ears at least, was a crisp, loud, energetic set and, as someone else has pointed out, a jaunty (even slightly camp?) showman. The stuff off Modern Times rocked literally “quite hard”. Highway 61 also excellent.

Yes, I didn’t recognise most of the songs I, um, recognised and yes, he sounded a bit like a duck. But it was a good duck. I had a great evening. Well worth it. Although I’m bloody glad I didn’t go to the O2.

First of all, I thought he was great. It's the second time I've been to see him, and both times were fantastic. Of course, there were parts that weren't so good, and the setlist didn't feature any of my absolute favourites, but he was still fantastic.
I like the fact that he doesn't play it the way people want it. I'd be disappointed in Dylan if he did a Van/Cohen/Young and happily played the right parts of his back catalogue to suit the audience. Cohen is a crowd pleaser. That's how he gets his enjoyment. Dylan isn't, he enjoys reworking his songs and is not interested in what people think. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this, seeing Cohen on his recent tour was amazing and, dare I say it, more enjoyable than Dylan. But that doesn't mean I want Dylan to go out and do the same thing. They're simply different people! Dylan looks like he gets a real kick out of playing them that way, and I'd much rather pay to see someone enjoy playing the music onstage than someone going through the motions.
It's got to be said that I think it's fairly common knowledge that he butchers/reinterprets his catalogue and can't sing like he could when he was 21 anymore, so if you're not prepared for that then why pay £50 for a ticket?

...see my post a while ago, and don't say I didn't tell you so:

"Erm...
..have you seen him live lately? Do yourself a favour. Leave it.

edit reply
Iain McKinney | 25 March 2009 - 11:21am"

I've seen him four times between 1991 and 1994, always in the hope of something better. I will never go back. No effort, no singing. Rubbish.

His records however, I adore, including the last three. The croaky voice is rather endearing, after it has no doubt been electronically treated to within an inch of its life!

So, I will be downloading the new one tonight, and i look forward to loving it. But I will never go to see him love again.

Dylan's done a good job over the decades of excoriating clever clog music writers and their analyses, but it doesn't seem to stop them. What a trick to make a career of writing about whether you like an album or a concert or not. What an art.

He is an artist and a musician. He's done stuff you'll like or not like - just like any artist or musician. Not many artists in any field in any era have been as prolific or as influential over such a sustained period. If he had ever paid any attention to any of the million opinions of even the most celebrated "music writer" he'd never have made more than one record.

Do you get it? No. You don't get it.

Oh well. Whacko Jacko's coming over soon. You can get all your important-sounding opinions out again then. Can't wait.

Having read my way through all the comments so far about Bob last night at the Roundhouse, agreed with some and seriously disagreed with others, this is my take on it, for what it's worth.

Having queued in the sun for ten (10!) hours outside the Roundhouse yesterday, I was rewarded with a place right at the front leaning on the barrier. Though squashed up by all the press of Bob freaks around me, I still was extremely happy to be standing close enough to actually SEE Dylan properly, a rarity.

And yeah, his voice ain't wot it used to be, his age and years of fags have seen to that, and he appears as uncaring as he always has (not sure this isn't part of the way he chooses to project himself, cos I know he actually takes his music extremely seriously), still wearing strange clothes and refusing to play his guitar, but I have loved him and been inspired by him for so many years - and many concerts - so guess I am used to it, juiced in it.

And yeah too that he doesn't ever play a song the same twice - the mystery of what the hell he IS singing (til it dawns) is part of the fun, I love that about him. I too was at the amazing Lenny concerts, several of them, and Mr Cohen is a gentleman to Bob's tortured boorishness, but they should not be compared. They seem to be coming from completely different places!

I would've liked more of the old stuff, sure, but then lots of the songs from the last 3 albums are rockin, inspired and just plain good, and that's what the man chose to do lots of last night - ya gets what he's in the mood for, n that's it. If you can accept that, then you can enjoy the energy of the (excellent) band, and the buzz of just being at a Bob gig. It's no good complaining that his voice is 'like a toilet duck' as someone wrote here a few hours ago. Bob is who he is, and though some gigs are better than others, I won't stop fighting to get tickets.

If you don't want to come anymore, well, that's good for people like the 105,000 who tried to get one of the 3,500 (like me) who were lucky enough to get a ticket for last night. (Figures given to me by one of the Roundhouse staff monitoring the queue.) I for one will be queuing up, or wrestling with the awful Ticketmaster, to get tickets next time.

May you live long and prosper, Bobby.

get a flit gun they're coming out of woodwork there's one over there by the sideboard and one by the door, someone said something bad about bob and they are swarming in they're in the trees, run, run save yourselves.

..than positives on this blog... (in case you hadn't noticed)

especially if they stay around and join in the general fun and games.

But I hope it's not like when someone said something derogatory about Cud and we had fervent Space Cudettes all over the place arguing about the respective merits of "Purple Love Balloon" or "only a prawn in whitby" or whether Carl Puttnam is God or merely John the Baptist.

Bob has always had his detractors, even when he was giving some of the greatest performances in the annals of R&R history. The twenty first century Dylan is no different. Last year in Vigo I saw what I considered a genuinely memorable show, but I didn't get to hear the tremendous High Water, unlike the lucky souls at The Roundhouse. The 'letter joiners' attacking his performance(s) on here are the same ones that eulogised rapturously in the music press over Modern Times, put together truly cringeworthy 'dress like Bobby' fashion tips in their gloriously hip magazines and gushed breathlessly when his art exhibition hit London a while back. We're fortunate to be contemporaries of the man full stop.
Isn't it odd that these people pay to boo? Shite, he said that in 1966, not 2009, ho, ho, ho.

But no one agrees with me.

Has there ever been a musician who divides opinion more that Bob Dylan? The "nays" are just as vociferous as the "yays" but, as always on this site, these conflicting views are pretty well mannered. (Because there are about 4 different Dylan threads going on at the minute I've lost count of the total number of posts).

Even most of the people here deriding his current live performances still proclaim to like (at least) some of the music that he has made in his career. The rest are simply non-plussed with the whole "Dylan thing".

My God, even Dylan devotees are always arguing about some aspect of his ouevre.

It strikes me that this is always the way it has been with Mr D.

For my own part, I like his shows (I'm off this year to Glasgow, Edinburgh & Dublin) but can totally understand how it is not for everyone.

Of course, arguing either way, though entertaining, changes no-one's view.

Stimpy - were you referring to moi (perhaps amongst others) in talking about rabid pro-Bob postings by people who've joined in the last 3 hours?? You don't specify who you mean... You think I have posted prematurely? Should I wait til I've been registered for a year or two before I earn the right to post here??

I wouldn't say I was a rabid pro Bob person, but like loads of others I've followed his work and gigs for a LONG time. It was not the best Bobgig I've been to - many Apollo Hammersmith gigs years ago were generally much better, for example - but it's easy to criticize cos one gig doesn't hit all the right notes (as it were), and I'm still glad I woz there!

Bob Dylan

v David Hepworth

and Fraser 'Frazer' Lewry

... Mark Ellen not arrived for the Dylan Fight Club yet?

..to go to see Dylan in concert. A man I know went to see him at the Roundhouse, and said he felt incredibly inferior when he was surrounded by Dylan fans discussing set-lists from twelve years ago, and scoffing at him when he said he wasn't going to see him in Dublin, for example.

"Hey we got Simone Cowell at a Dylan show"...... "step right up... listen to him whine and cry" " yes sir ree boy he thought it should all be different" whaaaaaaa blowin in the wind had funny notes in it" Geeeze STAY HOME and listen to Desire. . You went to see something that a lot of folks like and you were bored. So don't try to justify it. Just accept it. The thing that upsets me is when you try to get people to agree with you. Why do you do that? Are you the consumer protector of music? Smells like an inferiority complex but hey I like Dylan shows.

Just in case anyone is interested, the celebs I spotted last night included Roger Daltrey, Bill Nighy, Bill Wyman, Jude Law, Chrissie Hynde, Bianca Jagger and Ian Broudie (I think). So there.

I was at the Roundhouse last night. I have to agree with Hepworth et al. Stout fellow David as usual. The beginning was OK, Bill Nighy behind me clapped enthusiastically after Tangled and hopes were beginning to rise. However it was downhill from there. I do wonder if Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Lennon et al had lasted this long would they be this incapable of providing a value-for-money rendition of their material. Well McCartney. Cohen, Morrison and others can still do it.
Perhaps an unpleasant thought but if dear Bobby had really expired on that motorcycle in the 60's we'd look back on him now without any of his works of genius being sullied by the vast tracts of regurgiated mediocrity which characterise most of his output since about 1980. Too hard on the Zimmer framer? Yeah, no-one does that to Wolfgang Amadeus but he had the decency to ring down the curtain at 35.

but turned out to be Grange Hill\Brookie supremo Phil Redmond. Also spotted Bianca Jagger looking sad all on her lonesome.

and while in the queue about 1,000 Larry Davids and Michael Eavises walked past.

(Another) music magazine one HERE.

plays against this one HERE.

Between what's been written on this blog and these links was everyone really watching the same shows?

Bob at the Roundhouse was my 31st show since 1992. For some bizarre reason I gave myself the illusion that Bob would either play songs from Together Through Life or rare gems hardly ever heard. My wild optimism chiefly lay in the fact that the Roundhouse show was organised by Sony Records and not his touring company, therefore it appeared like it was going to be something different. Late in the day this killing hope was boosted by the fact that a few minutes before Bob and boys came on stage there was a flurry of activity from the road crew with obvious changes being made to the sheets which must have had the setlist written on them. In fact what it all added up to was probably the less than momentous decision to substitute Things Have Changed with Million Miles or something like that...certainly not first time performances of If You Ever Go to Houston and It's All Good getting the nod. Once we got to the end of the set with Blowin' in the Wind my initial reaction was disappointment. It was probably when I got to the lifts at Chalk Farm station I found it hard not to have a smile on my face, by the time I got back home I was so tired I hit the sack and slept like a baby. When I woke up the next morning I was filled with joy, thinking just how incredible it was to have Bob in my life 'coz he doesn't do nice shows, the lazy death inducing middle class comfort of glasses of wine in the park, or stuff like that. With Bob it is hard work, suffering, and very much the case that what you get out of it is exactly equal to what you are prepared to put into it. And for me that means a glorious ride out West in a couple of hours for an appointment in Cardiff.

...that there's no-one more anal that a Bob Dylan fan.

I thought I was pretty obsessed with the Pet Shop Boys, but I'm buggered if I can remember what songs they played on which tours and how they played them (for those cynics amongst you, you may be surprised to know they do vary their arrangements, but not in a Bob Dylan "what the bloody hell is this?" way).

"When I woke up the next morning I was filled with joy, thinking just how incredible it was to have Bob in my life 'coz he doesn't do nice shows, the lazy death inducing middle class comfort of glasses of wine in the park, or stuff like that.
With Bob it is hard work, suffering, and very much the case that what you get out of it is exactly equal to what you are prepared to put into it."

Oh well each to their own I'm all for challenging art etc(the last film I saw had scenes of poor islanders breaking rocks to build tiny fields to plant spuds in seaweed carried in huge baskets up sheer clifts...) but hard work on my night off no thanks.

The irony here being that Bob is having an easy night at the office he seemingly puts no effort in and the audience does all the work.

Why doesn't he save himself the last 5% of effort and just get the crowd to shout out which song he isn't singing while he just stands there sipping his middle class of wine.

Better still beam it life from his poolside. oh but that would be ridiculous.

Expecting Dylan to recycle album versions of the songs because he has never done that. How much does the 1966 Freetrade Hall version of Like A Rolling Stone sound like the Highway 61 version from the year before?

Some people might call that caterwauling - remember, this is from what some would call Dylan's golden period.

And how about this canter through the then new song Mozambique, live in 1976?

Not exactly recreating the Emmylou duet from the just released Desire.

Now, remember that great acoustic protest song "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall"? Could that be reinvented in the style of Jean Genie?
In Dylan's hands, anything is possible, as this from the Renaldo and Clara movie testifies:

To finish, how about some late period Dylan gems, a moving Restless Farewell from Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday bash:

And some Sam Cooke from 2004(kicks off afer 2 mins):

We can debate the merits of his current recorded and live output ad infinitum (for my part I think he should get a stand-in-singer) but the the most important thing is:

1)Touring/recording/broadcasting (more recently) is his job and has been for nearly 50 years..it's the only thing he knows. He would stop if nobody wanted to see him. In the same way certain people whinge on about the wrinkly Stones and the need for them to quit but when you are still selling out stadiums, why the hell should you.

2)I would love to think that he is not motivated by the cash element as an irreproachable artiste but let's face it who isn't sometimes?

probably from around Under the Red Sky, where the interviewer asked Dylan if he ever wished that someone would take him aside in the studio or in rehearsal and say "er, boss, that's just... crap."
To which Bob replied: "Oh, people do that all the time..."

I can't remember what my point was, if I even had one.

Back again ... Now I've listened to my download of Roundhouse and I think the performance is pretty good ... I've heard worse Dylan performances down the years. Tangled Up in Blue and Blowin' in the Wind seemed to put the wind up you Fraser ... shame. They were good efforts and deserved the cheers from the crowd.

Has anybody noticed that we've all been going on about Dylan as if we're having a violent debate about whether or not God is dead? I love it. I love that we all seem to care so deeply about the crusty, track-suit-bottomed, perverse old fart. He makes life worth living; love him or hate him, no one who reads "our" little mag and spends a few ill-gotten minutes tip-tap-typing their computer keys is truly indifferent to him. Every little bit of trivia (David Hare, national treasure playwright, hasn't been mentioned yet as a guest VIP at the Roundhouse) sparks your brain cells and prevents Alzheimer's. Now where was I?

Did he heckle Dylan and ask him to "do some Keats"?

I was at the Roundhouse on Sunday and enjoyed the show.

I noticed the Guardian review very generously declared the night's version of Like a Rolling Stone the best since Earl's Court in 19078.

I've written about the gig on my MP3 blog, Carnival Saloon, and posted the Rolling Stone audio if you want to hear for yourselves.

http://carnivalsaloon.blogspot.com/2009/04/bob-dylan-roundhouse.html

The guardian reviewer was talking tosh.
Hammersmith feb 8 1990 is miles better. :-)

is a shortish film sketching Dylan performances at Newport Folk Festival from 1963/4/5. I've just seen it on TV and was struck by the following:
in 1963 the folk crowd were sharing the stage with him, he was a young man of about 20, performing from the midst of this "cosy" committee-like situation, with much nodding and stroking of beards...
in 1964 the crowd had dwindled from dozens to a handful of obviously self-important honchos on stage with him. So you're part of the show, are you? Who th fuck are you anyway?..
By 1965 he had quite obviously had enough of this monstrously backslapping oppressiveness so he plugged in and blew them off the stage. Judas? Oh, yes.

I find this symbolic for the course of his career, not doing what the crowd expects, delivering surprises when you least expect them, basically a fuck you attitude. He's never really been about pure musicality anyway (although his knowledge of his idiom is staggeringly compendious and also although TOOM was a very beautiful record, even vocally) and these days, well his voice is shot to hell and he apparently can't play guitar any more but he still has lots to offer, but of course on his own terms. A true artist then and long may he continue.

Look, of course none of us go because we think we're going to see a vocal performance to match those of 40 plus years ago. I've seen Dylan enought times (7 or 8 I reckon) to know that I go more in hope than expectation - the same is true whne I go to Van Morrison by the way. And why? Well, partly of course it is becuase of who he is, and all his records have offered me over the years. I remember seeing Chuck Berry years ago and thinking it was quite the worst performance I had ever seen by anyone. But I was surrounded by people 20 years older than me in 7th heaven becasue here was a guy whose work had been so much part of their lives and they were just pleased to be able to acknowledge it. Same with Bob.

Secondly,and related, its kind of like going to see your (well, certainly my) football team. You're invariably disappointed but you go partly out ofgloyalty and partly becuase every now and then they'll do something remarkable which makes it all worthwhile.

And thirdly, because although I know the limits of what I am going to get, I generally enjoy it. I honestly thought Liverpool tonight was pretty good. Boots of Spanish Leather and Blowin' In The Wind were dire, admittedly, but It's Alright Ma, Just Like A Woman, Levee's Gonna Break and Like A Rolling Stone were terrific.

And here's another thing I noticed coming out tonight. There was a real mix of comments for sure - plenty of people complaining about mangled songs etc etc. But a sizable chunk - more than I remember seeing before - of people in their early 20s talking to each other or on their phones about how brilliant it had been.

you can go to the gigs if you want and pass if you don't. What is surely beyond dispute is that this is one of the most significant artists of the rock era, and the records that have made him so will live on and keep reaching new generations.

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/04/dylan_roundhouse_brilliant.html

likely to extract as much as someone who sued The Word