Bob Dylan and His Band

That period w/Tom Petty I thought was quite good.

I liked "Infidels," in large part to Mark Knopler's playing (I love the solo on "Sweetheart Like You"). But the band he toured with during that period-Mick Taylor and Ian McLagan-...eh, not so good IMO.

Don't know much about his more recent bands.

 

I've seen Bob three times, but none within the past 7-8 years. The first time I went (Garden State Arts Center, somewhere around 1989) because The Alarm opened and thought Bob was rambling but intriguing. The second time, I went to see Bob the next year at the same venue and he was awful, and I swore I'd never go see him again.

Then it must have been about 1994 or '95, and he was playing at the Electric Factory in Philly with Patti Smith. My brother, who had seen Dylan several times and hated the last 203 shows, had already bought tickets (tiny venue, he wanted to take a chance) and asked if I wanted to go. So I said what the hell and went. Bob was fabulous -- so fabulous, in fact, that the four of us who were there together all said that we'd never go see Bob again. Better to go out on a high, as far as we were all concerned.

I've never paid to see him since, but he showed up at the final Springsteen show at Shea this past fall to play "Highway 61 Revisited". I was in the general admission pit and everyone around me agreed that Bob had romanced the liquor in the backstage green room a bit too much.

 

I was also at that show and agree with you about it. That entire tour was good.

I've seen about 15 Dylan shows going back to the late 80's. In the early 90's, Dylan went through a painful mumbling phase. Some of those shows were miserable. I'd spend a large portion of each song just trying to figure out one line of the song so I could determine what song he was singing.

It's a shame because during this spell, Dylan did an interesting thing on the Grammys that went largely unnoticed due to his mumbling. At the peak of the frenzy over the US success against Iraq in the Gulf War, Dylan came out on national TV and sang Masters of War. Since nobody could understand him, its intention fell on deaf ears.

Around the mid-90's, Dylan started touring with GE Smith of the Saturday Night Band. GE Smith and his freaky facial expressions had always annoyed me during SNL but I give him complete credit for pulling Dylan out of his morose mood. Ever since then, Dylan has been one of the best tickets going.

With the large number of shows he plays each year, there are certainly going to be a few lame performances. But with Dylan you usually a nice mix of songs from each of his different periods, a few nuggets, a cover tune here or there and most importantly to me, unique interpretations of his own songs. The fact that he constantly reinvents his songs makes each show/tour a really unique experience. I'd definitely recommend his shows to anyone who is even the slightest fan of his.

Murf