Just like a Dylan

The concert began just about on time when a 7-piece band took the stage, along with 3 lady vocalists, and did an instrumental warm-up which sounded like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". The choice of tune was probably insignificant, but perhaps not, for if "Hard Rain" is the loosest album I've ever heard then this must surely have been one of the tightest concerts—so tight in fact that it seems as though the set was designed to prove once and for all that the man if perfectly capable of playing tightly himself and of controlling a large band.

Predictions about Dylan are not worth much, but the set he turned on at Western Springs seemed quite as startling as anything else he's ever done. There was some relief at the length of the show, with Dylan himself onstage for more than 2¼ hours, and at his warmth towards the enormous audience (he even managed a big Hi to the Highway 61 motorbike gang who were present in some force); but I for one was quite bewildered when his band came on looking like something out of a Graham Bonnets clip.

Mick Ronson might have been a far cry from Robbie Robertson but here was some guy call Lasqua with silk shirt, tinted hair, and a gold-top Les Paul. Certainly we shouldn't worry about what the guy looks like—and there was nothing wrong with the way he played—but it's still not what you expect from our shabbiets, scruffiest, worst-dressed rock'n roll star.

The man himself was resplendent in glistening white jacket and tall brown hat. Add to this a horn player, and Steve Soles (playing gut-string rhythm) and the lady singers all looking very much like Bonnet's hands, along with the general polish and big smiles. The result had one trying to remember all the stories about "Dylan gone soft" as the Isle of Wight.

But I'm happy to report that there was no need to worry. Some of the old classics were a little flat, especially "Like a Rolling Stone" slightly modified but with neither the desparate intensity of the original not the sheer drive of the Before the Flood version. "One of Us must Know (Sooner or Later)" was another that didn't receive justice, nor did "Shelter from the Storm" which badly needed the vocals from the studio cut it was too tight, and just before the intermission I was beginning to wonder if the slickness wasn't going to kill the music.

But then he sang the first line of "Going Going Gone". I say the first line because, apart from that and the chorus, everything was new (and vastly improved), including a glorious bit of slow rolling boogie in the middle. Everything came together and from then on it was pure gold.

The music was all rock, and heavy. Dylan had an acoustic guitar and a mic for it but he didn't use them, and the harp only came out twice—fine solos on "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "Just Like A Woman". For a couple of numbers we had the strange combination of swirling organ, sax, and Dylan's own black Strat. It worked well, especially on "I want You," done very slowly.

An acoustic set might have gone down better, but still, I guess that's Dylan's business. The band certainly didn't need any apologies and the master's vocals were impeccable—he always seemed to have so much time.

Most of the songs were very different from the originals, especially "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Oh Sister", both of which became pure boogie. Several verses were left off "All I Really Want to Do", which was suitable and the song came across as a great good-time rocker, but a pity with "Mr. Tambourine Man" which went without the two middle verses.

It was indicative, however, of Dylan's determination to rock - and he really did, particularly on "All Along the Watchtower" with some high-class fiddling from multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield, and on the show's highlight and climax "It's Alright Ma (I'm only Bleeding)". "Don't Think Twice it's Alright" got a reggae treatment, complete with piccolo and whistling organ, and the end, with a repeated "it's alright", sounded like a tribute to the Wailers.

I've not spoken to anyone who doesn't seem to have had a really good time, but [unclear: Iv scs v] certain understandable disappointment that Dylan didn't look as though he was suffering from three weeks of no sleep and an impending O.D. He didn't sing "I Shall Be Released" as if he were dying in the proverbial Basement; he didn't sing "Like a Rolling Stone" as if he hated anyone. But Dylan is neither a messiah nor a fighting cock, and we can't expect the man to destroy himself for our benefit.

He is suffered, and you can hear it on vinyl, but if he looks happy then we shouldn't begrudge him that. If he feels like producing a slick "up" kind of show then what he gave us would have been far less pretentious than a more traditional assortment of musicians and a more traditional approach to old songs.

The facts are that he produced 140 minutes of first class rock; often, particularly during "Going Going Gone" and the final bracket of "Simple Twist of Fate" ("about a couple of friends who disintegrated"), "It's Alright Ma", and "Forever Young", it was brilliant. "Forever Young", done slowly, seemed perfectly appropriate and sounded sincere, and when he encored with "The Times They Are A-Changin'" he sounded as if he meant that too. Dylan more than justified the enormous faith that so many of us place in him, as he continues to change and develop, and to assert his own right to do so. A very fine show indeed.

John Newton