On Dylan's Performances

I want to respond to the disparaging comments about Dylan's live show, all of which are highly accurate.

In the early 1980's Dylan was worn out on performing. In fact, he admits in his autobiography, CHRONICLES, VOL 1, that he made a decision to not tour anymore. He desperately needed some new way to perform his songs. The idea occurred to him to perform his own songs by singing the lyrics (where possible) "on the odds instead of the evens" (music is very mathematical). Weird as he is, it totally rejuvenated him and he's been doing it ever since. That's why his songs sound so strange live. Watch his "Unplugged" from the 90's. He sings songs everyone knows in ways in which you cannot sing along with him. It challenges his own mind as much as it challenges your ears…the only difference being HE LIKES IT. If you are not prepared for it as an audience member, it's extremely frustrating. If you are not a Bob Dylan fan, there is no way to enjoy it, and no blame can be laid on you for not being able to enjoy it. I would much rather hear him sing the songs normally.

But...hear me now and believe me later…Bob Dylan has the capacity to be as mesmerizing a performer as anyone you have ever seen, including the utterly captivating Adam Duritz. Remember, it was Duritz himself who, in a song named for a shadowy figure in Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man," said, "I wanna be Bob Dylan." (As a side note: remember that Duritz likewise frustrated many of his own fans in the mid 90's when he sang their favorite lyrics from "August" and "Recovering" quite irregularly on two live albums.) Bob Dylan got his first record deal by completely captivating audiences by himself with a guitar in Greenwich Village. Watch documentary footage of him and you will see. In Scorsese's NO DIRECTION HOME, Dylan sings "Mr. Tambourine Man" by himself at the end of a full band show in London. I have never seen a musical performance so arresting. He sings beautifully (Dylan's sorry voice is an act, btw). He seems to be in a trance and his shockingly white-blue eyes (you've seen them in his Wallflower son) are glazed over by the effects of who-knows-what substance. He's younger than any of us and he looks as weary as only a 60-something wanderer should look. He is already the Ancient Mariner: "He holds him with his glittering eye."

The thing is that from his earliest days as a star, Dylan was understood as a rebel who always said the unexpected. He saw through this and noticed that people didn't want him to keep saying the unexpected, they simply wanted him to say the enigmatic sounding things they wanted him to say. His current live show his way of saying, "I'll say what you expect, but not in the way you want to hear it." It is frustrating.

I tried to get my wife to go with me. She can't stand Dylan or my impersonation of him. I asked her "How often do you get the chance to see a genius? An actual undisputed living legend?" No matter how much you are put off by Dylan's show, it will matter one day to be able to tell your grandkids that you saw Bob Dylan. For that reason Eric is right, Rafe will never regret seeing him, and the rest of you need to get on it.

I need to stop.