To a Dylan gig in Birmingham last night. I last saw him (from about 300 metres away!) in Earl's Court over 30 years ago, so I was pleased that I had a seat nearer the front this time. But hope drained quickly as the evening started. Dylan seems to have adopted a routine of completely ignoring the audience and, hunched at the side of the stage, routinely pounding on the Hammond as his passably talented backing musicians struggle to inject some musicality into the evening. I suspect that their skills are kept under tight rein so as not to upstage him...
Vocally, it was a game of "guess the track". Often I would recognise a lick or a chord sequence but, despite this, not associate it with the words until the first chorus. It's almost as if he is just lost down a long, oft-rehearsed tunnel of self-parody in a sneering, whining, gutturally unmelodic attempt to put listeners off the scent of recognition. It's all very well developing and evolving as a performer, but this is just taking things too far!
His well-documented separateness (one longtime drummer said that he never left any musical "breadcrumbs" for accompanists to follow) from his fellow-musicians and his complete separation from the audience was sad. People I was with were comparing him with Cohen, who, in exactly the same venue, managed to make an immediate, astonishing, intimate contact.
A disappointment. And not, perhaps, in the way that the guy who famously shouted "JUDAS!!" all those years ago. It's not that I'm against his moving on, or his new techniques, or his bringing new life to old material. I'm not saying that he has betrayed himself, or his fans, or a cause. I suppose I'm pinning my colours to the mast and saying that this emperor has very few clothes left as a live performer. He is running on his reputation (palpable around me last night) - which is massive.
He has been and continues to be one of the great 'pop' singer/songwriter/performers of my lifetime. He is up there with Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Lennon/McCartney, Loudon Wainwright, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Neil Young, Gerry Rafferty, Paul Simon, Van Morrison and the other predictable idols. But...
He is showing signs of running on empty. I liked "Modern Times" - but as I think about it, it probably owes more to the musicians around him and making a special effort for the studio than he doles out to his paying gig customers. I asked myself "why does he do this..?"
He can't (like Cohen) need to build up his retirement pot. He slogs around the world doing his thing, but for what purpose? SURELY he can't be enjoying it? That, I think, is the major reason for my discomfort. There didn't really seem to be a point. He really needs to rest his larynx. It sounds shot to pieces - and he doesn't even attempt to sing, as such - and I reckon that it must be quite painful for him to do so, which is why he resorts to snarling.
I'm beginning to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells...
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