That he started his China shows with this song too, shows their naivety in banning the overtly political "Blowing in the Wind" but letting this subversive gem through the great cultural fire-wall of China. All political revolutions are bottom-up affairs, by definition - not top-down - so this paen to personal reinvention is as dangerous as they come. Individual malcontent coalesces to create a collective rebellion, not vice versa.
The 60's folkedelia of Wheels on Fire follows in a reinterpreted rhythmic structure, less staccato than the original but more fluid for it. The stoned majesty of Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Rolls beautifully through, the couplets falling into place with Shakespearean grace. Crisp yet warm guitar tones from the expert band give this the most fidelity to the original version, the descending chord patterns closing out each verse intact. A set spanning his Bobness's entire career favours the last few albums and doesn't delve further back than the "going electric" masterpiece Bringing It All Back Home (1965).
The narrative of loss Tangled Up in Blue is reworked well, and Blind Willie McTell is raw in the best sense of the world. You can hear the bluesmen of old that inspired Dylan in his formative years shining through all that has happened since, smiling down from the heavens at the insanity of it all and the fucking genius of him making rock literate finally. The lovestruck Cold Irons Bound rolls forth in bars of tangible pain. Next the opus of Desolation Row, and Alan Ginsberg's favourite Dylan poem is ignited with full electric treatment. Apocalypse now, vividly surreal vision of chaos and amoral vacuum of postmodern life are washed over us in quick succession. One image is barely fading before the next rolls past, a montage of evocative power. Highway 61 reveals some stunning guitar and organ interplay between Dylan and Charlie Sexton, the long-serving lead guitarist Dylan has used for live and studio work for the last couple of decades.
A couple of offerings from the latest offering, Modern Times, exude rustic country-blues musicality.
These are followed with the intense paranoia of Ballad of a Thin Man, all menace and more guitar driven than the piano-driven original. Dylan's reconstructions tonight are powerful because they retain the essence of the songs, and are not radical deviations from the phrasing as he was experimenting with - to varied effect - at times over the last couple of decades.
A powerful encore medley kicked in with Like A Rolling Stone, the vile-filled hate-song that smashed the 3 minute pop song limit in '65, doubling it and raising the IQ of rock lyrics to the nth degree all in one snare shot sparked tirade. "How does it feeeeel? To be all alone?" Indeed. The sneer was tangible, visceral, and cathartic at once.
All Along the Watchtower paints a medieval story of disillusion and entrapment in cycles of life, in timeless poetics and snarling blues electric guitar solos wrap around each line with menacing ambivalence. The way Dylan emphasises the rhyme of HOWL with GROWL in the final couplet reinforces the connection of Dylan to his birthplace of his muse in the beat poets of the 50s. Ginsberg, Kerouac, et al.
This is the same man that Ginsberg, poet laureate of the 60s counterculture movement, claimed was so in tune with his art that he had become one and the same as his breath. His words were embodiments of pure intent, pure meaning, claimed Ginsberg. Ginsberg's Howl was a masterpiece of revolutionary prose which is fundamentally linked to Zimmerman's aesthetics. Surreal yet questioning, modern yet timeless.
Dylan's menacing, majestic, monumental prose echoed down 60's college hallways, civil rights marches in southern states, psychedelic be-ins, 70's decadence, and the last few decades of great changes in the world with the essence original voice intact.
He is a man from Hibbing, about to turn 70, at the top of his game. The "thin wild mercury sound" he claimed to be seeking and attained on Blonde On Blonde is there.
I overheard the guy standing next to me in the front row saying to his partner as Dylan gave a short, humble yet proud bow to his followers - "a guy of few words". The irony was not lost on me....A man of many words, powerful words, but no platitudes or cliches. A bow said it all.
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