Originally published in Upstage Magazine

On A Night Like This

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson

Yogi Berra Stadium – Little Falls, NJ

June 24, 2005

It’s hit or miss with Dylan they say. You never know what you’re going to get they say. The talk keeps people away. Hell, it kept me away for a few years. But now I’ve been to a couple of Dylan shows in the last few months, and guess what? It’s just talk.

Here’s what it comes down to; if you love Bob Dylan’s albums, and you go to a Dylan concert expecting to hear them just the way they are on the album, forget it. Dylan’s not doing that. He’s not a crowd pleaser. He’s not request granter. And he’s not going to sing his songs the same way he sang them on his albums. He’s trying hard to keep it interesting. He doesn’t even play guitar any more. He’s switched to piano, apparently to keep himself more interested. So if you want the album versions, stay home and listen to the albums.

But if you love the idea of an artist who’s constantly reinventing himself and his songs, if you love the idea of an artist who holds tight to his integrity despite all the temptations to give it up, or if you just love a great rock n’ roll show, the Bob Dylan show is for you. The majority of the crowd that packed Yogi Berra Stadium on Friday night seemed to feel that way, but I still heard comments about how Bob didn’t sing his songs the way people wanted to hear them. Again I say, stay home.

For the second summer, Bob Dylan has undertaken a tour of minor league ballparks with the great Willie Nelson in tow as his opening act. Dylan’s ever changing fourteen song set, played with precision by his wonderful band, offers new delights at each stop on the tour.

Dylan’s Friday night set began with the opening salvo of “To Be Alone With You”, followed by “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”. The two Nashville Skyline songs set the tone for the rest of the evening. Songs that were originally recorded with a country feel, were now full out rockers. The dark drama “Twiddle Dum and Twiddle Dee” from the Love and Theft album followed.

Next up was a Dylan classic, “Just Like A Woman” from Blonde on Blonde. This is probably my favorite Dylan song, though it’s truly impossible for me to choose just one. The version on this night did not let me down, as Dylan extended the song with several instrumental passages. As I was listening it dawned on me that I don’t think I’d heard Dylan perform this song live since the Bangladesh benefit concert in 1974. He was accompanied on acoustic guitars that night by the Leon Russell, and the late George Harrison.

“Cold Irons Bound” from Time Out of Mind was next, and it rocked as hard as any song in the set, and was followed by another surprise, the epic “Desolation Row”, from Highway 61 Revisited. The lyrical imagery in this song remains astounding, and you can only smile as the unforgettable phrases roll by. The band stripped down to acoustic guitars and mandolins for this one. The incendiary title track from the Highway 61 album was next, and again the house was rocking. At this point it dawned on me that I was witnessing a rock n’ roll show as powerful as any I’d seen in quite awhile.

The elegiac “Not Dark Yet” from Time Out of Mind was up next, and was played exquisitely by the band, and sung powerfully by Dylan. It was back to rock n’ roll mode for Blonde On Blonde’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”, another one of my personal favorites.

Garth Brooks and Billy Joel had hits with “To Make You Feel My Love” a few years ago. I’m not sure that everyone realizes that it’s a Dylan song. He made it his own on this night though. The title track from the New Morning album followed and was a nice surprise. The set ended with Love and Theft’s “Summer Days”, which was for me the only remotely disappointing song of the night. The blues shuffle was played and sung well, it just seemed out of place as the last song of the set.

The two song encore began with a powerful version of “It Ain’t Me Babe”, the oldest Dylan song of the evening, and climaxed with Dylan’s greatest hit, the ever remarkable “Like A Rolling Stone”.

You’d have to figure that Dylan would have a great band. Obviously he has his choice of musicians, and this band did not disappoint in the least. I’d like to tell you their names, but the only time Dylan spoke to the audience was to introduce his band, and I didn’t understand one single thing he said. But I wasn’t there to hear him talk. I was there to hear great music, and that exactly what I heard.

Willie Nelson is in many ways the antithesis to Dylan as a performer, and so it made for an interesting pairing. Nelson is every bit the crowd pleaser, playing the hits and pretending to recognize friends in the crowd. It seems like everyone in the band is related, and at least two of Nelson’s children performed with him on this night. His son Lucas is a fine blues guitarist, and did a very credible version of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Texas Flood”, handling vocals and guitar.

Nelson opened his set, as always, with “Whiskey River”. The set went on to include rousing versions of “Whiskey For My Horses”, the Townes Van Zandt classic “Pancho and Lefty”, and a wonderful medley of Willie Nelson songs that were big hits for others, including “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Crazy”, and “Nightlife”.

Tribute was paid to Nelson comrades including Kris Kristofferson (“Help Me Make It Through the Night”, “Me and Bobby McGee”), Merle Haggard (“Working Man’s Blues”), and the late Waylon Jennings (“Good Hearted Woman”).

The final songs of the one hour set insured the happiness of Nelson’s fans. They included “Angel Flying Too Close To the Sun”, “On the Road Again”, “You Were Always On My Mind”, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken / I’ll Fly Away”, and the aforementioned Waylon Jennings hit. The last song was a new one apparently titled “I Ain’t Superman”, which included these lyrics:

Too many pain pills

Too much pot

Trying to do more things that I cannot

I ain’t Superman

After watching the now past 70 Willie Nelson perform, I’m not so sure about that.

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