More Dylan.
Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To
Tag: bob dylan (Page 5 of 6)
Before the bike wreck and snapped neck, before the tossed-off shows and acting roles, before he found Jesus and the Hurricane, there was just him and his goddamned words.
There have been terrible ideas–invading Russia, Godfather III, reaching for Garcia’s candy–but they are pikers compared to these ten. Ah, I’m feeling mean: let’s go through them one by one.
1. Trey pulls out one of Jerry’s guitars made by Doug Irwin which is a stupid idea because Trafficjam plays his Laser Duck. Just like Eddie Van Halen played his red and white Frankenstein guitar, or B.B. King played Lucille, or Willie Nelson plays Trigger. Guitarists, more than other musicians, are all fanatically picky about their toys. (Except for punk rockers, who are fanatical about not being picky when it comes to their gear.)
2. Cameos! are a stupid idea because no one needs more people onstage who haven’t rehearsed. There were already 45 to 50 old white guys who hadn’t shown up for rehearsal; we cannot keep throwing musicians at this problem.
Also, Dylan? Sure, everyone wanted Branford to show up, but Dylan? Will he do that thing where he isn’t good? He has been for two decades now; no reason to think he wouldn’t have mumbled through a deep cut no one else knew in Chicago.
3. Tom Constanten! What! is a stupid idea because everyone was fine with TC leaving in the first place. TC is the Chuck Cunningham of the Dead.
4. A Phish song is a stupid idea because it makes me want to strike you in your whore mouth. Fuck: they barely remembered the Dead tunes.
5. A New Cover is a stupid idea because (again) they barely remember the old cover tunes, and (again) rehearsal is for the hoi polloi, and (first time for this) the Dead’s choice in cover tunes towards the end of the run could be described as “obvious.” Satisfaction, Hey Jude…if Garcia had lived, they would have gotten to Like A Rolling Stone, I guarantee it.
6. A New Original Song is a stupid idea because how does one top Liberty? That’s the peak right there.
7. Hologram Garcia is a stup…ah, dammit: DO NOT MAKE HOLOGRAM GARCIA.
8 and 9. Something we didn’t think of/None of the above are stupid ideas because they’re clearly padding. These two entries are like the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
…
Ahem.
There’s no ten. The entries aren’t numbered in the “article.”
It says that there’s ten entries in the title, but there aren’t and no normal human being would notice?
No.
I think I respect them for that.
A little bit, yeah.
How drunk was Dylan for the Dylan and the Dead tour? Pants-tucked-into-boots drunk.
Also: Garcia’s potato salad; Billy’s just about done*; Phil thinks that shirt’s dressy; Mickey’s got a secret.
Brent and his beard are present.
* There are only two images from this shoot–this one and another one, similar except for Bobby and Garcia chatting in it–because the secret Mickey had was that he saw how bored Billy was and decided to do him (Billy) a favor and fuck the photographer up with his Air Force judo. Two pictures.
TotD brings you rare photos all the time: there was that candid snap of Mickey and Billy double-teaming Loni Anderson; I recall a picture of Ned Lagin in which every time you looked at it, Ned Lagin got closer to you; Bobby running down the street screaming, naked and covered in napalm.
but a picture of Garcia and a cigarette where he’s not the one smoking it? That’s rare, man.
“Oh, good: the guitarists brought their guitars. That way, everyone will know they’re guitarists.
“Phil, the directions were to come dressed up and…oh, I didn’t realize that was a collared tie-dye. Classy. You and Jill having date night after this?
“Can we have some people looking at the camera and others just talking amongst themselves at random, please?
“Is the bearded one in the back gonna collapse? Because he’s gonna collapse.
“Looking good, Bob. Chess King have a return policy?”
What the hell is it with these people and headbands?
Most people would see Gnarls Oohlala over there and say, “Game over, man. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
But the Enthusiast’s gaze lingers, drifts. It catches the shorts, of course, but to pair them with the yoga-neck T-shirt is bold; to rock the rolled, aerobics-class headband is brave.
I’m working on something about the Dylan and the Dead tour, but here’s the show that started me down this dark and out-of-tune path: 7/10/87 at JFK in Philadelphia.
TotD is in favor of the show; Psychic Bodyguard and enjoyer of drizzle and Volvos Mr. Completely has reasonably disagreed.
My arguments include, but are not limited to, the following:
- A nifty truncated show–a highlights version that manages, because it’s the Dead, to be longer than the actual thing–with a great “first set” full of little-played 80’s faves: Iko, Brother Esau, and When Push Comes to Shove: all played snappily and with the crisp energy that permeates this entire show.
- A short-but-sweet Drums (with copious Beam-banging by Mickey) is topped by a retro Garcia-solo Space, ’78-style.
- The Dylan set is just that: a Dylan set, just with a slightly-less deferential backing band than he’d ever worked with before (except The Band, of course.) Dylan had a lot in common with the Dead (for example, they both played a lot of Dylan tunes) but one massive discrepancy was the intent: while Dylan and, say, Phil were both capable of playing a song in a new key he’d just invented, Dylan was doing it on purpose to bother people.
- And there’s some great shit in the Dylan set! It roars out of the gate with a zippy Tangled Up in Blue and steams through Stuck Inside of Mobile>Chimes of Freedom, into an aborted stab at Queen Jane, then on to a truly killer Gotta Serve Somebody.
- Admittedly, Joey is longer than the actual gang war that inspired the song.
- Watchtower: all killer, no filler. MY POINT RHYMES.
His arguments include, and are limited to, the following:
- It sucks.
One might say we’re both right…from a certain point of view.
Oh my god, you’re the worst.
The giant deconstructed blazer, the headband, the Takamine: Dylan could not have been more 80’s had he arrived to the gig in a DeLorean.
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