It sounds to me like you already had your negative opinion formed by thinking The Aud wasn’t the place to see the concert. I guess that you’ve never been there before to know how the seating is laid out and there wouldn’t be lots of leg room. If you had researched where your seats were & were aware they were in the back then rather than squinting from the back row then maybe for your next concert you could bring binoculars or maybe just don’t go! I’m curious how you noticed a “glare” from Dylan sitting that far back. Wherever you go for a concert the parking lot would be “jammed” and most places you would have to pay to park. I mention that because you seem quite concerned about spending $60, I wouldn’t want to hear what you would have to say if you spent an additional $10 for parking. It sounds to me like you like to complain & wouldn’t have been very good company at the concert at all. I hope that you weren’t on a date….the poor woman or man whichever the case may be.

Personally, I didn’t care where I saw him as long as I got to see & hear him. I wouldn’t really expect someones singing voice to sound the same at age 68 as it did when they were 30. Yes, his voice was more raspy but I really enjoy that sound with blues & jazz which is what his concert mainly consisted of. If he did have a cold then I say thank you Mr Bob Dylan for performing when you felt under the weather & not cancelling & disappointing your many fans!
You said in your “mercer retort” that his lyrics were indecipherable. His lyrics were for the most part always indecipherable so what is your point?

In closing, I’d like to say that everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don’t agree with your opinion. I think it was very negative & unfair.

Regards

Joanne

I thought perhaps it was just me, after reading some reviews of Bob’s show Saturday night. Or perhaps, I really need a hearing aid.
We even had a couple of people phone the morning show, after hearing me comment on Bob’s voice, or lack-there-of. And the fact he was over-powered by his band.
They thought it was a great show.
I figure when you go to see Dylan, you go for the lyrics. And when you can’t understand them, even when you know the tune by heart, like Highway 61 or Lay Lady, Lay, there’s a problem.
I was in row “Y” on the floor. Near the back.

My review: http://www.boblinks.com/110709r.html

I’ve got ears too. And they were working just fine on Saturday night. I thought the concert at the Aud, my 12th Dylan concert over a span of 20 years, was exquisite.

I love Dylan’s voice, perhaps more now than ever. His voice has always been controversial, even his youthful voice. But I still think he’s one of the finest singers anywhere. Yes, his voice now is an elderly one, it sounds throaty, raspy, coarse, and is perhaps more limited in range than it once was. But he knows what the expressive content of that voice is. He’s in absolute control of it and I find he wrings an extraordinary amount of expressive precision out of it. His timing and articulation seem to me to be adept and as finely nuanced as any voice around. For all the coarseness, he can set a word down more delicately than any other singer I know. His voice is not for everyone, I know.

Being pretty familiar with the songs, I seem to do a fine job understanding his lyrics. Most stadium rock shows I attend where I don’t know the material, I find lyrics difficult to decipher. That is a typical experience of most concert goers. Dylan seems to suffer this criticism where a lot of other acts, equally or more indecipherable, don’t. Admittedly, audiences often expect something more of Dylan’s lyrics than they do of other performers. Familiarity sure helps in any concert. I do wonder though, since you assert that he was so terribly indecipherable, how it is you also claim he was ad-libbing lyrics and pulling lyrics out of other songs – I would expect you would have had to hear things very clearly to recognize this. In any account, it sounds an awful lot like what a singer steeped in the traditions of American folk and blues might do.

Complaints about Dylan changing his song arrangements to the point where they’re difficult to recognize have been around since, at least, Newport 1965. His 1966 concert appearances are a monumental part of rock’n'roll history on this account. He has always asserted that the album recordings of his songs are just one instance of the song and has always (can I put a heavier emphasis on this word: always) seen fit to rearrange, reinterpret, and reinvent them. One of the wonderful things about going to a Dylan concert is to see what he’s going to play from his vast catalog and what he’s doing with it, how he’s reshaping it. He’s definitely not a nostalgia act. He’s not reiterating whatever animated those songs 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago. He’s making music. Present tense. What “legend” were you “trying to buy a piece of’”?

I have to quote this passage you wrote, I find it in such startling contrast to my own experience: “At another point, after a 10-minute jam, the band wrapped it up, exhausted. The boss in the big white hat just glared at them, and awkwardly they started up again, and kept it going for another three minutes until he was ready to finish.” Sorry, I can’t say I remember that happening – the band exhausted? awkwardly restarting a song after they thought it was finished? I honestly don’t have a clue what moment in the concert you’re referring to here. I do know that these are all seasoned and extraordinary musicians who have been deeply engaged with Dylan’s music for some time. Tony Garnier, on bass, has been touring with Dylan for over 20 years. George Recile, on drums, has been on the road with him for about 10 years. Stu Kimball for about 6 years. Donnie Herron for 3 years. Charlie Sexton rejoined the band last month, but previously toured with Dylan from, I think, 2000 to 2003. That band is a very well oiled machine. That’s not to say Dylan’s extensive repertoire and the volatility of his constantly changing song choices from night to night don’t keep them on their toes. But really, I sure didn’t witness any such exhaustion or communication breakdown on that stage Saturday night. I think I was paying pretty close attention. But maybe I missed something. The band seemed stupendously tight to me – they rocked with thunderous force, and delivered the ballads with grace and elegance, they turned from fierce density to brilliantly textured spaciousness without dropping a beat.

I didn’t think it was a mostly 50 something audience. What I witnessed was a pretty broad demographic (I would have guessed a dominance of late 30 somethings, if I had to, in the seats around me).

The other reviewer you keep referring to in your own review is Robert Reid. You mention how he “panned” Dylan’s voice. He did describe it as “a throat-clearing croak and a raspy growl”, true enough, but he also went on to say, “His voice floated like a rowboat adrift on a sea of driving, bluesy, rock”. I’m not sure I’d agree with you that he was entirely “panning” Dylan’s voice. And after he quotes a number of people who had a great time at the concert and fully enjoyed the performance, you discount their pleasure as so much applauding of the emperor’s new clothes. “But we’ve got ears,” you say, “and they were working just fine on Saturday night. And so was our sense of being ripped off.” I’m not sure who “we” and “our” is referring to. I hope it’s not just a rhetorical pluralization of your own viewpoint. I do know that most of the people I’ve run into who attended that concert on Saturday seem like pretty satisfied customers, if not exuberant ones.

There’s no question that you didn’t enjoy the show yourself. And I certainly don’t mean to contend your right to express your displeasure either. I just think it’s worth remarking how foreign your description of the concert seems to me. And perhaps, though you say you hold Dylan in high esteem, it’s difficult for me to recognize what Dylan that is. I do know there’s a lot of them out there, living healthy lives in a lot of people’s imaginations. I’ve certainly got mine. The Dylan I saw at the Aud on Saturday night did what Dylan does, as I understand him, and did it very well. I didn’t pay $60 for my seat; I payed $80. Worth every penny too.

Greg Denton