Dylan Blows In!

Tonight at 8pm Robert Zimmerman, better known to the free world as Bob Dylan, will be taking the Alumni Field House stage to a crowd of nearly 4,000 students, faculty, and locals. But, as anyone who has seen Dylan perform in the last seven or eight years would agree, his most impressive feat has already been completed. On October 23rd at 1pm, when tickets to the show went on sale to students, a line extended from the front desk of Hunt Union, around the lounge, out the front doors, down the sidewalk, and almost to the crosswalk near Hayes Hall. Aside from the diehard Dylan fans who arrived at 10am, the line was brimming with Sorority girls, Fraternity guys, Jocks, Hipsters, Scenesters, Potheads, Squares, Up-staters, Down-staters, out-of-staters and everything in-between. The crowd was hundreds strong and before the end of the day all of the 1,000 tickets reserved for students had been sold. For such a musically inclined school, there certainly has not been so much cross campus anticipation for any singular event, any singular person in our history.

But Bob has been unifying people under his music for a long time- over forty years. Dylan, after releasing a debut album of primarily folk and blues standards, made his name with his incredible sophomore album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan which included “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”. These songs, which simply feature Bob’s rustic, Midwest voice, acoustic guitar and harmonica, introduced pop music to lyrics that commented on social rights, forlorn relationships, and other blue-collar issues on a new level. The album was a relative success, and subsequently Bob was “endorsed” by Pete Seeger and the folk communities as their finest, most profoundly spoken member. Dylan created a starker version of “Freewheelin” on its follow-up The Times They Are A-Changin’, which featured more social rights anthems, such as the title track and “When the Ship Comes In”.

However, it was about this time, in late 1964, that Bob began to turn his focus away from the political issues he was addressing and more towards fantastic, complex poetic images. For the first time in his career Dylan started to “change”- an idea and word that he would eventually become synonymous with. In what seemed like an instant, he went from folk singing prodigy, leading musical voice in a social rights revolution, to an electrified, Carnaby street beatnik. With the release of the half acoustic, half electric Bringing it All Back Home, and a shocking performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Dylan had officially moved on, and created the roots of psychedelic and folk-rock music in the process.

Over the next five years, Dylan would become the ultimate in surreal escapism (Blonde on Blonde) only to trade it in for the hard stories and characters of the Bible, and musically he traded the gritty distortion for authentic Americana (Nashville Skyline). Even now, at 67 years old, Dylan continues to evolve, and has almost come full circle. His recent revival, which was officially established with the 1997 Grammy Album of the Year Time Out Of Mind, through his 2005 effort Modern Times has been comprised of songs that shuffle, bop, and waltz in a manner not unlike the popular songs of the late 1950s and early 1960s that his folk music was originally trying to discern itself from. Last month, Dylan released the eighth installment to his revered Bootlegs Series, a three disc collection chronicling unreleased, alternate, and live tracks from songs during the modern era of his work.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs, along with the entire bootleg series, goes a long way in exposing the talent behind Dylan’s song writing. First, there are the previously unreleased songs, including the atmospheric “Dreamin’ of You”, which lyrically serves as something of a companion to “Love Sick”, a song which made the cut for the Time Out Of Mind album. While the mood on “Dreamin’ of You” is appropriate, other songs show Dylan’s ability to wear several hats, and look good in all of them. Take the song “Mississippi”, which between the Bootlegs series and official albums, has four different versions, ranging from a Caribbean groove to a bluesy, acoustic vamp. Dylan is convincing in every version, conveying his story of two lost lovers trying their best to live together. As is common with most of this collection, he meanders his way around phrases packed with detail and implied dialogue, before finally arriving at the demoralizing conclusion “Only one thing I did wrong/Stayed in Mississippi a day too long”. His alternate versions are generally rougher, sparser arrangements, and with a heavier focus on his vocals and lyrics. The alternates from Oh Mercy, an album which was unfortunately drenched in 1980’s style production, are considerably stronger. The three discs serve to chronicle the maturity in Dylan’s words and voice, as well as his worn and aged delivery, something which is as unfortunate as it is unique.

So when Dylan walks on stage tonight, in the weight of his own shadow, don’t expect him to address the crowd, play guitar, or lead any soaring sing-along. Dylan is the stoic cowboy, the only grandfather in the world who can make a cameo in a Victoria Secret commercial. The unforgiving genius that has never needed more than himself. A man who travels light. He is a mystery among us, Babe Ruth reincarnated. And like Ruth at the end of his career, the mere mention of his name fills concert halls, even if he doesn’t swing like he used to. There is still an excitement, a belief that the man can do anything, and we would only be lucky enough to witness the most recent page in a book of accomplishments. On the wings of a “never-ending” tour, Bob Dylan is out to prove that he is not a wax figure in a museum. Rather, he is the most prolific, humane, and influential songwriter of the last fifty years, the last great American hero, and we are honored to have him. (11/10/08)