Random Thoughts On Seattle Shows
Tyhunter
There really was a palpable energy and thick air of anticipation in the
crowd prior to, and during, the first "Bob Dylan Show", at the Seattle
Paramount Theater. This guilded beauty of a golden era movie hall,
richly adorned with gold highlights, and multiple chandiliers, provides
one of the better sounding venues of its size locally.
Amos Lee was backed by a 3 piece back up band, and the sound was crisp
and tight, the drummer was particularly effective. Lee's sound, at
times resembles a bluesy James Taylor, but his voice also reaches a
very pleasing falsetto. To call this guy competent, which he certainly
was, is selling him short, though his sound was almost too familiar to
me somehow.
I thought one of the most noticeable changes across the brief, three
night stand, amongst all performers, was the way Haggard changed his
show-he shifted from loose and fun to a more brass tacks, workmanlike
approach. He seemed to be mirroring the Dylan approach by the third
night.
On the first night, Haggard's band went into a little bouncy country
instramental overature as the thick red velvet curtain arose, without
hide nor hair of Merle. Then, at stage right, a slightly bent figure
in jeans, dark cowboy hat and navy sport coat slowly ambles out. He
stops and looks at the crowd through small lens sunglasses, and then
slowly walks out to pick up elecric guitar with the leather strap that
just says "Merle" verically down the front. I was so proud to be a
part of the several standing ovations Merle received that night. The
crowd was pumped for this show, and Hag was bathed in fanatic adoration
this night. There were several stops and starts, a many a joke-Martha
Stewart (with an impromtu three verse song called Martha's Blues) to GW
Bush. And there were sound problems with apparently Merle's on stage
monitors. Then Merle tried a sing along, with lights flooding the
crowd on the chorus of one of his songs. I couln't hear a soul's voice
responding to his urgings to join in, and the proceeding two nights,
the sing along went away completely.
Now, the next night saw the same overature as the curtain arose, but
this time in comes a much more strident Merle-straight to the mike and
into the first tune; much less joking, and few, if any stops and
starts, to my memory.
The final night, in sharp contrast to the first night particularly, the
curtain rises on Haggard's band *with* Merle at center stage mike
launching immediately into a few licks on his fiddle. I couldn't help
but think that he had morphed his show almost completely to the style
of his tour mate, Bob Dylan.
And at this show he gave his best performance-pretty much just nailed
every song without too much discussion or jokes.
Peter Stone Brown has written that Merle Haggard is the Bob Dylan of
country music. This is the first time I have seen Merle live, but I
think I have to agree with Brown's assessment. His writing is simple
but powerful, and his singing is punctuated by some really nice, subtle
phrasing variations.
So, What About Bob?
I walked out from the fist show feeling a little disappointed-likely my
own fault for second guessing a thousand times over what the new band
would bring out of Bob in terms of set list and performance.
Now, it was a good show, really was; I loved the way he moved out to
center stage in that graceful way he moves, and did Man In Me. And the
Cowtown woman playing fiddle not only is a pleasure to look at (Bob
faced her all night, and plenty of glances were shared between the
two), but several of her more audible solos produced some really
amazing passages of music. Another beauty was Tambourine Man-nice
phrasing.
It was a great pleasure to hear the old Dylan intro: "Ladies And
Gentlemman, Please Welcome, Columbia Recording Artist, Bob Dylan", as
opposed to the long intro that reappeared the next two nights. It's
almost like the presence of this intro is a push back to us all, as in,
"here, see how much you guys like hearing this crap ad nauseum". What
once was vaguely amusing seems vindictive by now, in a sense.
Also, I have never seen a curtain raised or lowered to begin and end a
Dylan show, giving this whole 3 night run, in sum with the lavish
velvet curtain back drop, an air of dramatic formality. The curtain
back drop was opened at times to reveal a starry background, featuring
white or red stars, or, during encores, the Dylan eye logo.
By the way, Dylan sells these days. Tickets for this show went like
lightning, and the folks hawking the Dylan shirts, stickers, bandanas,
etc., were mobbed all night, each night.
The second show on March 8 was indeed the best show of them all.
Bob was trying to hide smiles he was shooting at Recili and Stu, but
not very well, and during Summer Days, I had the perfect angle to see
him sway hard and fast to the four beat puntuating riff of that song,
as he hammered on the electric keyboard. And I swear he did look great
that night. He had on the black suit with red highlights, and a red
shirt with sequins, and the black bolero style cowboy hat. He
alternated during each show between wearing a hat and not, and this
worked very well in terms of adding to the drama. High Water, with the
BR549 gentleman on banjo, was just a killer this night.
The band is obviously still gelling, but each were given various lead
parts to play, and this will, without question in my mind, go down as
one of the best bands Dylan has played with.
The final night is Seattle was a good show, but Bob stayed behind the
keys pretty much all night, stopped to wipe his nose now and again, and
yet still managed to please with a flawless, and I mean flawless Hollis
Brown (likely the gem of this show).
Mitch Rath
T
"Tyhunter" <ra...@u.washington.edu> wrote in
news:1110653631.9...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:
Tyhunter
T wrote:
> and waht was random about these thoughts?
I'm sure your question was rhetorical, but in that I had taken notes on
a small wirebound notebook, and lost the entire pad somewhere between
the venue and home Wednesday night (some not even legible due to the
darkness in the theater), I considered the whole little "review" pretty
much random as opposed to carefully constructed from my notes.
Regards,
Mitch
don freeman
> Peter Stone Brown has written that Merle Haggard is the Bob Dylan of
> country music. This is the first time I have seen Merle live, but I
> think I have to agree with Brown's assessment. His writing is simple
> but powerful, and his singing is punctuated by some really nice, subtle
> phrasing variations.
>
What nonsense to call Merle Haggard the Bob Dylan of country music.
Merle is a great country singer-songwriter, and he's carrying on the
traditions of the great country singer-songwriters who came before him.
With Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings gone, only Willie Nelson and Billy
Joe Shaver are in his league. But that's got nothing to do with Bob
Dylan, whose musical innovations changed our culture and whose best
lyrics are like literature. Dylan is capapble of writing Merle Haggard
type songs, but Merle could never pull off a Desolation Row.
It's almost demeaning to call Merle Haggard the Dylan of country music,
as if it's not good enough to be Hank Williams.
Gram Parsons was much more Dylanesque a country musician than Merle
Haggard, but that doesn't necessarily make Gram better than Merle.
Mr. Rick
>But that's got nothing to do with Bob Dylan, whose musical innovations
changed our culture and whose best lyrics are like literature.
How demeaning to call songs lyrics "literature."
I think Dylan's biggest music innovation was the sound of his voice.
Peter Stone Brown
Your earlier comments on the song A-11 reveal your lack of knowledge about
country music as does this post. However considering your posting history,
I would expect nothing less from you.
"don freeman" <dfr...@nospam.shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:VoJYd.654883$Xk.233557@pd7tw3no...
don freeman
> Your earlier comments on the song A-11 reveal your lack of knowledge about
> country music as does this post. However considering your posting history,
> I would expect nothing less from you.
>
Peter, I am duly chastized. I am going to submit to listening to the
song A-11 until I can appreciate its greatness and then I am going to
write 100 times, "Merle Haggard is the Bob Dylan of Country Music."
Thank you for taking the time to deliver this missive.
Tum...@aol.com
marvi...@yahoo.com
Bullshit! Bullshit, I say. I'm the biggest Dylan fan ever, but I've
also followed Hag. Peter Stone Brown is right.
marvi...@yahoo.com
Bullshit! Bullshit, I say. I'm the biggest Dylan fan ever, but I've
also followed Hag. Peter Stone brown is right.
marvi...@yahoo.com
Bullshit! Bullshit, I say. I'm the biggest Dylan fan ever, but I've
also followed Hag. Peter Stone Brown is right.
marvi...@yahoo.com
Bullshit! Bullshit, I say. I'm the biggest Dylan fan ever, but I've
don freeman
> also followed Hag. Peter Stone Brown is right.
>
I'm glad you posted this four times because it's taken a while for it to
sink into my little brain
However, you've convinced me. Peter Stone Brown is the Bob Dylan of rmd.
His writing is simple but powerful, and his missives are punctuated by
Ken Wilson
> Dylan is capapble of writing Merle Haggard
> type songs,
Please name them.
Ken
don freeman
>> type songs,
>
>
> Please name them.
>
I was thinking of the kind of songs that Merle Haggard writes and sings,
the way the original poster described Merle: " His writing is simple
but powerful, and his singing is punctuated by some really nice, subtle
phrasing variations."
How about Rambling, Gambling Willie,Man on the Street, Long Time Gone,
Dusty Old Fairgrounds, Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance, It Ain't Me
Babe, Outlaw Blues, Down Along the Cove, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight,Tell
Me That It Isn't You, Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You, Wanted Man,
New Morning, One More Weekend, Going to Acapulco, Silent Weekend, Billy,
Meet Me in the Morning, Money Blues, Coming From the Heart, If I Don't
Be There by Morning, I Believe in You, Heart of Mine, Union Sundown,
I'll Remember You, Dirt Road Blues............?
Stephen
>
> Peter, I am duly chastized. I am going to submit to listening to the
> song A-11 until I can appreciate its greatness and then I am going to
> write 100 times, "Merle Haggard is the Bob Dylan of Country Music."
You'd like to get off so easy. First, I insist that the 100 times be in public
school-issue chalk, on a genuine old blackboard, a la Bart Simpson. But when
that is completed, you must then specify just who you think is the Bob Dylan of
free jazz, early music, and ska. If you fail to answer correctly, the pillory
awaits.
marvi...@yahoo.com
Ken Wilson
Thanks, Don.
Ken
warehouse eyes
of the tour, and they couldn't be more different. Opening night was
crazy, with press from all around the world, and crowd expectations
running high. Racing to the Paramount door I side-stepped sleepy john
estes hawking bootleg T-shirts out front, and some longhaired kids
trying to buy tickets from some oldtimers in sports jackets and
Dockers.
Amos Lee was good, playing around in the falsetto range, his
drummer looking like the ghost of Duane Allman. Merle's band did the
jaunty intro music, and Merle tiptoed out, looking frail in a suit
jacket and hobo's fedora and shades, waving as people cheered
"We're not used to playing places this nice," he said, waving
an arm at the ornate golden Paramount interior, "We're used to
playing beer joints. In fact, we're the oldest beerhall band still
running after forty years." Huge applause.
They played a few songs, and Merle's voice sounded good but he
often ended lines short, maybe out of breath. Still, he seemed in a
good mood, though he wasn't too happy with his monitors, and a techie
kept coming out and standing just over his shoulder.
"Now this theater was made for one man standing out here with a
Martin guitar," he said. "Without amplification. But then we
bring all this technology in here and really screw things up
completely!"
He joked about Martha Stewart, about how she was such a big threat
to national security, and said he and Dylan ought to write a song about
her - then he played a couple lines of the Martha Stewart blues.
He sang some great songs, and during a quiet interlude during
"That's the Way Love Goes," in a quiet voice he consoled his
lover with: "Don't worry about what George Bush says." Of
course, the audience applauded wildly - this being Seattle, after
all.
Dylan started with a rollicking version of Drifter's Escape, and we
get to see the new band, this violist...
"Help me in my weakness, I heard the drifter say..."
This is Dylan, a new Dylan - even newer and changed from the shows
earlier this century -- with a voice like he's earned
the right to sing these lyrics, like he's been there, real
scratchy like an old 78 rpm record, like Howlin' Wolf in
Memphis. He's an old man dressed in a black frock coat like a
preacher from the Civil War, with black pants with silver
conchos running down the sides, and he's leaning over the
keyboards, and you know this is going to be good. This
Dylan. He's not sweet-eyed Bob from Tambourine Land any
longer, and not the gypsy king from the land of Desire with
autumn leaves in his hat and whiteface, no, this is a a man
with some years of living under his belt and eyes that are
searing as he sings the beautiful puzzling mystery of the
Drifter as the band goes wild, the beautiful fiddler sawing
away like the ghost of Scarlet Rivera.
"Just then a bolt of lightning! Struck the courtyard
out of shape!"
Whirlwind of piano keys, stand-up bass, fiddler, and
that VOICE.
"And while everybody knelt to pray, the drifter did
ESCAPE!"
2.
The first song was a surprise, a revelation. The
concert had that kind of tone, not a greatest hits medley at all,
but some choices from Bob himself. What next? A quiet,
sweet ballad, "The Man in Me," from New Morning.
Gorgeous, Bob singing like a love-struck teenager one
minute, and then that howl, "Awwwwwwwwwwwwww....whata
wonderful feeling..."
From there, the band, starts speeding up, into a groove,
a new sound, something faster and different, and he glances
out at the crowd.
"Ohhhhhhh....the Rag Man drawls circles....up'n down the
block..." He sings some words faster, and stretches out
others. They're his words, after all, and he's making them
up, it looks like, telling a story.
"I'd ask him what...the matta WUZZZZZ...but ah know that
he don't TALK."
3.
Look at the setlist of Monday night:
# Drifter's Escape
# The Man in Me
# Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
# Moonlight
# It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
# I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
# Queen Jane Approximately
# Cat's In The Well
# Sugar Baby
# Watching The River Flow
# Mr. Tambourine Man (new arrangement)
# Honest With Me
(1st encore)
# Like A Rolling Stone
# All Along The Watchtower
(2nd encore)
# Sing me Home (Merle's song)
4.
What a great setlist. I mean, come on. "It's All
Right, Ma" leading into "She Acts Like We Never Have Met"
leading into "Queen Jane Approximately." God, I remembered
how much I love that song, listening from the first words.
"When your mother...sends back all your invitations."
What beautiful dissipation, what sadness, and sorrow at
ones creative exhaustion, so tired of all of your
creations. All the flower ladies, and all the clowns you
have commissioned...all those people who do your tricks for
you, who humor you, who wait on you, they've had enough.
Monday was good, and very exciting, but I could have done without
"Cat's in the Well," which sounded pretty generic. Obviously,
Dylan could play a million different combinations of songs, but I'd
have skipped this one.
5.
Tuesday was even better. WAY BETTER. I'm not kidding. I've seen
him many times, and some great shows back to 1974, but
Tuesday rates right up there with the very best ever. He
was on fire. Any opening night jitters were gone, and now
the band was ON TOUR, they were into in, they'd done it
before and now it was just them in this beautiful ornate
hall, a small place, really, with gold filagree and lush
red drapes hanging maybe forty feet in a crimson cascade
from the top of the stage. He started again with
"Drifter's Escape" but the band was tighter, better, and then he took
command and played off in a different direction. Throughout the show
he would be buoyant and even smiling during some of the show - maybe
holding back laughter. He wore Zorro's hat part of the time, and
launched into a furious
"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," the futility of war to a
barn-storming beat, and then "High Water Rising..."
"They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway
Five..." he spits out, one of the best songs he's ever
written, I think.
"Judge says to the High Sheriff,
'I want him dead or alive
Either one, I don't care.'"
I can't convey how tight this new band sounds - and yes, we could
lament about the loss of this or that player, but by the second night
of the tour these guys are seasoned pros. And the most seasoned,
seasoned like a Cajun chicken, is the old guy in the Zorro hat who is
really testifying, preaching, wailing, kicking his leg back and looking
you in the eye.
"Thunder rolling over Clarksdale, everything looking
blue
I just can't be happy, love
Unless you're happy too
It's bad out there..........
High water everywhere."
Man! From there, he sang "Highway 61 Revisited" and
then "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." He sang this like an old man,
full of life and real regrets, not some snide ex-lover, and not some
cocky superior youth, but a man who shrugs and says, yeah, it's all
over now.
"Down Along the Cove" was a lot of fun -- yeah, it
wasn't all fire and brimstone, don't get me wrong! And here he was
laughing. Then he dug into the Basement Tapes to the crowd's
delight:
"If your memory serves you welllllllllllll..."
6.
What could follow this gem?
How about something timeley and timeless, another
masterpiece..."Masters of War." The show could have ended
right there, as far as I'm concerned. The definition of a
classic. He sang every word so you couldn't miss his
intentions, and we all know them by heart, but this was
somehow about NOW and it was stirring.
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
The setlist on Tuesday:
# Drifter's Escape
# You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
# Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
# High Water (For Charley Patton)
# Highway 61 Revisited
# It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
# Down Along The Cove
# This Wheel's On Fire
# Masters Of War
# Forever Young
# Summer Days
# Sing Me Back Home (song by Merle Haggard)
(encore)
# Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
# Like A Rolling Stone
Oh, man, the music was great, and the poems, and that
pure, naked emotion, and the laughter and Zorro hat, and
sleepy john estes out front hawking shirts, and even the
pleasant older fellow with the short gray hair who just
came to hear "Blowin' in the Wind" exactly as it sounds on
his record, well, maybe that guy had his mind completely
blown and will call in sick tomorrow and learn to play the
flute, because this show was (to quote a phrase) truly weirder and
wilder and more mysterious along the lines of a song like Elvis
Presley's "Mystery Train" or Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain," or a
way-out hillbilly song from the 1920s like "I
Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground."
7.
It was that great. I saw Dylan with the Band, I saw him on the
Rolling Thunder Tour, and the Gospel Tour, and many before and after,
but Tuesday's show ranks with the best I've ever seen him. Long
may he run!
-Bob Rini