Bob Dylan - My Rough and Rowdy Ways /2020) Anticipation and Discussion Thread

Waiting for my flight. Overheard a guy say, "Key West was nice." I said, "Oh, were you at the Bob Dylan show last night?" He looked at me with such complete confusion, all I could think to do was say, "Well, I was." That did not unconfuse the situation

— HarryHew (@harryhew) November 21, 2021

Lol

hahaha

It me.

Just came back from the closing Beacon show. Great show, the new stuff was marvelous, and as mentioned upthread, Dylan had the lyric sheets out on the piano. I think he really wanted to get the new material across because I can't remember the last time he's enunciated this well - like, virtually every word was clear and discernible. "Key West" was the high point, "Gotta Serve Somebody" and "Every Grain of Sand" were the highlights of the older material, and once again, Dylan was cracking jokes at the audience. Not just at the end like last time, someone yelled out "rock and roll!" at one point and Dylan actually responded, the first time I've ever seen him interact with the audience (which he obviously did ages ago, but that was a different time). Paraphrasing, but he joked "you're at the wrong show, you must be looking for Springsteen on Broadway!"

BTW, they really weren't fucking around with the no-cameras and no-phones policy - four people (three men, one woman) within the back orchestra alone (behind the mixing desk) were thrown out for using their phones, all in separate incidents. Also, as mentioned upthread, at best 1/3 of the audience was masked.

someone yelled out "rock and roll!"

the tape of the show makes it sound like they yelled out "pretty boy floyd" just prior to his springsteen on broadway comment.

this all sounds very much like the show i saw in mankato, mn right before covid, wonder if it was one of the last shows actually? but yeah, he's singing better and seems more committed than he has in years

the tape of the show makes it sound like they yelled out "pretty boy floyd" just prior to his springsteen on broadway comment.

Awesome, recording's already out there! I couldn't hear honestly, the shouting was too distant from us, but another fan we ran into afterwards thought it was "Born to Run" and my gf believed it was "rock n' roll" - she might have misheard as I don't think she knows "Pretty Boy Floyd" (the song or the infamous bank robber) and wouldn't interpret what she heard in that way.

Also, just sunk in that he didn't play "Like a Rolling Stone," "Highway 61 Revisited" OR "Tangled Up in Blue." He typically plays at least one or two of those (and I want to say most of the NET recordings I have has him doing all three). "Highway 61 Revisited" is almost always a concert highlight throughout his career, but the show was so good, I can't say they were missed.

"Tombstone Blues"! That's what I'd call for.

I'd be relieved if I didn't have to hear those songs again.

"Tombstone Blues" though? Anytime.

A few songs have changed during the tour, but the Beacon shows all had the same exact setlist (see below)...not sure if he's going to stick with this from here on out, but as I mentioned in another thread, a big reason I think his last few tours (pre-pandemic) were a major improvement is that he kept the same exact setlist for that particular year. The band always knew what song was next, so they were able to attack each number with great precision and complete confidence. With Dylan clearly using lyric sheets this time around (probably because it's heavy on new material, and the songs on the new album are typically long), the same principal applies - he knows exactly what to sing next and he can focus more on phrasing than trying to remember.

1. Watching The River Flow
2. Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)
3. I Contain Multitudes
4. False Prophet
5. When I Paint My Masterpiece
6. Black Rider
7. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
8. My Own Version of You
9. Early Roman Kings
10. To Be Alone With You
11. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
12. Gotta Serve Somebody
13. I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
14. Melancholy Mood
15. Mother of Muses
16. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
-- Band introductions
17. Every Grain of Sand

I never get tired of "Tangled Up in Blue" and especially "Highway 61 Revisited" - he does them differently all the time and in the case of the latter, he has a much higher success ratio with changing the arrangement than any other song. Great at Isle of Wight in 1969, with the Band in 1974, at Evanston in 2000, etc., etc...."Like a Rolling Stone " is typically the same though. It was the highlight of his shows from 1966 to 1974, but with the NET it's rarely been more than a nice sing-a-long (at least at the NET shows I've heard).

i've probably said this here before but i got to see dylan at tramp's in NYC in about 1998 or so, one of the best concerts i've seen in my life, elvis costello came up for a duet of "i shall be released" as an encore, dylan played lead guitar several times, like actually shredding downstage, it was unreal. anyway i was standing near the sound guy and i saw the setlist in front of him, printed out on a piece of paper, and they probably did.. a quarter of the songs that were written down? at most? but absolutely nailed everything anyway.

wow okay somebody recorded it. that's crazy. i just found it! it was actually 1999. i forgot how rowdy the crowd was. speaking of rough and rowdy. it was a secret show and basically i think everybody just couldn't fucking believe they were there. here's a few songs from it. dylan goes absolutely off on visions of johanna. pleading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzYlz2kXCFc

there's a mediafire link there that still works. it's really it. just incredible. particularly intense for me me listening to this now more than 20 years later because the guy who phoned me up out of the blue the day-of to ask "if i wanted to go see bob dylan at tramp's" is dead now, hit in a head-on collision out of the blue with his new wife, just driving down the road.

sorry i didn't mean he collided with his wife! they were both in the car and he was killed instantly. i had lost touch with him over the years. he was such a generous, kind, creative person. a brilliant set designer and actor. i had just gotten a haircut the day of the gig, i don't know why i remember that. i felt great. really put together. me and jeremiah showed up early. talked for a long time before the show started.

you never know what you're going to get. my parents saw dylan and willie nelson play in knoxville, maybe a dozen years ago, at bill meyer stadium downtown. apparently willie was great but dylan was practically incomprehensible, barely singing, seemingly adrift in his mind.

wow, the mediafire link is wild. if anybody misses it, let me know. very comprehensive notes.

"15 new songs (78%) compared to previous concert." lol

Yeah, that's one of the great NET shows, for both quality of the show and the fact that it's available as a top-grade board recording. I'm guessing the mediafire link is the same boot I got some years ago? IIRC EC wrote about it too in his memoir.

Thanks for the Tramps 1999 memories, Tracer. I really wanted to see that show and just couldn't do it - I took the bar a day or two before and couldn't swing it. That Visions is something special.

weirdly my calenders app has just reminded me that my friend jeremiah’s birthday is tomorrow. :(

thx for sharing the memories - i love these incredibly vivid recollections of attending concerts. I can remember the brand of coffee I had and with whom before a gig 25 years ago, while most of the last decade seems lost to the mist of time.

Great show in DC last night. Stage banter update: he brought up the Mayflower Hotel and mentioned J. Edgar Hoover used to eat lunch there every day. Then he name-dropped Country Joe of all people, who was born here.

yes, amazing show! black rider was surprisingly one of the highlights for me

"Well, the fish tail ponds and the orchid trees
They can give you that bleeding heart disease"

feeling this line from key west. reminds me of driving around the south and just being stunned by the natural beauty. gives me that bleeding heart disease. i think of his later years in the romantic poet lineage where nature stands in for deep emotion

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersOnDateControllerServlet?weeksago=884&boardid=41

Oops

More tour -

Bob Dylan and His Band present the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour this fall in North America!

See https://t.co/IlnO4bIndr for October dates, which go on sale this Friday, August 25.

More dates will be posted soon.

Don’t you dare miss it! pic.twitter.com/cCZOtoUxh4

— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) August 21, 2023

Wow Bob's better at twitter than I thought

I was wondering about this, namely, is this his first big ticket sale since the nu Ticketmaster dynamic pricing kicked in in earnest? We all know Dylan can't possibly gaf, so I wonder what prices will be like.

Not sure about the other venues announced, but the last one on the docket so far, Proctor's Theater in Schenectady, NY is a pretty sweet out-of-left-field choice. Only seats a couple thousand, beautiful place, and in my experience their bread and butter is touring Broadway shows with film screenings to fill dates between. Anyway here's the pricing for that one. Honestly not insane in the current climate, though lol at the fact that having a physical ticket as a memento has become a premium perk:

FRONT ROW PACKAGE – $533.50
One (1) Front Row reserved ticket
Commemorative ticket
Merchandise item designed and created exclusively for package purchasers
Collectible laminate to remember your evening

GOLD HOT SEAT PACKAGE – $433.50
One (1) premium Price Level 1 reserved ticket
Commemorative ticket
Merchandise item designed and created exclusively for package purchasers
Collectible laminate to remember your evening

SILVER HOT SEAT PACKAGE – $263.50
One (1) Price Level 2 reserved ticket
Commemorative ticket
Merchandise item designed and created exclusively for package purchasers
Collectible laminate to remember your evening

Price Level A Seating – $133.50
Price Level B Seating – $83.50
Lia Seating – $63.50