Dylan

However Dylan’s singing wasn’t quite as mannered as it would be in the final two weeks when he was shouting more and more with less nuance in his phrasing.

yeah, as loved as Before the Flood is - I can't really stand Dylan in that mode, such a waste

even Levon gets a bit shouty on some of the Band things, but that said I've always loved Dixie here

The shoutiness totally works for me, Dylan's and Levon's. I prefer several versions here to the originals, even: for inst, the original "Don't Think Twice" sounds fussy faux-hillbily compared to the reggae-oid "someone to give his ha!-ha!" heartiness on the electric set, while the solo acoustic has him flashing back (or experiencing a Blood On The Tracks-related?) mixed-up confusion, like, what just happened? What did she do? Should he even be leaving, and anyway where is he going? But he's going alright, and "Don't think twice it's alrieeet---" Also the jittery raspy proto-rap of "It's Alright Ma." which Lester Bangs compared to Paul Newman in Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill Among The Indians, Or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson: the return of the battered Americana hero "in full scraggle." One of the great arena rock albums of the 70s, esp. by older guys, in there with Rock N Roll Animal(although I've played BTF a lot more than that) and Van Morrison's It's Too Late To Stop Now (almost too sensitive at times to qualify for "arena," but the overall effect of the 2-LP is v. powerful.) I know we all hear what we hear, but gotta say that.

Sure, would love to hear a 50th Anniversary expansion, with or without audience tapes, esp. of songs not on Before..: whatever, bring it on.

your enthusiasm makes me want to revisit this, and I'm down for an official release of more tapes

I've had a good bootleg recording of October 17, 1987 for years - Dylan's backed by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and IIRC the 1987 tour is held in higher regard than their 1986 tour together.

This show is supposed to be the highlight, and amazingly TWO different amateur videos exist of the concert, both from very different angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbDllRrT5k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pja9JSWE0Fk

Should mention, Roger McGuinn makes a guest appearance for "Chimes of Freedom" during the encore, then later George Harrison pops in for a guest appearance.

(Should also mention the sound on the camera close to the stage is abysmal.)

Awhile back there was a discussion on Dylan's heavy drinking during the '80s and I think I was trying to remember where it was well documented. I just stumbled on this paragraph from Clinton Heylin's bio:

By 1987, his drinking had again begun to get the better of him and when Kurt Loder arrived in Jerusalem on September 7 to interview him for a special twentieth-anniversary issue of Rolling Stone, he proceeded to sit through the interview drinking Kamikazes like they were Kool-Aid. Two days after he predicted tomorrow might be his dying day, an almost totally incoherent Dylan fell out of his chair after a hotel piano jam had found him hamming it up on ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ and ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.’ He was consuming up to four Kamikazes or, later on the tour, Kahlúa, cream, and cognac, before each show. That he could even stand some nights qualified as some kind of achievement. Journalists at the shows couldn’t resist commenting on his shuffling demeanor, referring to his new image as the death-mask look.

Hey, Kamikazes! Those used to be my pleasure, er, downfall

Reminds me of a scene in a Tony Tyler book where an intoxicated Dylan, backstage in '66, pours so much cream or sugar into his coffee that it overflows onto the floor.

Random Internet story: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4JiGvzOY6P/

Incredible arrangement! What a fey trickster, he's clearly having a ball with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZB7QJjqmL0

I love Bob.