Songs For Maddie in Preparation of Seeing Bobby

Alright, so here are some tunes you could be listening to, picked off Bobby's recent concert playlists. This is some of the stuff he's been playing.

The thing to remember with Dylan is that 1) He's got more songs to choose from than any other artist in history and 2) He reinvents his songs constantly.

Bob's been on the road, every year, non-stop since about 1991. Most bands tour in promotion for a new album, do a year long tour, then take a couple years to break and make a new record, then go out and tour some more. Bob just tours. He doesn't stop.

What this means is that he's never really promoting a new album. While most bands will be on a tour for a specific album and play half a dozen or more songs from that album, Bob will play two, maybe three. He's got plenty of other stuff to choose from.

Also, he changes songs. Reinvents them. So that what you hear live is never what you heard on the record. Especially now, with his current band, and especially when they're playing stuff from Bob's early career.

What's exciting is that the music Bobby's making now is unlike anything anyone's ever done. Not anybody, not anywhere. It's this incredible synthesis of what he's been doing for over forty years, and what it turns into is something wholly unique.

Should be a blast.

Okay. So...

Take a listen to Like a Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower.

"No reason to get excited," the thief he kindly spoke.
"There are many here among us, who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I we've been through that, and this is not our fate.
Let us not talk falsely now...the hour is getting late."

What's important to remember about Dylan is that no one wrote like this until he came along. Before Dylan, what you had in rock n roll was smooth, easy listening, uncomplicated lyrics, and the subject was always adolescent love. Rarely, someone wrote a song about adult love, but before Dylan, rock n roll (and all other music) was incredibly, undeniably simple in its approach and limited in its subject.

You might take a listen to Ballad of a Thin Man and Highway 61 Revisited, which he's been playing a lot.

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son."
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin me on."
God said, "No."
Abe said, "What?"
God said, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin you better run."
Abe said, "Where you want this killin done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61."

Bob's been playing a lot of stuff from his last few albums, so anything there is fair game. But I'd check out Thunder on the Mountain and Summer Days.

Where do you come from? Where do you go?
Sorry that's nothin you would need to know
I've had my back to the wall so long it seem like it's stuck
Why don't you break my heart one more time just for good luck

If we get lucky, he might pull out something rare, like Blind Willie McTell, and that one is definitely worth your time.

See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
See that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a moaning
Hear the undertaker's bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

No matter what, it will be a fun experience, and later on when you tell people about it those of us out there with some taste will be jealous. I'm glad you're coming with me, and I'm looking forward to a good time.

Until then...