Bob Dylan in Rochester, Minnesota
I saw Bob Dylan tonight at Mayo Field here in Rochester. I wish I could say that there was something particularly memorable about tonight’s concert. Something different from the half-dozen other shows I’ve seen from the Never-Ending Tour over the last decade or so. But there wasn’t. If he had done one of the following, I would have been happy: (1) played some songs (or a song, even) from Modern Times (which I think is great), (2) played that rocking version of “The Drifter’s Escape” that he’s played often during the Never-Ending tour, that version where you don’t even recognize what song it is or what words he’s singing until he gets to the “my feet I swear they’re burning” part. But he didn’t play any songs from the new album and he didn’t play “Drifter’s Escape”, either. (The one sort of highlight by omission was that he didn’t play “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” for a change.)
I don’t know why he didn’t play any of the new songs. Maybe he doesn’t trust us to know any of them yet. But that sort of thing never used to bother him.
Anyway, maybe I’ll go see him in St. Paul later this fall and he’ll play some of the new songs then. He plays keyboards through the whole show now (I think—I sat down during a few songs and couldn’t see over the people in front of me and maybe he picked up guitar on some of those, but I don’t think so). Anyway, I like the fact that he’s playing keyboard, not guitar. It’s like when he started out with the Golden Chords (hi, Leroy!) in Hibbing. And he really seems to enjoy playing with this band and just letting them rock out and play long, rocking guitar solos and stuff. Like they’re the sort of band he enjoyed playing in when he was in high school and his ambition was to “join Little Richard”.
So, anyway, I came up with this idea. I think when he plays in St. Paul, he should first play all the songs on Modern Times from start to finish. And then, he should play nothing but Little Richard songs after that. Moreover, he should dump that cheesy, white keyboard thing and play everything on an old Steinway K-52 upright (a pre-CBS sellout model). (Maybe he can see whether Jimmy Yancey’s old piano is on the market.) I suppose he plays that cheesy, white keyboard standing up because the audience can see him better. But, hey, you can’t see anyone in the Xcel (sp?) Center, anyway, so he could just sit behind that big old Steinway upright and pound away. Nothing but Little Richard tunes (and “Workingman Blues #2” from the new album). And then just to throw everyone really off he should do that Ricky Nelson song, “Lonesome Town”, as an encore, like he used to do in the 80s. Now that’s a concert I’d love to see.