Discussing Dylan's recent concert
japantimes.co.jp
Just after Bob Dylan's March 3 concert at Tokyo
International Forum, music maven and broadcast
personality Peter Barakan met with entertainment
writer Philip Brasor at a Tokyo coffee shop to reflect.
Barakan: "I was surprised at how many of his greatest
hits he actually did. I wasn't expecting so many."
Brasor: "A woman I met last week told me she saw
him a few years ago in New Zealand. She was
disappointed because he didn't do anything famous.
I'm not sure what she meant -- that he just did stuff
from the '80s?"
Barakan: "And I couldn't understand why he would
employ somebody of the caliber of Charlie Sexton and
give him only one [guitar] solo."
Brasor: "Well, it's because he himself played all the
solos."
Barakan: "That's exactly what I mean. He's not
exactly a virtuoso."
Brasor: "I've always had the impression that whenever
Dylan is in a public situation -- be it a concert, an
interview, anything involving interaction with people
outside the recording studio -- he's basically putting
you on. By the way, where were you sitting?"
Barakan: "About halfway back, to the right."
Brasor: "I was in the last row with the housewives. I
couldn't make out what he was wearing."
Barakan: "It was some kind of suit, slightly
countryish. There was a string tie. I think he always
wears that kind of thing."
Brasor: "At some point, I think he actually wanted to
be Elvis, and while I believe every rock star has to
wrestle with the Elvis issue, I don't think Dylan ever
had a problem with it."
Barakan: [uncomfortable laughter]
Brasor: "Look at the back of 'Street Legal.' He's
wearing the Elvis suit. I mean, how seriously does he
take himself as an entertainer? I'm sure by now he
expects that we expect him to be ironic."
* * *
Barakan: " 'Masters of War' was really good. It was
the first time in a long time that I'd heard it."
Brasor: "And it was fairly straightforward. Dylan is
famous for changing his songs in concert, sometimes
quite drastically."
Barakan: "I sometimes think he fiddles with the
melody too much, though I was impressed by how well
the Japanese audience seemed to know the songs
immediately. Sometimes you could tell which song it
was by the chord sequence, even before he started
singing."
Brasor: "But that can be confusing, too. When he did
'All Along the Watchtower,' I first thought it was
'Hurricane.' If you take away the violin from
'Hurricane,' it's difficult to tell them apart."
Barakan: "Well, it is when you do the Jimi Hendrix
arrangement [of 'Watchtower']."
Brasor: "Actually, he did the Billy Joel arrangement of
'To Make You Feel My Love.' It's not the version
from 'Time Out of Mind.' "
Barakan: "I wasn't expecting him to sing that."
Brasor: "I certainly wasn't expecting him to be Billy
Joel, though I suppose that's one idea of what an
entertainer is."
Barakan: "What impressed me was that songs like
'Masters of War,' 'The Times They Are a-Changin','
and 'Desolation Row' still sound relevant now. I started
thinking about things I'd read in the newspapers the
past couple of weeks."
Brasor: "Regardless of when you hear it, the ending of
'Masters of War' is pretty heavy-duty: 'I hope that you
die and your death will come soon . . . ' 'I'll stand over
your grave 'til I'm sure you're dead.' It's not exactly
Eminem, but it definitely makes an impression, even
now. It's hardly the peace-and-love image everyone
has of the '60s."
Barakan: " 'Love Sick' was good, too."
Brasor: "Speaking of which, what do you think of
'Time Out of Mind?' "
Barakan: "I think it's fantastic."
Brasor: "I don't play it that much any more. There's
something perversely cranky about it."
Barakan: "I tend to appreciate it more in musical
terms. Part of it is [producer] Daniel Lanois and part of
it is that it refers to my favorite Dylan albums of the
past, like 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Blonde on
Blonde.' It seems to belong to that era."
Brasor: "I think it belongs to right now."
Barakan: "But the feel of it is of a piece with some of
those earlier works. I lost interest in Dylan a lot . . . I
mean, I never got into 'John Wesley Harding.' It's one
of those records that everyone raves about."
Brasor: "I have a friend who just assumes he died in
that famous motorcycle accident. That way he doesn't
have to think about anything released after 1966."
Barakan: "Apparently it wasn't that serious, but it did
give him a chance to get out of the public eye for a
while."
Brasor: "To tell you the truth, my favorite Dylan
album is 'The Basement Tapes.' The first time I heard
it I thought it was stupid, just a bunch of guys goofing
off."
Barakan: "Some of it is."
Brasor: "No, all of it is. Everybody has forgotten how
funny people used to find Dylan. The only 'Basement
Tapes' song he did at the concert was 'Down in the
Flood.' It's such a crazy song: 'Sugar for sugar, salt for
salt, if you go down in the flood, it's your own fault.'
The only trouble is that it doesn't sound as funny sung
by a 59-year-old in front of a worshipful mob than it
does when it's sung by a stoned 26-year-old who's
trying to get a rise out of his friends. Then again, I
always thought Dylan sounded like an old man on his
first album. The same thing occurred to me when I
saw Dan Hicks a few weeks ago."
Barakan: "They're exactly the same age."
Brasor: "I thought, '[Dan Hicks] hasn't changed that
much,' and then, 'Well, he already sounded
middle-aged in 1972,' because of the kind of music he
was playing then. It conveyed the sensibility of a man
who'd been around and seen it all. It's the same thing
with Dylan when he started. He wanted to sound like
this tired, old blues singer. And now he actually is that
old."
Barakan: "On the other hand, the kind of idealism that
you often found in his early songs was something that
you only find in young people."
Brasor: "And that's why 'Time Out of Mind' sounds
like a cranky old man. All the songs sound
constipated."
Barakan: "The new song, 'Things Have Changed,' has
the same kind of outlook."
Brasor: "But it's snappier. It has a very definite
rhythmic pull. It sounds like a single."
Barakan: "Well, it was, at least in Japan."
* * *
Brasor: "Did that qualify as an encore?" [note: Dylan
played less than an hour, left the stage, and returned
almost immediately with nine more songs.]
Barakan: "I think it was a ploy to get the audience on
their feet. And it worked. He's not going to get off on
the gig unless the audience are getting off. So I'd say in
that regard he was in an entertainment mode."
Brasor: "To get the audience excited . . . "
Barakan: "In the end, it's to get himself excited. He
has to raise the energy level so that he can give more
of himself. That's the way I interpreted it. If you've
ever been to a gospel gig, there's a way that they build.
They start off really boring, and then about five songs
into the set the energy level starts to climb. As soon as
the audience gets off a bit, the performers give it back
and then some. Then the whole concert just spirals. To
a certain extent, all musicians instinctively think like
that, Dylan included."
Brasor: "Well, the guy tours all the time. I mean,
unofficially it's called the Neverending Tour. He's been
doing like a hundred concerts a year for the past
decade."
Barakan: "But it's not like he can't afford not to."
Brasor: "Let's talk about the band. At times I thought
they did sound like the Band, while other times they
came closer to ZZ Top, especially on 'Highway 61,'
which was like a boogie."
Barakan: "Yeah, I don't care for that style, and to that
extent I didn't get off on the band sound."
Brasor: "That's probably why you thought the show
was weird. To me, it had a classic rock-show sound."
Barakan: "It did, and I can't say I appreciated it that
much. I would have liked a little more detail. What was
the other guitarist's name? Something Campbell? He
also played lap steel, but it was on a stand. He had a
variety of guitars and could have worked in something
more."
Brasor: "How about that taped introduction: 'Ladies
and gentlemen, Columbia recording artist, Bob Dylan.'
It makes him sound like this up-and-coming folk singer
from Minnesota."
Barakan: "But what about the tape that was on the PA
before he came on? I can't help but think it was his
idea."
Brasor: "Are those tapes usually chosen by the
artists?"
Barakan: "It depends. But it was really cheesy cocktail
jazz, and Udo, as a promoter, would never choose that
to play before a Bob Dylan concert. It was so
incongruous, and I couldn't help but wonder if he
chose it and what he meant by it."
Brasor: "Now that you mention it, some of his singing
was quite conventionally dramatic."
Barakan: " 'To Make You Feel My Love' struck me
that way."
Brasor: "Yes, that one in particular. It reminded me of
Tony Bennett . . . "
Barakan: (gasp)
Brasor: ". . . and, of course, Billy Joel, both of whom
are also Columbia recording artists. Think about it.
Actually, I've always thought Dylan was underrated as
a vocalist. Critics tend to focus on what he writes or
what he represents."
Barakan: "It's not a technical thing. It's more
instinctual."
Brasor: "No one ever mentions how he deliberately
changed his vocal quality -- not his style of singing, but
the actual quality of his voice -- over the course of his
career. He went from this old bluesman's croak to a
rocker's sneer to a gentle, relaxed tone all before 1970.
By the late '80s he sounded totally bizarre, like Donald
Duck on helium."
Barakan: "It was very reedy. I didn't care for it at all.
Do you think it was on purpose?"
Brasor: "I can't imagine him not doing anything on
purpose. Anyway, I say this because I thought his
singing the other night was very good. I think he's
purposely trying to sing well. He very well may like
that cheesy cocktail jazz."
The Japan Times: Mar. 11, 2001 |
