Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater New York City – 21 November 2008 November 22, 2008 06:42PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
— from an interview with the Reverend Ike on Ron Reagan’s tv show
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“I’ve got a telephone in my bosom
and I can call Him up from my heart”
— Richie Havens********************************************************************************************************************
“Some of the most eye-popping, jaw-dropping fantasy factories of the early 20th century survive at surprising intersections and in unexpected ways. They are as capable of inspiring a giddy sense of awe today as they were when their silver screens flickered. And most can be visited by the public.Don’t expect popcorn, however. None are movie theaters any longer. …”— excerpt from
Xanadus Rise to a Higher Calling
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
April 13, 2001
c – The New York Times Company*****************************************************************************
well, that isn’t correct. you could get popcorn last night – for $5 or $7 a pop. Proceeds go to the Christ United Church. No butter available.******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
(i’ll be posting this as i write, so come back later, or not)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2008 06:50PM by Richard.
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 03:39AM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Part I
Bob Dylan opened singing about the Lamb of G-d in Thomas W. Lamb’s creation of filigree and gilt. No, not about the Lamb?
I got to see the setlist beforehand. A very disturbing thing. I chose not to read beyond the first entry. I saw that SERVE SOMEBODY/(there was an alternate song listed) – I’d read far enough. I’m gonna show you a not-too-clear so-called photo of the setlist sheet. I’m glad I didn’t get as far as the third tune. I don’t want to know what Bobby’s gonna play, even knowing how very subject to change it all is.
The United Palace Theater has a façade that’s a mix of faux-riche and ghetto haphazardness. The marquee is a bit beat up and the banner proclaiming “Bob Dylan and His Band” was just that, a banner. Looked like a middle-school basketball game sort of banner. White, perhaps an old hospital sheet, with the letters simple, looking almost hand-printed with a large blue-black marker. Crackling cold evening in the upper riches of Manhattan, an island of solid rock.
It’s a kick in the face when you walk in there. Not glitzy, not really schmaltzy, a bit too close to kitschy. It’s so filigreed as to be disturbing. A lot of the interior appeared to be wood painted with that gilt. I defer to the architecturally unchallenged. It’s an impressive place; one – in its scale two – in its other obsession to be golden three – in its ceilings and fixtures, four – in its utter contradictions.
That rundown marquee let’s you know that this house is the domain of Reverend Ike. Far too long a digression would in incur if went into all that right here. Suffice it to say the Reverend built his ministry upon a concept of “prosperity”. No vows of poverty for this cat and he never hid a thing (that we know about). I listened to Ike on a transistor radio when he was preaching out of Newark, New Jersey. Lot’s of folks say “Newurk” not realizing it’s the New Covenant of the Ark. Well, I listened, a thought the man a fool. Thought less of those who would fork over the contributions he was asking for with the promise of growing prosperity in return. I was barely a teenager, and the Reverend set my burgeoning adult teeth on edge.
Well, what did I know? Look at Ike. The man is prosperous. Took this Loew’s 175th Street Theater, designed by the maestro of émigré from Dundee, Scotland. Took it up around 1975 and resurrected it, into the house of Ike.
Now, wisdom and prosperity continue to flow out of it. The pastor (an assistant of the Reverend’s) is your contact for renting this enormous bauble for your concert and gathering needs. All the information is on their web site.
So, before I entered the auditorium proper, I made my way around in my usual looks-out-of-place manner. Again, lost in the filigree, I wondered toward the alcoves, overhangings, and the occasional lost lamb. Down on the main floor lobby I saw a friend of mine, a musician of some note (notes) at least for the folk set. Told me it’s the first time he’s gonna see Bob in concert in 30 years. I don’t know, is there a response to that. I kinda of did a laugh when he and the woman he was with walked away. Who was that woman?
So, a walk down the aisle, and I figure I’ll go up to the stage and cut across as I peruse this hall. I got shown the setlist, hartless crane gets to see it too (obscure reference to someone). I wouldn’t say a word about that, not even that first tune. It doesn’t surprise me. Clearly, this place functions as a church the majority of the time, and Bobby will certainly sanctify it.
Concert really doesn’t start until about half hour past the scheduled time of 8.
It does start up, and it starts with a swell of a sort of thunderous funk. Bobby is quite loose and in a groove right from the opening notes. He’s wearin’ something like an ascot, please make it chartreuse. Same colour shirt with some sparkle to it.
As with a lot of the arrangements this is somewhat squared-off. I’m not gonna explain what I mean by that; just to say there is a choppy, staccato, martial take on a lot of stuff that might be better served by some curves and suppleness (ignore subtext). Speaking of better served (well singing of it), Dylan takes off with that one-two punch and does some fine improvising
“over and on
under and in
no matter where you are
you gotta
serve somebody”
don’t know if “G” in row in front of me heard. I said “Bob’s in church tonight”
Dylan did some harmonica playing on the first song. He was right in key, didn’t fumfer around looking through the harps.
I don’t what people tell me about Bob. There was genuine warmth. There was also a genuine stuffiness of air, but that’s a matter of sheer airflow. Dylan looked to be appreciative and most of the audience seemed very moved by the way the concert had opened. Going into the chord changes of The Times They Are A-Changin’ the feeling remained one of greatness of spirit, triumph of Spirit. Lay on all the meaning you want. Even I, loathe to do this, felt a sense of celebration at this given moment. Sure, Bobby mixed up some couplets, inserted and repeated. The song it is a-changin’. It got a big response. I think it felt like something that hasn’t been around for a while. Something we used to feel, a collective faith, a care about something beyond our gym memberships and portfolios (portfolio ?). Before we were staring blindly at our cell phones and running for the last train. There were no cell phones and there was always a place to crash.
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I’ll break here for a word from our sponsors.
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Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 04:10AM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 04:12AM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 07:15AM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,474 Wicked Messenger |
[smiling] thanks, Richard [/smiling]
Quote:
Richard
Bob Dylan opened singing about the Lamb of G-d in Thomas W. Lamb’s creation of filigree and gilt. No, not about the Lamb?
“.. the highest form of song is prayer..”
to the Lamb of G-d,
to Music,
to the Music lover in all of us–
same difference to me
whatever IT is, Dylan serves It.
(every night-)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2008 03:55PM by blue-eyed.
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 10:14AM |
Registered: 10 months ago Posts: 2,018 Legend In My Time |
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 23, 2008 05:51PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Impressions – Part II – that was one hell of an infomoitial
Levee’s Gonna Break – Bobby does some half twists at the keyboard with his slight frame as he moves into one of his 21st century compositions. Tony Garnier has moved more center and thumps the standup bass. This leaves Denny Freeman and Stu Kimball alone on murderer’s row, really looks more like undertaker alley.
Bobby been singing about the deluge lo these 47 years or more. These is one of the songs where he goes back to that Macon, Georgia rock n roll of wicked Negroes – Richard Penniman foremost amongst them. Lyrically, what is there to say? Surrounded by jewels it’s a bit of a lump of coal (hey, we all got a future). Eggs in my bed.
Denny starts off with something that resonates sloppy and out-of-key. Shortly it’s corrected. There was a lot of Stu doing stuff on the acoustic as Denny flipped snippet-solo’s. Not something I’ve ever liked, goes back to Jamie Robbie Roberston. The snippet, is a quick blur blurb, figure on electric guitar, that sounds more to me like an algebraic equation than a wail or a sigh. This does get rectified and countering Bobby’s harp playing is some nice lead work. Don Herron always remains posted on the Dylan side of things, above and to Bobby’s right. A perch from which he can be constantly assured that he really is in Bob Dylan’s band and he had better smile, because that ain’t Bobby’s provenance.
While this got the crowd about more loosened up in a physical way. The restrained sound on stage brought the house back to a reverential stance. Dylan came to that old place. A guitar round his shoulder. A Gibson, hollow-body, the F hole jazz type, with a cutaway. This alone put me in a melancholy mood, conjuring up my late brother’s L-7 that disappeared from this earth much as he did. A jazz guitar that came from the player with the NBC band of Skitch Henderson.
The band seemed to wait for Dylan to set the tempo – a countrified, folk-tinged sort of thing, that brought back pureness of this man’s art. Just took two words to know he was singing to and about a place and time that has nothing to do with a failed understanding of what we think we’re seeing. Tomorrow Is A Long Time is a song written in New York when heartbreak and romance were at the core. Written to bring his Village gal some message that only she knew the meaning of. If Don was playing violin on this I just don’t remember it. It would function with pedal-steel or violin. I do know there was not something remarkable in that playing. What does it matter, the song is magnificent. Dylan’s delivery was poignant. It is sheer, devastating beauty.
A quietude pervaded. Maybe the first whiff of Nag Champa hit the front rows. With stage lights down and the Bobby shuffle going on, the minor/major flip of Things Have Changed brought me out of romantic and into the caustic. Oscar gleaming more gold than the walls and ceiling – an Academy Award – winning tune. How odd. Also brings up a Doors/Brechtian influence. Clever lines in this one, that Bobby bites into. His voice was full this night. Not strained and craggy. Surely not what my friend heard 30 years ago, but you should hear his voice. He’s from the Shel Silverstein/Dave Van Ronk school of sandpaper. I dug this performance. Dylan’s clearly better off with the organ option on the keyboard. Piano-sound-approximately left Bobby doing a lot of percussive banging on the keys. He’s really gotten more up in the mix with the organ, actually improvising melodic solos, as well as some mild swells of rhythm and blues. It ain’t Al or Garth, but there’s some fine stuff going on. And look – like it or not – things have changed.
George Receli’s drumming was quite impressive. I don’t always find that the case, but he was moving around the drum kit more. Getting some Latin feel at times, and the right hand was flyin’.
Far too abrupt and squared-off, Dylan played a 1-2-3-4 on the keyboard/organ sound and let go a clipped “They’re selling postcards of the hanging”. Despite an ongoing loss of melodic tension on Desolation Row, the enunciation of each glittering homage to opulence and pestilence continues to be riveting. I don’t keep track of just which verses are sung, which are left out, which are shuffled like a deck of cards dropped off the table and scooped up. This remains one of the greatest cinematic pieces of songwriting I’ve ever heard. It is the highway. Never ornamented with such grace as on the Highway 61 album recording, it has challenged Dylan with presentation in concert. It takes a lot (not too laugh , but) to sustain this song. Mostly the band moved around it’s emphasis from one instrument to another, while Dylan kept the words gripped tightly, leaking them out in to bask in the light of their invention. I do long to hear that arcing elongation on “Noah’s great rain—bow”. Some of Bobby’s masterpieces suffer with the continued move toward squaring off the melody and rhythms. The upside of this, is that Dylan is able to keep interest in these compositions. Four decades gone, I’d rather hear these marvelous words sent off by their creator; left to glitter against a new setting, than not to hear them uttered. A great song.
________________________________________________________________________later y’all _______________________________________
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 02:53AM by Richard.
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 24, 2008 07:48PM |
Registered: 3 years ago Posts: 3,050 Supreme Bobcat |
thanks mate. more posts like this please.
and, hey richard. you made it onto expecting rain.
see number two
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 25, 2008 08:10AM |
Registered: 10 months ago Posts: 2,018 Legend In My Time |
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Impressions – Part III
Exiting Desolation Row is no small task. A little bit of stage darkness, some shuffling about and a swig or two of liquid, and Dylan slams into less-than-rosy bit of angst. While this has become a band-driven song it still hangs on the minor 1-2 combination that Bob originally hung all these images on. This may be one of the songs that suffers least from any diminished vocal alacrity on Bobby’s part. As a snarling, smirking near recitation, it still comes across with a freshness. Fortunately, we haven’t progressed at all (well ?). All those oh-so-hip observations were just written this evening.
I’m not usually too enthralled with It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) in concert – that’s my problem. I heard it when the crowd went wild, absolutely – because this was Nixon’s hangin’ party. I heard it over and over, the crowd … The song is more powerful when Dylan is onstage with no one. He approached it different ways on the guitar. As the years have passed, the amplification has muddled the solo guitar. (Not talking Newport 1965 here). The fact is, there’s a clumpiness to a lot of sound now. Sacrificing even a compromised guitar to the band-slam still brings it down a notch for me. Still, it’s a killer finish that this song has. It’s a mixed-up cry.
Well, let’s get bluesy. Sure, this has a bit of swing to it. Allows for some good harmonica blowin’. I dig seeing Dylan movin’ about, relaxing and teasing. Again, a well-earned, dues-paid edge in his throat. For all that, I find this one of the many tunes from the last few studio albums that just seems a mixed deck. As with about 15 other of the songs, there are a lot of ordinary images, structures, some aimless wandering (right is there any wandering that is aimless?) – then there is a wake up pail of cold water on your soul. Out of the ordinary comes an apocalyptic image, a reverent bow. So, I’ll chalk this up as a decent blues and be thankful that in performance it’s devoid of all that echo-ey nonsense that makes the album sound like it’s been force-fed growth hormones.
Bobby leads with these lovely chords on the keyboard. Make You Feel My Love is a tune I have come to appreciate more with each listening. It’s as good a ballad-type “pop” song as anyone can write. Pop – because this isn’t a lyric gem. Go back a few songs and hold this up to the light of Desolation Row. But it is, well, funny.
“I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue”
Not funny, quirky. In the best sense of that word. Just images floating through Bobby’s mind. No need to censor them, polish them, refine them. You end with some pretty impressive statements of self-deprivation. I love songs like this. I find one of Dylan’s greatest strengths is his ability to paint this utter pouring out of yearning. He can rein it back in, get nasty, get hurt, and then extend all these grace, desire and adoration. This can be heard in the singing. Don’t care how rough the vocals get, this is like the finest actors; he carries every word individually to every individual.
The harmonica playing on this was impressive. I’ll mention once more, that with Bobby playing in the “straight” key – I position, he is far more able to toy with the melody. I was hearing all kinds of overlays with the stuff he does on Simple Twist of Fate.
Before the show started I was chatting with some people in the row behind me. As they were speaking Italian I conjectured they might be from Italy. I’ll skip some of the details.
Okay, all of the details. Suffice it to say, that at around this time in the show I regretted having been so cordial toward this one guy. He started tapping me on the shoulder (he had to reach up) and telling me to ask people in front of me to sit down. Being that he was Italian I just spoke with my hands. By the time the next number was over he was shouting for people to sit down.
Honest With Me, has about two notes that go in the direction of the opening of (To Be Stuck Inside of Mobile With the) Memphis Blues Again. Make that one note. It then takes a downturn and becomes a somewhat nondescript piece of music. It gives some players in the band a bit of spotlight glare. I don’t find it boring, just kind of tedious. It was mildly energized, and hey, it gave me reason to be embroiled with Signori sitdown.
With the first “plunk plunk plunk plunk” off those two guitars I really thought it might be time to sit. Spirit on the Water really suffers from this repetitive musical figure. I wish I could get wrapped more around the words, me and Bobby too, but I really find it hard to stay with this one. When the occasion arises I’ll give Dylan my idea about treating this song with a more Jolson/Cantor – style vocal.
This has also become the obligatory “let’s hear it women”. I’ve yet to yell to Dylan about whether or not he’s past his prime. What is prime now? 5%?
You know they run those backdrop changes during the latter part of the show. So you get this, I don’t know what is that?, star-filled sky backdrop? Is it the polka-dot shirt of 1965? I don’t it’s something black with white blotches. Then a couple of songs later you get the so-called logo, so-called Eye of …, so-called.
The very familiar Highway 61 Revisited, still missing Kooper and the siren. They do “rock out” and here there’s some tasty playing on the part of Denny Freeman. Receli is kickin’ it, and all things said, Bobby is rockin’. It’s an endlessly clever song. Really had quite a powerful edge back in nineteen hundred and what was that then.
Ain’t Talkin’ – I might sit down now. Another one I find uneven and far from musically compelling. A mish-mosh of lyrical inputs – from Wild Mountain Thyme to whatever Dixie poet. There is a bit of the haunting, minor chord driven darkness that works in Man With the Long Black Coat. It’s a moody piece, I’ll give it that. I feel though, for the first time all evening, a lull.
Not to big on the intro to Thunder on the Mountain. Just like a don’t like the planned chaos that opens Cold Irons Bound. When it does jump in, it’s certainly a pleasant enough groove. Opens like something between Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown (sorry, but I can’t stand that song) and a slowed down Whole Lotta Shakin’ (sorry, but that’s a fantastic song). Another tune that mixes some real clever turns of phrase with some real formula writing. It’s a good song and dance routine piece.
The band exits stage left. It’s really been an appreciative, engaged audience. A guy to my left has been thanking Dylan profusely after (and too often during) most every song.
I’ve neglected to mention that somewhat earlier, even before the sky turned blotchy, this ghostly presence of a head appeared behind where Dylan stands at the keyboard. I had to get in focus. It’s the head of Baron, Bobby’s corporal protector. It kind of became a distraction, the more I could see him trying to visually scan the front rows, at least on that side of the stage. I do dig that he is just so stoic. Anyhow that’s what he does for Dylan. That’s his work.
Encore(s) and introduction of the band
Well, Like A Rolling Stone – it is what it is. A great song. If you are gonna go see Dylan over and over you’re going to hear this over and over. Sure, it had more impact 43 years ago. It’s a greatly structured composition. I’m not sure Bobby’s gotten it all straight for some years now. Even with some mix and match, it ignites a crowd. Here Dylan can simply be at once, 24 and 67, before and beyond. It’s a tough kid with a golden quill; it’s a man so wise he knows how much wisdom he lacks. The sound is open, questioning and ever young.
This arrangement of All Along the Watchtower starts out with less red blood cells than in the past. It takes a bit into the first verse to pick up some steam. Like several masterpieces from John Wesley Harding, a simple three-chord structure opens up like petals on the proverbial rose. Space to be filled by screaming, wailing, and even an occasional gnashed tooth. From Bobby to Jimi Hendrix back to Dylan, it was watered over the years. Sometimes with brilliant effect. I can’t say that holds true these days. While adept playing by Freeman and Kimball was present, nothing soul-wrenching was touched. Tony was powerful and right on all night. It’s he who seems to hold this group together.
With guitar in hands, Bobby went into a mystery-melody country and western approximately version of Blowin’ In the Wind. Once the lines take shape there is a clearer hearing of the melody. Not having to look too far as to how this fits into the place and time, it is enough to take in the scope of one evening’s performance. The journey doesn’t move in any linear or chronological fashion. In the end, well “the answer is ….
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Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 30, 2008 06:36PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 1,409 Wicked Messenger |
Re: Impressions — Bob Dylan and His Band – United Palace Theater November 30, 2008 10:57PM |
Registered: 3 years ago Posts: 363 Forever Young |