Bob Dylan - The 30th Anniversary Concert

Concerts where you gather together a "star-studded ensemble" to play a beloved musician's finest works are sketchy affairs at best, usually. I mean, the so-called stars are often third-rate hacks who've never had any hits themselves and aren't likely to if they only play someone else's songs for the rest of their lives. Or you get folks who are genuinely decent musicians turning out rote, boring renditions of well-known songs, the sort of versions that have no heart or imagination or energy.

The concert celebrating Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary of recording is not like that, though. The list of musicians covers an amazing spectrum of styles and voices. Some folks offer very faithful covers of Dylan songs, while some offer radical revisions of familiar and less-common tunes.

The concert begins with an excellent double-shot from John Mellencamp, who has the balls to cover "Like a Rolling Stone" (a song that fits him like a glove, especially with the help of Al Kooper--who played on the original studio version--on organ) and "Lepoard-Skin Pill-Box Hat." Mellencamp sticks to fairly faithful renditions, keeping the spirit and style close to the original tunes. Stevie Wonder's "Blowin' in the Wind" isn't quite so successful, mostly because he spends the first two and a half minutes of the track talking about the historical significance of the song and how its impact still matters today rather than just letting the song speak for itself. Once he gets down to brass tacks, though, it's a pretty successful soul reworking of the old acoustic protest song. Lou Reed provides an energetic if slightly stilted version of the unreleased "Foot of Pride," and Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam do a spine-tingling acoustic "Masters of War" (this was right after Pearl Jam hit it big in the early '90s, so this was the "hip" act of the show, and they provided one of the most faithful covers of the night). Tracy Chapman did a rousing acoustic cover of "The Times They are A'Changin'," followed by Johnny Cash and June Carter doing a stomping country version of "It Ain't Me, Babe" that really jumps. Willie Nelson's cover of "What was it you wanted?" isn't nearly as effective as Dylan's original, mostly due to his hurried vocal delivery. But Kris Kristofferson's "I'll be Your Baby Tonight" has the mirth that was too subdued in the original. Johnny Winter brings out the frenzied blues of "Highway 61 Revisited," and Ron Wood is almost a dead-ringer for Dylan in his cover of "Seven Days." Richie Havens totally desecrates "Just Like a Woman" by playing it at one speed and singing at a different speed that seems to have no connection to the actual tune. The Clancy Brothers provide a traditional Irish reading of the traditional "When the Ship Comes In," which Dylan covered on his first album. The first disc closes with Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, and Shawn Colvin trading verses on "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere."

Disc Two really builds up momentum and energy with two songs from Neil Young in typical fashion--"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "All Along the Watchtower," and Young makes the songs sound like they were his all along. Chrissie Hynde follows with a beautiful reading of "I Shall be Released." She is quickly eclipsed, though, with Eric Clapton's blistering blues run of "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," easily one of the best songs on the whole album. The O'Jays manage to take one of the slightest songs in Dylan's catalogue, "Emotionally Yours," and inject it with real emotion and heft in their soul-soaked version. The Band take a swing at "When I Paint my Masterpiece," and come close to matching the effectiveness of their original studio cover of the tune. George Harrison takes "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and treats it like it was his own, and it benefits from his slightly-strained vocals. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers take on two songs--"License to Kill" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"--and fit the tunes perfectly. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds turns in a dead-ringer for his band's original cover of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," that ringing twelve-string guitar solo sounding as beautiful and perfect as ever.

Then comes the man of the hour, Bob Dylan himself. He comes out with an acoustic guitar and harmonica and does a beautiful version of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" by himself, and then the highlight of the evening: "My Back Pages," featuring McGuinn, Dylan, Petty, Harrison, Young, and Clapton trading verses and harmonizing like a choir of whiskey-soaked, cigarette-smoking angels on the chorus. Young and Clapton take the guitar solos, the rest providing rhythm for a tune that feels more like the Byrds version of the classic tune than Dylan's (complete with McGuinn's chiming twelve-string work to open the song). Then everyone joins the stage to do an uplifting "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," after which Dylan returns to the stage by himself for a meditative "Girl from the North Country."

Listing the songs and artists who took part in this concert does not do the actual event justice. Virtually everyone is in fine form, treating the material with reverence, love, and respect. Overall, this is one of the best celebration/benefit concerts I've ever heard. My one hope is that, by the time the 50th anniversary concert rolls around in 2012, Cross-Eyed Yeti is big enough to get a spot on the roster.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, George Harrison, & Eric Clapton, "My Back Pages (Live)"