Rough & Rowdy Ways Redux – Bob Dylan at Nottingham Arena, November 8th 2024.
When I wrote about Bob Dylan back in April I had no idea that the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour would return to the UK, where it finishes this weekend at The Royal Albert Hall, and Bob would once again include a Nottingham show. Since the tour had already visited the Motorpoint Arena I thought that tickets would be easier to come by, but no, the front blocks weren’t in the presale (and when they came on sale the price had doubled – to £210 – a fortune, even for Dylan). And demand was even higher than before. There are loads of people who’ve cottoned on the fact that this might be their last chance to see him. Easy to identify them as they made frequent loo breaks or wandered to the bar, not having done their research and realised that he plays the entire R&RW album. It was notable how the cheers that came when Dylan sang the titles of his biggest songs (Desolation Row, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue) the cheers came from the middle and rear of the hall, rather than the front where the diehards were. Yes, this was my 17th Dylan show, but only the second time I’d seen him twice in a year. The other time was 1978, when I went to the first night at Earl’s Court and Blackbushe.
I was with my brother, Paul, Dylan superfan Terry and my old University tutor, Dave, who I’ve been discussing Dylan with since he and Pete Messent interviewed me for the American Studies degree 48 years ago. Dave hadn’t seen Bob since 1978, and got lucky this time, as not only did we have very good seats, near the front of the central block, but the two seats in front of us were unoccupied, so we had an unimpeded view of the full stage. From the start (nearly five minutes late, which for recent Bob shows, is unusual) it was clear that things had changed. The sound was brighter, the band was tighter. At first I thought the sound was terrific but during some songs it was distinctly echoey. Not sure whether this was because we were a bit further back (seventh row last time) or the new dynamic didn’t suit the ice arena acoustics but, after the best sounding Dylan show I’ve seen, in NOLO, this was the worst this century.
Happily, over the years, Rough and Rowdy Ways has proved to be the best Dylan album released this century (only Modern Times can run it close). When I saw these songs last time, every arrangement bar one had changed. This time they all had. There was a new arrangement of All Along the Watchtower to kick off, and it worked well, feeling pretty apt in what has, let’s face it, been an apocalyptic week. Then, the one song I wasn’t especially looking forward to, It Ain’t Me Babe, with that graceless snarl of over-assertive, truth telling youth. This had a long, pretty introduction, so much so that it seemed for a while they might be doing it as an instrumental, just as an instrumental Hard Rain opened the 78 shows. But no, the song began and it was… fine. Through this, and just about every other performance, one could luxuriate in the band, where the addition of Jim Keltner on drums has brought a new vigour and vim.
There are people with much better technical knowledge of music than me and a great website (I pay to subscribe, it’s worth it) where just about every Dylan show is analysed in detail, including this one, so I’m not going to attempt a song by song breakdown. The show featured a terrific Desolation Row (edit) and a powerful It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, slowed right down, piano dominated. Dylan was singing really well, with a lot of energy and nuance. It was instructive, when we got home, to listen to a couple of RARW songs and realise how laid back and autumnal they were on disc when compared to last night’s show. Here’s the setlist, via Adam Selzer (it’s from Edinburgh but our songs and tunings were the same).
We got the Istanbul not Constantinople arrangement of When I Paint My Masterpiece again and Watching the River Flow was a particular highlight, moved from the opening song to the latter part of the set. Jim Keltner’s first appearance on a Dylan record was this 1971 single, which also happened to be the first Dylan single that I bought. Dylan introduced Jim and he got a big round of applause. Great song, which, lyrically, seems to belong more to a man of mature years, a precursor of that hard won wisdom that suffuses RARW and can be found in Every Grain of Sand, which was magnificent last night, once again bringing tears to my eyes when it closed the show.
That just leaves the RARW songs, which are in a constant state of flux. My Own Version of You was the only one that didn’t quite come off. The slowed down, piano focused, heavily emphasised words of Key West and Mother of Muses were particularly effective. Last night, though, the song whose magnificence came through more strongly for me than before was I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself To You (the link takes you to a superb but little known Cowboy Junkies version of the song, recorded for a cover mount cd). It’s such a profound, superbly structured, mysterious yet humble song, and a gorgeous one, too, the polar opposite of It Ain’t Me, Babe. It’s this is me, babe, and this is how I love you. Wonderful. As was the whole show. All four of us were, I think, profoundly moved, and cognisant, once again, of how lucky we are to be alive at a time when Bob Dylan is still writing songs this great, and we get to see him performing them. Thanks, Bob.
