First time I saw Bob was in '74, with the Band on the Before the Flood Tour. Blew me away. Saw Rolling Thunder, could not have been more different, but still mind-bending. Then solo, then with the Petty Band, then the Dead, then the Never Ending Tour, somewhere around 50-60 times in all, with lead guitar players like Robbie Robertson, Jerry Garcia, Larry Campbell, Mick Ronson, and G.E. Smith. And I still love the shows.
BUT... BUT....
If your going to hear some sort of campfire rendition/sling-a-long of Bob's Greatest Hits - it ain't happening, and it never has. He changes the worlds, the cadence, the breaks night after night. Some of his 'greatest hits' it's been decades since he's played them. He plays what
he wants, so if you like the last three records, and I do (
Modern Times,
Love and Theft and
Together Through Life) then go, because that's what it sounds like now.
As Bob said once at at show I was at, "The song used to go like that, now it goes like this." He does not play guitar much, preferring piano (I think the guitar is a bit heavy for 90 minutes at his age) but he is playing the harmonica again, and it was a solid 20+ years there where he never picked that thing up, so....
These days it kinda goes a little like this.
http://vodpod.com/watch/2784541-bob-dylan-watching-the-river-flow
