Notes On the Never-Ending Tour

June 25, 2013

Notes On the Never-Ending Tour

That's what they call Dylan's relentless touring. It's been going on for 25 years now, and a couple of publications take notice: The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal. I didn't realize it had been such a conscious artistic choice for him.

I've seen three of these 2,500 shows: Pensacola ca. 1992, Lafayette ca. 1998, New Orleans ca. 2003. The first was not so good, the second was great–it was the tour with Paul Simon, and Simon's half of the concert was wonderful–and the third was very good. He puts together some great bands, and my only complaint about both the shows and his recordings is that he keeps them on such a tight leash. I'd really like to hear more in the way of guitar solos and such.

Maclin Horton

Music

4 responses to “Notes On the Never-Ending Tour”

Robert Gotcher

June 26, 2013

Why does he avoid Africa?

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Mac

June 26, 2013

No fans there?

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Daniel Nichols

June 26, 2013

I saw him twice, once in the early 70s with the Band, which was one of the very finest concerts I have ever seen. The other was maybe 78 or so and was awful; he just muttered and yelled into the microphone and rushed through the nearly unrecognizable tunes. Indeed, he seemed filled with scorn for the audience…

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Mac

June 26, 2013

Well, heck, I thought the comment problems were fixed, but yours sat in the spam filter for several hours before I noticed it. It really does seem to be picking on you.
Anyway–I don’t know if you read either of those articles I linked to, but one of them speaks of Dylan admitting that he had lost his way for a while. I think I’d rate the Lafayette Dylan/Simon concert as one of the best I’ve seen.
There’s that live album with him and The Band…Before the Flood?…which I found pretty much unlistenable, and I tried to give it a fair chance. I hope your concert was better than that.

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