On The Road Again.....UPDATED.

[FAST FRED]

I'm driving to Lubbock today to see Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp tonight in Jones Stadium with my daughter.

Never seen any of them before live.

Bob Dylan has long been a big favorite of mine.

His song "Like A Rolling Stone" was all over the radio in the Summer of '65, just after I graduated from Texas A&M with my degree in Zoology.

They played it a least once an hour on every station, along with "Satisfaction."

Whenever Dylan would sing, "How does it feel?", I would think, "Satisfied."

I had my degree, had the Summer to relax before starting dental school in the Fall, was in a cool band playing clubs in Dallas and plenty of female companionship.

Life was good at age 21.

And that was really a fine time for great music and great musical diversity with both American and English Rock & Roll in full vogue and early Soul Music rising on the charts.

Our 5 piece band covered it all and I drank it all in.

The only song by Mellencamp that I've ever played or cared much for is "Hurt So Good," but I've seen a video of him performing his Music of the American Heartland and it was good.

He often covers a Buddy Holly song like "Rave On" and I expect he'll do that in Lubbock.

So I'm looking forward to the show.

If John has a shirt on sale that simply says "Cougar," I'll get one for my wife.

Leaving right now.

 

[LITNIN HORN]

John doesn't like to be called 'Cougar' anymore...in fact he gets a little pissy about it sometimes.

I've seen Dylan four times...my only disappointment was at ACL Fest a couple of years ago. Willie...I've seen him between seventy and eighty times and I've never had a complaint, but obviously I'm a little biased toward him. Mellencamp I've seen once and he was good, but I've heard he isn't playing some of his most recognizable songs on this tour.


Hope you enjoy yourself...it should be a good show.

 

[omahawk]

oh man.. i read a show was cancelled due to heat. did you still get to see them? they were just at the dell diamond and i couldn't go. i'll never forgive myself for missing that show. probably a once in a lifetime opp for me to see dylan.

 

[gecko]

I was at the show in Houston. Willie basically mailed it in, Mellencamp was pretty good, Dylan was terrible.

Hate to say this....but if it got scrubbed due to heat, you didn't miss much.

 

[FAST FRED]

We got to Lubbock two hours before the show, parked in a TT dorm lot just a quarter of a mile from our concert seats and walked across University Dr. to eat a burger and drink some beer.

Pretty convenient.

I was looking forward to seeing Willie, John and Bob having enjoyed their music for decades, both while listening to their songs and playing them.

I was well aware that Nelson and Dylan didn't perform their songs in concert like they sound on their recordings.

Willie appeared with his sister, Bobbie, on piano, Bee Spears on bass, Paul English on drums and Paul's son, Billy, on percussion.

No Mickey Raphael on harmonica and no other guitarist.

Willie played all the guitar himself and did all his songs at fast tempos and with the bare instrumental arrangements that limited lineup preordained.

His voice sounded fine, but his signature jazz vocal phrasing was less pleasing to me when always rushed and without the instrumental backing interplay that other musicians could have provided

And since he was playing all the guitar parts, he too often turned his mouth away from the mike as he looked at his fret board to play them, causing the ends of vocal phrases to drop out of the mix.

His vocals suffered as a result and his picking was also less expressive, at these tempos, than on his records.

He was an overly busy performer in this format and could have used a little more help.

The good part was that, in the time that he had, Willie ran through many more of his well-known songs simply because they were performed faster and shorter.

Seeing Willie live was cool, but I enjoy his recordings much more.

Because, when his unique vocal phrasing was always and only followed by his unique lead guitar playing, the end result was musically sparse and selfsame and ultimately lacking, IMHO.

What I missed was the other musicians, framing and setting off the talent and greatness of Willie Nelson.

I'm glad I got to see him though, because I'm a fan.

No Willie T-shirt purchase for me; however, I already have a doo-rag Texas flag bandana from the '70s.

John Mellencamp came on next, with amplified drums you could actually hear, two guitarists besides himself, a bassist, a fiddle player and a keyboardist or organ and accordion.

It was a nice, balanced, stadium filling sound and Mellencamp has a strong voice.

He also did a short accoustic set, accompanying himself on guitar.

He sounded very good on his anthematic "Ain't That America."

But he didn't play "Hurt So Good" or "Jack and Diane."

And he didn't play Buddy Holly's "Rave On," as I expected and hoped he might.

The other two artists I heard that evening played the songs I most wanted to hear, but John Cougar Mellencamp didn't.

So, although I stood expectantly and moved to his music enthusiastically, I didn't buy one of his T-shirts either.

Bob Dylan is one of the artists who has influenced me personally and my generation the most and the longest.

I was very pleased to see him, because I've listened to and played his songs a whole lot over the years.

I could have performed on bass with him this night and never missed a note.

His band was solid with two good guitarists and a bassist, all wearing white jackets, and a drummer who added nice drive to it all.

I heard that Charlie Sexton was on guitar this tour, but I couldn't recognize him.

Dylan, in a blue jacket, red tie and white hat, played keyboard on most songs or just sang.

His harmonica playing was very good.

However, his vocals sounded terrible on slow songs like "Lay, Lady Lay" and only a little better on faster ones like "Highway 61," when he could just spit out the words.

Vocally, I thought he rallied a bit at the end with "Like A Rolling Stone," on Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" and on "All Along The Watchtower."

He did a satisfying number of his songs, but a raspy, low pitched, often unintelligible, croaking accurately describes his singing.

Knowing all the words by heart allowed me to sing along with him, mostly in my head, and enjoy all the memories, while finally watching him live, despite his vocal shortcomings.

Many, many, many of the mostly sold out crowd of 16,000 left early, however, some even after only a couple of his songs.

I think it's fair and accurate to say that Bob Dylan won very few, probably even no, new fans with his performance, but some older ones, having more of an investment in his music and our generation, enjoyed this opportunity to hear and see him perform live.

Dylan's music also suffered this evening by not having more musicians with him, specifically the interplay between organ, piano and accoustic/electric guitars which his time with The Band and his great studio recordings pioneered for such folks as Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.

I'm proudly wearing one of the two Bob Dylan T-shirts that I bought as I write this.

It was a lean and mean night of music from all the artists involved and thankfully I have what I consider better, recorded versions of all those songs they played to continue to enjoy, just as I have for years.


The seven dollar/sixteen ounce beers were icy cold and delivered right to my chairback seat, $49.50 was a reasonable ticket price, the Jones Stadium pressbox had me in the shade from the very start and, later, the evening air sported a nice, cooling breeze.

And, as the music continued, a big, beautiful, full, yellow moon rose high above the stage.

I enjoyed it.

The thing that irritated me most was that the only video screen was on the TT scoreboard and that picture showed the performers on stage smaller than they looked from my 45 yard line seat with no enlargement or closeups at all.

We each spent much more on our beer and T-shirts than our ticket cost.