Bob Dylan
Roma 17 Aprile 2009 - PalaLottomatica

Bob Dylan is my all-time favorite artist, the very first who made me fall in love with his music, his lyrics, his art (and like me, I believe, millions of people). His latest albums place him among the great storytellers of American popular music. I have never seen him live. I thought he was already too "old" 30 years ago, at the time of the religious "turn" (which I found absolutely deplorable back then, me being a semi-punk atheist...). Then, after thinking the same about another grand old man's 2008 tour, Leonard Cohen, and kicking myself because the album that witnessed it, "Live in London", is fantastic, I gathered courage and bought the tickets.

The concert was horrendous.

Let me explain: the band is absolutely anonymous, the arrangements of the songs are all the same: rock'n'roll. He treats past classics and the tracks from his latest album in the same way, making them both unrecognizable, his voice (voice?) is now gone and you can't understand a syllable, his movements are sparing... in short: why does he do it?

Bob Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Time Magazine included him among the hundred people who most influenced the 20th century. For the quality and depth of his lyrics, his name has circulated several times during the awarding of the Nobel Prizes. According to a Rolling Stone survey (conducted among musicians) his "Like a Rolling Stone" is the best song among the top 500 of all time. In 2008, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his career "for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, through lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." His profile on the website www.allmusicguide.com starts like this: "Bob Dylan's influence on popular music is incalculable".

Why does he do it? Not for money, I believe, not for the audience (the best he gives is a smile/sneer when we all sing out loud «How does it feeeel...», I think he's even mocking us a bit), not to let us listen to his songs, all the same and unrecognizable. But then Bob, why? Because it's been more than twenty years and I don't know how many bypasses he launched the "Neverending Tour" and he does more than a HUNDRED concerts a year (which between day offs and transfers means he's home maybe three months a year...)?

The meaning of the concert is all there; if someone thinks they've grasped it better than me, let me know. I believe that the only thing that counts for him is staging the Representation: The Artist and his Art. The true meaning lies in the gesture, not the result. He is there for himself, not for his songs. Maybe he hates them, can't stand them anymore, changes and disrupts them to be able to sing them again. «How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?». He is there. He exists. He plays and sings, still.

And this makes each of his concerts a marvel.

The concert on the official site:

Bob Dylan | Rome, Italy - April 17 2009

The setlist:

1. Cat's in the Well
2. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
3. Things Have Changed
4. Boots of Spanish Leather
5. The Levee's Gonna Break
6. Sugar Baby
7. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
8. Make You Feel My Love
9. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
10. Beyond the Horizon
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Love Sick
13. Thunder on the Mountain
14. Return to Me (by Danny DiMinno and Carmen Lombardo)
15. Like a Rolling Stone
16. All Along the Watchtower
17. Spirit on the Water
18. Blowin' in the Wind

The band:
Bob Dylan - keyboard, guitar, harp
Tony Garnier - bass
George Recile - drums
Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar
Denny Freeman - lead guitar
Donnie Herron - violin, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel