Things have changed, but not Bob Dylan
By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., November 13, 2000) -- One could be forgiven for being tempted to read too much into the songs Bob Dylan chose to sing in his concert at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell last Saturday night. But Dylan’s songs and his enigmatic approach invite such conjecture.

Dylan was in fine apocalyptic form, breathing fire through his phrasing, his lyrics and band arrangements that sacrificed no attempt to heighten the songs’ drama or impact. It was easy to conclude that the show - which included vintage protest songs like “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” Biblical midrash like “All Along the Watchtower” and “Highway 61,” and screeds of personal angst like “Not Dark Yet” and “Things Have Changed” -- was in response to a world gone wrong, one in which the aftermath of an election has plunged a nation into limbo at the same time that the Middle East threatens to succumb once again to the flames of war.

Lines like “Even the president of the United States must have to stand naked” from “It’s Alright Ma” elicited cheers of recognition and assent from the arena crowd, but led one to wonder who stands naked if there is no president? And did Dylan purposely follow “It’s Alright Ma” with “Hattie Carroll,” perhaps his finest topical protest song, to suggest that the ascendancy of George W. Bush would set back the clock on race relations nearly 30 years?

Bob Dylan was performing yet again with a well-honed road band including guitarists Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer David Kemper, as part of his seemingly never-ending tour. He continues to mine his impressive catalog of material, reinventing old favorites like “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and a particularly intense version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and resurrecting obscurities like “Country Pie,” on which Campbell shattered guitar-shrapnel worthy of former sideman Robbie Robertson, and “If Dogs Run Free,” perhaps Dylan’s only jazz tune, given an incredibly faithful reading, minus the shoo-be-do’s of the original.

It’s hard to know whether to take Dylan at face value when he sings lines like “God knows there’s gonna be no more water but fire next time,” from “God Knows,” or “If the Bible is right, the world will explode,” from “Things Have Changed.” He offset such prophetic doomsaying somewhat with glimpses of humor and absurdity during “If Dogs Run Free,” on which he declared “If dogs run free, then what must be, must be, and that is all,” or when he sang with utter resignation and abject surrender, “I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from,” from “Not Dark Yet,” a sentiment that evidently resonates deeply with his audience, as the line got the most vocal response of the night.

Bob Dylan turns 60 next spring. Next year will also mark the 40th anniversary of his arrival on the Greenwich Village folk scene and the recording of his first album (which was released in March 1962). Last week Columbia Records issued a two-volume retrospective, “The Essential Bob Dylan,” which traces the arc of his career from “Blowin’ in the Wind” to his most recent recording, “Things Have Changed,” previously available only on the soundtrack to “Wonder Boys.”

What is most astonishing listening to early songs like “Don’t Think Twice,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” are their naked immediacy. The young Dylan sang with utter confidence and authority that cannot be easily explained by reference to the unimpressive biography of his early years. Clearly the young Dylan was channeling some heavy influences, musical, spiritual and otherwise, and he could easily be have been mistaken for a 60-year-old given the maturity and sound of his voice.

Dylan continued in this vein for the next 40 years or so, through “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Just Like a Woman,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “I Shall Be Released” and “Tangled Up in Blue.” No songwriter of the rock era can stack up a list of songs to match these, and this isn’t even the half of it. What rings true is Dylan’s unwavering commitment to truth-telling, be it the political outrage of “Hurricane,” the personal anguish of “Shelter From the Storm,” or the spiritual heartbreak of “Everything Is Broken.” It was clear at Lowell, and it’s clear listening through 40 years of “The Essential Bob Dylan,” that Dylan is a modern-day prophet. He is driven to prophesize nightly on college campuses or in secondary or tertiary markets like Lowell, and with occasional bolts of lightning like “Things Have Changed.” We ignore his prophesying only at our peril, for as he sings in his latest tirade, “People are crazy, times are strange/I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range/I used to care but things have changed.”

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 17, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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