The Sun's Not Yellow, It's Chicken

Tue, 09/04/2007 - 4:49pm by John J. Madonna

Bob Dylan (born Lucky Wilbury.) What good can I say that hasn’t been said countless times already? He gave urban folk and 60s protesters a face with records like The Freewheelin’ and The Times They Are A Changin’. He felt a need to rock, so he plugged in and released such rollicking blues-rock albums as Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Now, into his career’s fifth decade, Dylan sounds like a grizzled old cowboy on Love and Theft or Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3. No one can deny that when he’s good--a few more: Blood on the Tracks, Modern Times, New Morning--he’s the best out there (of course when he’s bad... watch out.)

But, having seen Dylan live twice in one year, at shows where no one knew half of what he said, he played as many—-if not more—-songs off of his new albums as he did hits, and no one realized they were listening to "Like A Rolling Stone" until two minutes in when, with a gravelly voice, it sounded like he said "With no direction home," I can safely say, Bob Dylan might be the best concert I've ever seen. The band featured an electric guitar, a pedal steel guitar, a double bass, drums, a fiddle, and Bob himself on piano and harmonica (he never touched a guitar,) and when they played "All Along The Watchtower," it made Jimi Hendrix’s cover look like a four-year-old schoolboy strumming a banjo. I don’t know when he’ll tour again, but in the meantime, check out the bootleg series, including the infamous 1966 tour where he first plugged in.

Post script, an extra credit A- to the person who can name what song the title of this article is from.