Bob Dylan - Bob Links - Review - 07/04/98

General Review of the Italian Shows



Thanks to Andrea Orlandi for the following review:


A very short note of my impressions on this last Italian tour.
This has been the most enjoyable of them all, since the second part of italy 84
The venues were perfect and different one form the other: old castle walls in 
Villafranca, big stairs in ROme, wonderful square in Lucca, and, to end, a small 
park in tthe outskirt of Torino, inside a hospital for mind disease (!)
The shows have been consistently good, and it is diffcult to pick one or the 
other. Bob has been rarely so good in a row of shows in different cities for 
fooour shows. Luckily enough, MOntreux was just  a bad memory (the worst 
show I saw in Europe, despite the intimate venue) and Bob was in super form.
He even marrrked his change wearing new clothes ! All white and no ties.
My preference goes to Villafranca and Rome. To mention single songs I have 
to say with any doubt that 
- If not for you   in Villafranca
- Boots of spanish leather in Villafranca
- Desolation row in ROme
- SHe belongs to me in Lucca
- Blind Willie Mc tell in Torino
were the best versions of these songs I ever listened live.
If not for you has never been great live, but this time it was special, it maked 
you cry! And so powerful.
Boots has never sounded so gentle and charming. Bob sang it very passioned 
as the old love was just lost the day before.
Desolation row in Rome was the dream song of a dream perfomance in a 
dream venue, under the big white moon of the Rome gentle sky.
It has been the experience that happens once in a lifetime.
She Belongs to me in LUcca was just out of control: never heard that song as a 
crowd pleaser or something to get very excited about, but that night it was just 
that and Bob was completely out of control, in the good sense. The electric 
guitar solo was just unbelievable. And the phrasing too.
Blind willie mc tell in Torino made me scream out loud.  Bob just played the 
song two nights before, but this was special and different. Never heard Bob so 
in to this song like tonite. Not joking with the audience or making faces, just in 
to the song very, very deep. You could almost see the chain gang and the 
woman by the river, as to hear the rebel yell. When Bob began to prhase the 
lyrics as he did in one session for Infidels 15 years ago (the one where he 
coughs at the very beginning and then he change the speed of the rythm with 
his voice, a pure gem of all Bob singing masterpieces) I almost fall off my feet.
I traveled all the world, took planes, rented cars,crossed seas with ferrrys, ride 
bycicles, walked miles in the mud,had to hear orrible support acts, just to hear 
that phrasing in this song, and suddenly here it is, wiith Bob four meter from 
me, and in Italy, four hours from my home. Thank you Bob, very much indeed, 
grazie mille, as you said in Villafranca.
Oh, and he even said after one song in Torino that " Italy is the most beautiful 
country in the world"!
I am surely glad he enjoyed teh country this week in Italy. Please come soon 
again.
Andrea


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