Reviews

Jones Beach..........nice place.  for an outdoor event the sound was
actually great.  I was lucky enough to attend both of the Jones Beach
shows this past weekend and the only two things to complain about were
the heat and the predictablity of Paul Simon's set.  I do ( did )
respect Paul Simon has a writer but the same set over and over is just
weak.

Anyhow this was my third Dylan/Simon show of 99 and fifth of the year. 
By far I enjoy the single bill than double.  Not to say Senor Dylan did
not delight.  Overall the Albany Show was better than both shows this
weekend.  Albany seemed to have constant "juice" so to speak.  Yet, the
two shows at Jones beach each have some excellent performances.

JONES BEACH JULY 31,1999

Friend of the Devil:  Really was not wanting to hear this one, but was
the best opener on the tour so far.  longer than most openers.

My Back Pages:  Excellent set up they got going here.  The fiddle is
really a key.  Bobs harp was alright, vocals were good.

Masters Of War:  Best version I have heard him sing, total Bobness on
words........worth price of admission.

Tangled:  Although no harp.....BOB rocked this one...almost like he's
ready to reexplore this song again.  Band got louder after each verse
was complete.  Bob really tweeked TaaaaaaangLED  UUUUuuuP 
IIIIIInBlUUUUUuuueee.  really good.

Forever Young:  soft but thats it, really not a good
version......effortless it seemed.

All Along Watchtower:  Again the Light effect.  Sung much better than
previous night but shorter.

Positively Fourth Street:  another nice surprise.  just glad to hear
it.  not a 96 version or anything.

Watching the River: Couldn't believe they changed the music from
earlier in 99, but again this alteration rocked BOB got into the vocals
again and made the song a highlight.

Not Dark Yet: Far and away the best version I have heard period.  Very
slow very emtional, almost like Bob was letting us into his ever so
mysterious personal life.  Perfect.

Silvio:  All three shared guitar solos.  really rocked.  Its cool that
they can alternate This and Higway to end sets.

Like A Rolling stone:  Much better than night before.  vocals were
there.

Blowing In The Wind: was Bad.  might have been the worst song I have
heard him do in concert ever.  No explanation.


Can't really pick a better show between the two.  Highlights over the
course of two shows were, Desolation Row, Girl From North Country,
Masters Of war, Tangled Up In blue, Not Dark yet, and Watching the River
Flow.

The Duets were better than Pepsi, but i got annoyed how Paul just seems
to go off on his own during the middle two songs.  The duets i thing
are much better with Bob's band although it was nice to hear the
Budukon version of Knockin.  

oh well, two more shows down, can't wait for BOB alone.  looking to
pick up tapes from these shows...I have a really nice
collection.....anybody interested in just looking at my list let me
know.   

Keep On Keepin On........
John Sipowicz

sipedupinblue@yahoo.com

Day 2: Same hot weather, same beautiful location, same folks (at least 
the ones that came for Dylan, I don’t think mayn of the Simon-only fans 
went to both shows). The pretty good band Eudora was the opening act, 
they had a very strong singer, looked a bit like Lucinda Williams, sang 
like Patti Smith. Now that ain’t too bad, eh? At 8.10 it was time to 
welcome the „columbia Recording Artist Bob Dylan“ for the last time on 
this seven week summer tour. I would’ve loved to hear either "Somebody 
Touched Me" or "Hallelujah I’m Ready (To Go)" tonight, simply I haven’t 
heard them yet, but instead we got:

 Friend Of The Devil (acoustic)

started off proceedings as we probably could have expected it. The kids 
next to me (who went completely nuts when Bob did "Not Fade Away" the 
night before - or so they tell me) loved it. It was apparent from the 
start that Bob wasn’t in the same fine form that he used to be in 
yesterday. It wasn’t bad, but hardly above average.

 My Back Pages (acoustic)

Much better than the Holmdel version, mainly because Bob and Larry were 
playing the same song and because of that the solo matched a lot better 
:-) Harp at the end.

  Masters Of War (acoustic)

Yet another strong version, but Bob and band are on auto-pilot for this 
song, cause they’veplayed it so many times.

 Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)

Surprisingly early in the set. It was hardly above average and didn’t 
feature any of the variations from the previous shows.

 Forever Young (acoustic)

The only semi-surprise of the night. I was sick and tired of hearing that 
song like 15 times in a row in Australia and New Zealand last year, but 
today I quite enjoyed it. Larry and Charlie on backing vocals - Bob had 
mercy and tried to sing the chorus *with* them rather than *against* 
them.

 All Along The Watchtower


was "All Along The Watchtower" © 1999

 Positively 4th Street

It could’ve been the perfect version, cause it was even slower than the 
renditions from this spring, almost like Berlin and Magdeburg ‘96, lovely 
pedal-steel courtesy of Larry, too, but Bob’s singing wasn’t too hot, he 
seemed to have trouble remembering the words and screwed up the - I think 
- second to last verse pretty badly. 

 Watching The River Flow

Another minor disappointment, cause after years of horrid version the 
band finally had worked up a pretty good arrangement this spring, that 
sounded a lot like "Maggie"s Farm“, but at least it was fast and fun. Now 
it was weak, slow and bluesy and I didn’t like it AT ALL. It was as bad 
as any of the ‘95/’96 renditions.

 Not Dark Yet

was "Not Dark Yet", followed by the introduction of the "finest players 
in the country".

 Silvio

followed as expected and it ROCKED, which is the polite way of saying 
that it was the same as it ever was.

 (encore)

 Like A Rolling Stone

one for the people who never saw Bob before.

 Blowin’ In The Wind (acoustic)

Unfortunately yet another very unconvincing rendition of this songs. 
After he had played „Don’t Think Twice“ almost very night for the first 
four weeks of the tour, he stopped playing it altogether for the rest of 
the tour. It wouldn’t necessarily have been a lot better, but at least it 
would’ve been a nice change. Then he asked Simon to come on stage and 
they did 

 Sound Of Silence

the same way as before...

 That’ll Be The Day/The Wanderer

at least they had knew that quite a few people attended both shows and 
went back to the Buddy Holly song. Pretty lame version actually, that 
sounded like "Pillbox" with the wrong words, but at least Dylan and 
Simon seemed to have fun.

 Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

You just gotta love those backing vocals and so I didn’t care that this 
one was the last song of the tour. Of course they could’ve done something 
special on the last night, but maybe that’s just not possible on a 
high-scale tour like this.

Even though this last one was probably the weakest show of the six I got 
to see this week, I was very pleasantly surprised by the high quality of 
the shows throughout the tour. Charlie isn’t doing much (yet), mainly 
playing rhythm guitar, but at least that helps to keep the band together 
and make the sound tighter. I don’t think he’ll stay with Dylan for too 
long if he position doesn’t change soon. A top player like him should 
have other things to do than playing easy chords for Bob. As I said in my 
first review already, the shows were very good, but kinda uneventful 
still. They just had too much stuff that was repeated every night. 
Hopefully Bob will abandon the idea of the double-headlining act soon and 
weill return to this usual 110-minute show. Til next time, take care of 
yourself and each other ;-)

carsten wohlfeld
--
"always tell the truth, it’s easier to remember" (evan dando)