He's 84! My Nights With Bob Dylan

We are blessed to have had Bob Dylan in our lives for so many years. He has taken us through the early folk music era, the civil rights movement, the antiwar days and all the ups and downs of our adult lives. (Can we remain “Forever Young”?)

Last Saturday he celebrated his 84th birthday. Let us wrap our minds around that. And the man is still touring, still making music.

Some of us have been fortunate to experience Dylan performing in front of us. I can count eight times I’ve been to a Dylan concert (unless I forgot one or two!) and every one has been remarkably different.

But that’s Dylan for you. On any given night you never know what you’re going to get. Maybe you’ll experience Dylan in a good mood, eager to engage with his audience. Or maybe you’ll get the sullen Dylan, not up for connecting.

My eight nights with Bob ranged from the sullen disappointments to the transcendently beautiful. Here are my memories of them, based on fallible recollection or bolstered by printed reviews (some of them mine).

1. The Capital Centre, Landover, Md., Jan. 15, 1974: I was a 23-year-old intern for United Press International, living in Washington, D.C. when I saw a listing for Dylan coming to the area, backed by the Band. This was my introduction to him and to that fabled “back-up” group. It was the “Before the Flood” tour. According to the set list I looked up online, Dylan performed 18 songs. I had a terrible seat, high up in that arena and didn’t feel bonded to anyone on that tiny stage so far away. But I knew it was a show not to be missed. An educational experience.

2. The New Haven Coliseum, New Haven, CT., Nov. 13, 1975: This was the famed Rolling Thunder Revue, and it remains one of my favorite shows. Dylan had assembled an all-star cast, including Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez and Scarlet Rivera, whose violin enhanced such songs as “One More Cup of Coffee,” “Isis” and especially “Hurricane,” all from the forthcoming album “Desire.” There were two shows that day, one an afternoon matinee (!) and the other at night. I was working the night shift at the Morning Record in nearby Wallingford, so I was able to attend the matinee. Dylan’s face was painted white and he wore a wide-brimmed hat with a peacock feather tucked into its band. You could tell he was really into that event. I loved it. This remains my second-favorite Dylan show.

3. The New Haven Coliseum, Sept. 17, 1978: By this time I was working for the New Haven Register and reviewing rock concerts. Dylan shared the bill with Bob Seger — and I thought Seger, the opening act, was the better of the two, by far. One of his encores was a fabulous version of “Night Moves.” Dylan performed with 11 other musicians, including three female back-up singers. In my review I wrote that those singers didn’t fit well with some of the songs, including “Blowin’ In the Wind.” But I noted that when he picked up his acoustic guitar and performed solo on “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the audience was entranced. And he had them shouting “How does it feel?” during “Like A Rolling Stone.” He threw his harmonica into the front row, accepted a rose “and even talked a bit between songs.” But he did just one encore (Seger did two) and disappointed the fans who were waiting to hear “Hurricane.”

4. Bushnell Hall, Hartford, CT., May 7, 1980: This was Dylan in his “born again” phase. His fans knew this and that’s certainly why he failed to sell out back-to-back shows at a theater with only 2,700 seats. Dylan knew what he was getting into; he sardonically billed the tour “Newport Revisited” — a reference to the hostile crowd reaction when he “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. At the Bushnell he preached about Jesus between songs (“Just gonna talk about Jesus. If you don’t like that name…there are demons inside you that aren’t gonna like it.”) He led off the show with “Gotta Serve Somebody” from his latest album, “Slow Train Coming.” He added other songs from it: “Precious Angel,” “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking,” “When You Gonna Wake Up” and “When He Returns.” The audience was mostly respectful, with just a few cries for “Like a Rolling Stone.” Even the encore was more born again music. From my review for the New Haven Register: “Until the encores, nobody got up to dance; nobody rushed the stage. It was almost like a recital.”

5. The Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT., July 11, 1986: I was on hiatus from the New Haven Register and so went to this show as a fan, not as a reviewer. But I have to confess I remember virtually nothing from this show, even though Dylan shared the bill with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. According to what I could find on the internet, Dylan did 24 songs. Several of them were duets with Petty, including “Blowin’ In the Wind” and an encore of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” What’s the deal, was I too stoned to retain this? One of the songs that night was “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know.” Indeed.

6. Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT., Jan. 12, 1990: Way beyond expectations, often considered the best show he ever did. Certainly it was the longest: 50 songs! Four hours and 20 minutes! And it all happened in a (revered) local club that holds no more than about 750. As I wrote in “The Legendary Toad’s Place: Stories From New Haven’s Famed Music Venue” (co-written with Brian Phelps), Dylan called it “a practice session,” a rehearsal for his upcoming tour. Toad’s co-owner Mike Spoerndle said he had expected Dylan would play just one set. But Dylan was in a great mood and just wanted to keep on playing. And so he did, until 2:20 a.m., when he wound up his fourth set with “Like a Rolling Stone.” “It was a magical night,” Spoerndle said. “I don’t think it can ever be duplicated.” He was right. Dylan was backed by G.E. Smith, a regular for the band on “Saturday Night Live,” along with Tony Garnier and Christopher Parker. Throughout the night and into early the next morning Dylan was smiling, joking with the crowd and taking requests. These included “Congratulations” from the Traveling Wilburys album, “Joey” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.” At one point, while Dylan was walking back upstairs with his band to play another set, he said to one of them, “I can’t believe they are actually paying for this practice session.” Are you kidding me?

7. Woolsey Hall, New Haven, CT., Nov. 16, 1991: Spoerndle kindly offered me tickets for this show. I accepted, even though I knew it would be like a second dish of ice cream. Sure enough, it was a downer. Yale’s Woolsey Hall is a historic, beautiful auditorium but the acoustics are terrible and it did Dylan and the audience no favors. Most of the songs were unrecognizable, and not just because of the poor sound; Dylan often sings his well-known standards in odd ways. But you can look up what they were, even if you were there; he began with “Maggie’s Farm” and ended with “Highway 61 Revisited.”

8. Yale Field, West Haven, CT., Aug. 7, 2004: I loved the idea of Dylan doing a tour in small baseball parks. And so I went, on my own, no press pass, no reviewer’s credentials. Yale Field is a beautiful old venue but I must say I wasn’t “in a good place” that night. I think I even got there after the opening act: Willie Nelson. As for Dylan, he was so oblivious to the crowd and so intent on making his songs unrecognizable that I left early.

   But I’ll always have that night at Toad’s to hold onto. Can you imagine our lives without Bob Dylan? Impossible.