 Bob Dylan The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series launched in '91 with a three-disc overview of Bob's alternate career, which is full of fascinating nooks and crannies representing unfinished projects, discarded bits of genius, and roads not documented by his extensive official discography. The series seemed likely to end there, until Legacy kick-started it in '98 with the important-to-know-about-but-not-that-excellent-to-actually-listen-to Live 1966 set. This was followed in '02 by Live 1975, altogether much more exciting and wonderful to hear, as much for the inspired rockin' as for the fact that this era is so much more underrated than Dylan's "scandalous" "going electric" period. Blah, blah, blah. Now, with Live '64, the Bootleg Series finally starts to make real sense. What was shaping up to be a compromised selection of "important" (i.e. "boring") recordings now looks like it might start approaching the colorful variety of Dylan's actual bootleg universe. Live '64 brings with it the hope that the Bootleg Series will keep on growing, ever-deepening the pool, feeding the fans for whom this stuff really is lifeblood. The studio outtakes on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 were fantastic, and certainly more are warranted, but it is the live stuff that really reflect who Dylan was at any given point in time. It's easy to look back on the studio albums and see Dylan evolving from point A to point B, etc, but these live documents show the process of Dylan bringing the songs out onto the stage, amazing and sometimes shocking audiences with how hard it was to keep up with him. Live '66, if it is important, is so because it captures the blazing transition phase that careened at top-speed down Highway 61, peaked with Blonde on Blonde, and ended with a crippling motorcycle crash. Even one two-hour moment in this phase clearly illustrates the blurry chaos of it all. Live '64 shows another Dylan entirely: younger, less confrontational, and in fact, downright charming! Performing acoustically, he's engaging, witty, and infectiously giddy as he runs through a set mixing old folkie favorites with then-new stuff from the underrated Another Side of Bob Dylan album. Mixing the stability of the familiar with the challenge of the new, Bob pushes the envelope just enough to keep the rapt audience on their toes. My guess is, he was quite high … that's the only way to explain the giggly laughter and forgotten lyrics that keep cropping up. But it works well, showing a relaxed and genuinely funny side of Bob Dylan that is not the typical image of him, especially in the 60s. The set includes a number of his best protest songs ("Who Killed Davey Moore?," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"), but they're delivered with such near-flippancy that even if you're not too enamored of the early Dylan, it's damn hard not to fall under sway. The best moments are the intentionally comedic songs, like "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues" and "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)," wherein Dylan actually has the command of a first-rate nightclub comedian. Absolutely wonderful, hilarious shit. Even a few songs that you'd think you're not really in the mood to hear anymore (e.g. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right") benefit from Dylan's shit-eating-grin delivery. It's fun to hear Dylan playing with childlike glee, and the audience reciprocates with similarly joyous encouragement. Joan Baez hops on stage for a few songs toward the end, including a fantastically sloppy "Mama, You Been On My Mind," in which Dylan keeps forgetting the words, and here even Joan Baez gets playful. Did you think that was possible? Me either, but it is. Joan also contributes a rather overly-warbled but still pretty stellar performance of the mighty "Silver Dagger" (later ripped off by Saint Etienne for "Like a Motorway"). Not everything is laugh-out-loud funny – the gorgeous "Gates of Eden" here is about as emotional, dramatic, and beautiful as Dylan has ever been. But the tone is definitely one of "good spirits," however you take that to mean. I take that to mean "a good bag of hash just before showtime."
Review by Wen Wu Wong |