For many attendees, Bob Dylan’s opening set for the Rolling Stones on the Friday was the show most likely to skip (evidently, as quite a few seats remained empty throughout). That may sound preposterous to anyone who hasn’t caught him in the last decade or so, but those with experience know that his voice has diminished mostly to a low growl, he doesn’t pick up the guitar much (he didn’t once this weekend, either singing hands-free or manning the organ) and he won’t allow videographers to display a clear shot of his face , effectively distancing himself from a massive audience like Desert Trip’s 75,000 per day.
But those who slept on it should be feeling some deep regret. Not only because it was one of his better performances in recent years – his enunciation felt intentionally clearer and stronger, even managing a couple legitimately pretty croons on “Tangled Up in Blue” – but also because it was his second appearance since receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature the day before. The latter fact alone made it one of the most important gigs of his 57-year (!) career, and therefore as historically significant on its own as the entire Desert Trip affair.
Dylan – recently awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature – performed “Like A Rolling Stone” for the first time in nearly three years. The performance of the Highway 61 Revisited track also came before the Rolling Stones themselves took the stage at the Indio, California mega-fest.
Dylan last performed “Like a Rolling Stone” at a November 2013 gig in Rome, Italy. After spending this summer touring in support of his recent pair of Sinatra-indebted LPs with set lists that heavily leaned on Dylan’s 2010s recordings Dylan has dipped back into his Sixties catalog for the Desert Trip shows,
Yet Dylan never overtly acknowledged the honor throughout his 2-hour greatest hits run, which kicked off with a field full of sweet-smelling smoke signals (with set opener “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”) and saw the 75-year-old slipping in a few rock star moves and jams mid-set (some Robert Plant-esque mic stand lifts on “Love Sick” and Elvis-inspired hip wiggles during outlaw-toned organ-guitar riff duels with axeman Charlie Sexton). Notable, however, was the alternate encore: instead of the epic “Masters of War,” which capped Weekend 1, we got the iconic “Like a Rolling Stone” followed by the Cy Coleman/Jospeh McCarthy-penned Sinatra classic “Why Try to Change Me Now.”
It was the latter ballad that resonated the most poignantly. It’s a slow-burner, and perhaps the antithesis of what most of these diehard classic rock fans might’ve favored for a closer. But as he sang the final chorus echoing the tune’s title – genuinely sweet and clear – it felt like a rebuke to all the naysayers: Sure, Dylan has made some adjustments to his songs’ styles as he and his voice have aged, but his poetry and its impact remain timeless, with or without a Nobel nod.
The Fat Angel Sings 