Bob Dylan
‘Rough and rowdy ways’
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Place and date: Gran Teatre del Liceu (24/VI/2023)
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The time comes and there is the troubadour, next to a piano, located in the back of the stage surrounded by his five excellent musicians. Sheltered by a certain penumbra and a red curtain in the background. Tonight, the second in a row within the framework of the Guitar BCN festival, he will officiate a truly extraordinary concert, which will not stop for a moment in the great successes that have marked his more than six decades of journey; neither will he release one of those false “Bona nit, Barsalona” that other veteran figures study at the foot of the stage when they visit us.
Dylan, we already knew, has always played in another league. And besides, he has a very good album to defend: the Rough and rowdy ways that gives title to this tour and that he will command in the repertoire. Grandiose record featuring William Blake and praying Muslims, Scarface Pacino, Corso, Ginsberg, good old Dr. King and those bad boys, the Rolling Stones.
Songbook prepared by a creator who, already in the eighth decade of his life, knows that the last night is coming, which does not prevent his concert on Saturday at the haunted Liceu from exuding pura vida. Although in the first two songs his register has been more hoarse than rough, in the subsequent tour the one from Minnesota has shown formidable vocal wicks, nuances and punch.
For the rest, we have had a nice Dylan, who has thanked about half a dozen times, and has even joked when introducing the musicians. It will be that the guy is not so Martian, nor so sullen, as perhaps we like to believe.
But let’s go to what we were going. To a gig that, without leaving Rough and rowdy ways for the moment, blows our minds with a Crossing the Rubicon in road blues plan, the most frequent bill tonight. Also with the elegance of Black rider, the raw and sinuous narrative of My own version on you, or the solemnity of Mother of muses, with her dotted deconstruction and the packaging of the double bass played with a bow. But, above all, the melon explodes with the enormous Key West (Philosopher pirate). points out the bard, transmuted into a kind of illuminated crooner who, perhaps not so captivatingly, will also poke his nose in I’ve made up my mind to give myself to you.
The script for the night is closed in terms of content, with the only doubt being song number 14, which this time will be a reinterpretation of Buddy Holly’s Crickets’ Not fade away, in which the theater rocks at ease and with euphoria. (the real one, not the one that sells on TV). All in all, the execution of the program seems open to whims and even specific moments in which we have the impression that something is going to fall, to be masterfully straightened out in an instant. And we are alive, damn it.
Along with his recent material, Dylan will also put his rearview mirror on more storied songs, most of them re-recorded on the recent Shadow kingdom. Among them, and very early in the session, a reading of When I paint my masterpiece that with double bass and violin evokes a popular orchestra, or that I’ll be your baby tonight in which Zimmerman shows sensuality and irony at the same time . Complementing the offer, two rescues from Bob Dylan’s Christian stage, which will end his concert with the precious Every grain of sand.
Previously, and in the same vein, he has dazzled us with Gotta serve somebody, devoid of the gospel choirs of the recorded version and crowned with an electrical storm. It is the issue that puts us in the dilemma of serving God or the devil. And the choice is not easy, right?
