Real Live (1984)
1. Highway 61 Revisited
2. Maggie's Farm
3. I And I
4. License to Kill
5. It Ain't Me Baby
6. Tangled Up in Blue
7. Masters of War
8. Ballad of a Thin man
9. Gril From the North Country
10.Tombstone Blues
 
It's interesting to watch the
evolution of Bob Dylan's live albums throughout his career (this was his
fourth in ten years) since he seemed to always be changing things around
a bit. This one is on of my favorites since it's so, pardon the pun,
real. That word could mean different things to different people
- some would argue that this sounds less real than anything he'd
ever done. I enjoy it mainly because it sounds very fresh and maybe not quite
so improvised.
It was a new decade, and people's expectations of a live show in
the eighties were significantly different than from the early seventies.
People weren't really all too keen to spend a big chunk of change to
watch performers jam somewhat incoherently on stage for 90 minutes. No,
they wanted a show. That's not to say you would ever get a
theatrical spectacular from this man. Nor would you get lasers and
light shows. The music itself, though, sounds carefully arranged and
well rehearsed, with not that much room for improvisation. You could
say the same thing of his last live record At
Budokan, yet that album was very low key in front of a mostly quiet
audience, whereas this record was obviously in front of a very energetic
group of fans who were having the time of their life.
Unlike At Budokan, this album is only a
single album, and I really wish the record company would have footed the
bill for an extra disc. Listening to these songs, you can't help but
want more. He's obviously going to play some cuts from his new record
at the time (that would be Infidels) and
sadly he includes one of the only subpar songs from an otherwise
brilliant record (that would be I and I). The other
representative, License to Kill, is somewhat stronger, but it's
too bad better songs weren't selected.
Everything else here are pure audience favorites. It's not the best of
his best, but any real fan knows the rest of the tracks. As mentioned, he
mostly sticks to his traditional routine of redoing the tracks in a completely
different format, and sometimes it works better than others. To be
honest Masters of War sounds a little too different and more
upbeat than it should be, but it's a minor sin. Highlights are the
acoustic version of Tangled Up in Blue that, for whatever reason,
includes a lot of new lyrics. Not sure why. The best song here is
It Ain't Me Babe that is featured in its pure, acoustic original
form. It helps when the 10,000+ arena crowd sings along to the chorus. Yes, they
were enjoying the show.
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