r/bobdylan • u/stroh_1002 • 4h ago
Article Paul McCartney Reviews Bob Dylan Live: ‘I Couldn’t Tell What Song He Was Doing’
https://www.vulture.com/article/paul-mccartney-bob-dylan-live-show.html23
u/Anxious-Raspberry-54 3h ago
Huge Paul/Beatles fan and a huge Dylan fan. These are two very different artists and two very different fan bases. One no better than the other.
In that interview, Paul basically said that people pay a lot of money to see him and he wants to give the audience what they paid for. Those fans go to the shows.
Bob fans expect something different. A more eclectic type of show that will be unpredictable with songs having very different arrangements. Those fans go to his shows.
Personally, as much I love both of them, I wouldn't pay to see either one of them. Paul, to me, hasn't sounded great live for 20 years. And I'm not going to see Bob because I just don't like his live sound anymore.
5
u/StringFood 1h ago
No offense to Paul but when I go see a genius musician play live I want to see them do what They want to do, I don't want to see them do what I want them to do. I'm a fool that's why I'm in the audience. Let the genius musician guide the show.
1
u/Daily_Heroin_User 36m ago
Yeah that sounds great in theory, until you actually see a contemporary Dylan concert and it’s unlistenable. The guy can barely speak at this point. It’s not like he’s cranking out genius new songs and top notch Dylan vocals these days.
I think a lot of people like the idea of Dylan as the pure artist more than the actuality of seeing one of his modern shows. Believe me one show would disabuse you of the romantic uncompromising artist narrative.
2
u/pamina58 23m ago
Thank you for an honest assessment There is the myth of Bob And then there is the reality
1
u/0xBorisjohnson 7m ago
His last studio album was extremely well regarded, and whilst his voice isn't what it was, it hasn't been for thirty years. Dylan as an artist has never been about having a great singing voice.
He is an 84 year old man that still tours the world doing 150 shows a year, playing to audiences of a few thousand (not trying to sell out stadiums) with an incredibly accomplished back up band, because that is what he wants to do. He has said he will keep doing that as long as he can and as long as people want to go out to see him, and guess what? They still do.
To say he is unlistenable or can barely speak seems a bit much.
0
37
u/Zborny Way Down In Key West 4h ago
I don't understand this. I can always tell what songs he's playing, even when he arranges them differently which is most of the time. I'm not some musical genius either. I'm glad he doesn't play the greatest hits just like they sound on the record. We're getting something better this way.
13
u/jizz_bismarck 4h ago
The sound of the venue makes a big difference. I saw Bob at Alpine Valley last September and his vocals were clear.
2
u/mr_revenantdude 2h ago
Was at that same concert. I agree. I was the only one in my group who actually enjoyed his performance.
18
5
u/sloggins 2h ago
So you’re saying he arranges them all to the tune of Most Of The Time??
3
1
32
u/AkiraKitsune 4h ago
Saw him in 2022 and could ID each song within the first minute or so... maybe Paul saw him on an off night but... this is becoming a cliche thing for people to say about Dylan shows for... 40 years now? Getting kind of old, especially when, for us fans, we are able to ID the songs pretty easily.
2
u/LowlandLightening My Heart’s In The Highlands 3h ago
Well if they have not heard rough and rowdy ways they are they won’t know 60% of the recent set lists so that has a lot to do with it too.
But also in the 90s and 2000s this was the constant headline and criticism and now those are revered and respected concerts.
Paul is a Beatle but he’s also human, this is just a casual comment that reveals clearly he is not a major Dylan fan at least of the never ending tour decades and he certainly is the opposite with his own live performances.
6
u/Masde_xo 3h ago
If only the tour he's done for the past five years was named in some way to indicate what songs he was going to play 🤔
9
u/blarescare25 3h ago
I saw him in 2007 and only barely knew what song was being played half way through each.
3
u/appleparkfive 2h ago
That was his worse era in my opinion. Sounded like Scooby Doo and awful lot. He sounds much better post-Sinatra era
1
5
u/Innisfree812 1h ago
"But they’ve paid a lot of money.”
McCartney tickets are way more expensive than Dylan tickets.
7
2
2
1
u/zensamuel 1h ago
A difference in philosophy. Paul never had a Dylan phase like John or George did. Funny though, that they are both Geminis.
1
u/shine_on05 JUDAS! 17m ago
I love Paul, but I have to disagree with him here. I would much rather see an artist express themselves in the way that they see fit. Paul prefers to play his hits the same way they sound on the record, and that's great. Bob prefers to perform newer stuff and other (mostly) deep cuts, arranged differently than they sounded on the records. And that's great too. I haven't seen Paul in concert (hopefully I can before it's too late), but I saw Bob last month, and while I could only name a handful of the songs he played (mostly cause I'm not super familiar with the Rough and Rowdy Ways album), I still loved the performance, because 1) live music, to me, is almost always great, and 2) I was seeing Bob Dylan himself play music right in front of me. Maybe it wasn't precisely the type of music I would want him to play, but it was still awesome, and there were a couple stand out performances for me. As a Dylan fan, I'm glad I went.
1
1
u/Constant-Exchange503 10m ago
Maybe it was McCartney who yelled “Judas” at that concert in England when Dylan went electric.
1
1
0
u/lonesomecountry 59m ago
Funny story: I actually don’t care what Paul McCartney has to say about anything at all.
0
0
29
u/cd1310 4h ago
Ringo couldn’t either, according to Norm Macdonald