Some of My Older Bob Dylan Reviews

I decided I should make this page a place to collect all of my Dylan reviews and writings, so I’ve been working some old reviews into here. Most of these were written for Bill Pagel’s site, or more recently Flagging Down the EEs. Some are also from old message boards, newsgroups, etc.

I usually try to make my reviews into both reviews and travelogues; especially now that people can usually get the tape faster than I can get a review written out, describing the story of the show (where it was, what it was like to be there, how was there, what we did after) is arguably more important than just describing the performance. I get a bit snarky and a bit political. I know some people don’t like this, but I reason that I’d love to read someone rambling about what it was like to travel into, say, Sheffield in 1966. The music, I can hear for myself, but I can’t know what it was like to visit the town, or what they did after the show, or what was going on in the world that might have affected their reactions to the show.

Posts are back-dated to stay in order. The “new” posts so far:

New York, 2018 - I’m very proud of this one for noting all the Julius Caesar references that were emerging in the show, just before all the explicit references in the next album and tour. The fall 2018 tour really was the beginning of the Rough and Rowdy era, both musically and thematically. The tour also brought back “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and started the near-solo piano intros.

South Bend, 2019 - Another that in hindsight was building toward Rough and Rowdy with the surprise return of “Lenny Bruce,” which connects the show to the assassination theme that runs throughout Rough and Rowdy Ways. Lenny Bruce wasn’t assassinated in the traditional sense, but one could argue that he was in a way, and the song does refer to “the ones that killed him.” This, of course, also connects it to the Caesar stuff, as Caesar was assassinated, too. One could probably write up quite an interesting thing comparing how Caesar was killed to how Bruce was - there wasn’t one single assassin, but a lot of people had bloody knives.

Milwaukee 2021 - First night of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, with eight live premieres! What a night.

Chicago 2021 - Night two of the tour, with reflections on Dylan’s residency in the theater from 2005.

D.C. 2021 - A trip to D.C. to see the end of the first leg of the tour.

Atlanta 2022 - I took my dad to a show in 1998. When I took him to this one, I was the same age he was then, down to about the week!

Phoenix 2025 - A cross post from Ray’s site on the surprise-filled launch of the second “Outlaw” summer tour, in which Mike and I ride in a robot car.

Circa 2003 I wrote a book-length ramble about going to Dylan shows called Bobcat Nation. Over time I’ll probably serialize it onto some posts here. What’s also missing is some of my various Dylan writings, or accounts of researching in the archives in Tulsa, or visiting the sites in Minnesota one winter.

I don’t think there’s much point in me having a paid tier here, but I do run a Patreon where I post Chicago history, photography, and old-time true crime stuff.