Music
Bob Dylan
SEC Armadillo, Glasgow
Damien Love
five stars
WHEN Bob Dylan sings That Old Black Magic, you have to wonder. This isn’t Rod Stewart sashaying past The Great American Songbook Museum foyer. Dylan takes the Cadillac into the graveyard by moonlight, digs down and communes with ghosts, nodding over to the Chess Records plot that he’ll get back to them soon. The night before he arrived, The Armadillo caught fire. Coincidence or hoodoo ritual?
Bare stage bathed by warm 1940s-Hollywood spots, tonight’s magic is old, noir and golden. Dylan mixes up his own alchemical Americana Songbook, setting his compositions (five from the mythic 1960s, Tangled Up In Blue representing the 1970s, an emphatic 8 from the 2000s) resonating alongside five of the standards he’s been recording recently, including a live debut for This Nearly Was Mine from this year’s Triplicate; a Melancholy Mood like a spindly cartoon; a breath-taking Autumn Leaves.
Usually ensconced stage right at piano, sometimes wandering centre to strike curious rock poses with random mic stands, sometimes removing his hat to unveil that iconic halo of hair, Dylan, in fine throat, displays three voices: the high 1966 whip for Highway 61 Revisited; the worn leather glove growl for Love Sick; something softer, closer for the covers. His band makes this music molten – special mention for guitarist Charlie Sexton, ranging through rock to Western Swing, into hot club jazz. They almost take off during Duquesne Whistle, Dylan's singing at its most playful. But the highlight is a beguiling haunted-toytown arrangement of Desolation Row. Similarly, Blowin’ In The Wind has a lilting, oddly optimistic new soft-shoe shape, all the better to cushion the blow when the full weight of this performer’s history hits you. He ends on Ballad Of A Thin Man. Something is still happening. Magic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel