BOB DYLAN : EDINBURGH 2024 FIRST NIGHT

 

Disc One (54:41)

  1. All Along The Watchtower
  2. It Ain’t Me, Babe
  3. I Contain Multitudes
  4. False Prophet
  5. When I Paint My Masterpiece
  6. Black Rider
  7. My Own Version Of You
  8. To Be Alone With You
  9. Crossing The Rubicon

Disc Two (52:11)

  1. Desolation Row
  2. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
  3. Watching The River Flow
  4. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
  5. I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
  6. Mother Of Muses
  7. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
  8. Every Grain Of Sand

Label : no label

Venue : Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland

Recording Date : November 5, 2024

Quality : Audience Recording (A+)

Concert Review (Flagging Down The Double E's) : Dylan opened on the bench, playing guitar with his back to the crowd, facing the band, a setup he’d repeat for the opening of “It Ain’t Me Babe.” It was nice to be able to see that he was on guitar this time, and turning his back on the audience to play was just one more way that seeing Dylan is like seeing Miles Davis, a favorite comparison of mine. After a strong opening four songs, something clicked at “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” with Dylan finding a rhythm cadence for the vocals early on and sticking with it. From there the show hit another level. “My Own Version of You” still saw him trying to find a rhythm and not quite landing on one (and saying “bones” instead of “brains,”), but “Rubicon” had particularly strong vocals, “Desolation Row” thundered along with great piano, and the new, stripped down (but sung with great force) “Key West” was amazing. You might not have quite been able to hear a pin drop, but it was at least quiet enough that I could hear a door open on the far side of the theater. After it, he said something I couldn’t quite make out, leaving me with that age old problem of spending the rest of the show wondering what the heck he said. It turned out to be something like “Great to be back here in Edinburgh. Some people say it’s the center of the world.” On “I’ve Made Up My Mind,” Keltner was doing some interesting things building a rhythm out of seemingly random light hits of the cymbal and drums, calling to mind a Matt Chamberlain part to me (and possibly earning him the intro he got at the end). As often happens at shows, I suddenly noticed something in the lyrics: right after “take me out traveling you’re a traveling man” comes “I’ll go far away with her.” Does he mean “take US out traveling?” Is this a “Tangled Up in Blue” thing of mixing up pronouns? Finding new ways to engage with the text is a great advantage of seeing the songs performed live, even when you see them again and again. “Mother of Muses” had vocals that, like “Key West” tonight, seemed insistent - not sung so much as declaimed. And, of course, “Every Grain of Sand” is a highlight every night.