BOB DYLAN : OAKLAND 2022

 

Disc One (54:51)

  1. Intro
  2. Watching The River Flow
  3. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
  4. I Contain Multitudes
  5. False Prophet
  6. When I Paint My Masterpiece
  7. Black Rider
  8. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
  9. My Own Version of You
  10. Crossing The Rubicon
  11. To Be Alone With You

Disc Two (63:29)

  1. Intro
  2. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
  3. Gotta Serve Somebody
  4. I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
  5. Melancholy Mood
  6. Mother of Muses
  7. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
  8. Band Introduction
  9. Friend Of the devil
    Bonus Tracks :
  10. Band Introduction
  11. Every Grain of sand
  12. that old black magic

Label : Crystal Cat Records

Venue : Fox Theatre, Oakland, California, USA

Recording Date : June 11, 2022

Quality : Audience recording (A-)

Review : Bob played three nights in a row at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. This is a beautiful field recording from Bob's third show in Oakland. Bob closed the show, for the very first time, not with "Every Grain Of Sand" but with a fresh, sweet version of "Friend of the Devil".

Review (Collectors Music Reviews) : I pity the poor Bob Dylan fan. Love it or hate it, one good night is all you need to have fire in your belly again as a fan, who can afford to hunt Dylan around the world however and pit night against night, waiting for the concert where he thinks ‘screw it’ in the afternoon rehearsal, turns to his band and say, “You know what, I’ve been thinking about this song ..” only to drop it in without fanfare and to the shock and clear glee of the audience. Most likely you’ll hear a night that’s different to the night before, marginally maybe, different definitely and as Dylan sprints around the world, now half way through his “Rough And Rowdy” world tour, each and every night could be the one. The Crystal Cat label, already having presented us with one box from the first US leg of this tour, return with another from the next, a lengthy 74 date tour that takes Dylan through March to July, zipping and shipping around the States. This time, three separate nights, via three different months, along the way, each presumably chosen for either their excellence or how well they were recorded. Each of these shows are perfectly captured – As I’ve mentioned before, were we to encounter a soundboard at this point, I think we’d be baffled. That’s not to say that we would’d accept it with cowboy hats tilted, Dylan’s gale-force-nine enthusiasm while playing the piano sometimes allows for a couple of sneaky faux-pas’ to sound less frightening when they’re masked by an excellent audience recording. Three different shows with subtle differences slotted in between – Whether they feature a sleight of Dylan picking up his guitar, treating us to a blast of the harmonica when he feels like giving that a shot or, as referenced, when he decides that now’s then time that that track from rehearsals feels his streak and he plays it out. As owners of the last set that Crystal Cat put out know, the dates change, but the shows continue to amaze. Dylan, the fire in his belly lit, is playing for the blues bars, the honky tonk clubs as opposed to any folk relief, he’s borne as the old blues boys and girls that he appreciated when his best years were still before him. His legions of fans still praise him, the undeliverable still besmirch his name for ungamely never speaking. What can you do? And then there was Oakland. A few days shy of the end of the tour, a way after the beginning. Dylan starts to through things around tonight – Back on electric guitar for ‘Watching The River Flow’ – The long intro precedes it before Dylan starts to sing. For ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way’, we begin with another long intro to the song before Dylan sings, it doesn’t take him long to start changing the lyrics too. “200, 300, 400 pounds, too much weight to be carried around” replaces the regular, second paragraph, before the song follows up again as normal, not without Dylan throwing out some odd phrasing along the way. ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ retains it’s long intro (a few of these tonight), the choruses are evenly shipped apart for more instrumentation too as Bob gets stuck in his love for simply playing around. The tune concludes to Dylan saying, “Well, thank you all you art lovers out there! I’m an art lover too.”, ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ follows the theme of the last part of the tour, bassy The song that get’s most mentions through out this review, ‘Key West’ gets rapturous attention tonight in Oakland (The other side of the country), his heroes named checked elicits a small amount of excitement too. ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ has that lovely slow start but ultimately lacks a little of the punch that the other outings had more of – it has a wonderful rumba-sway about it and the trammelling guitar line that punctuates verse after verse. ‘.. Jimmy Reed’ is a slinky-cat, prowling and creeping, curiously shimmying around. Ponderous bass-lines, slap-brush drums, clasp-eyed guitar lines are the drive here. The concert wraps up with the first outing for ‘Friend Of The Devil’ on the tour – As opposed to the set list, Dylan plays it like it hasn’t been sung before. Bright, well-sung, almost box fresh, you can tell this song has only just left rehearsals, the band are tighter than they are on other standards. The string of the guitar line is threaded neatly and gamely throughout. The song is recognised almost instantly by the crowd. The bonus tracks on this last disk include a version of ‘Every Grain Of Sand’, one with two, long, lingering, lovely harp solos punctuating different points within the song. This adds an extra veneer of brilliance to an already beautiful track. The final track, a very rare outing this year for ‘That Old Black Magic’, presented as a variation on “Twenty Flight Rock”, this would be the only time it gets an airing this time around – Dylan feeling the fleeting mood of the Sinatra’s again that he wouldn’t get back to on this leg of the tour. I will, of course, mention the packaging – six discs, three sleeves, one laminated slipcase. All beautifully presented – Though it’s a lot harder to slip a camera under your jacket apparently than a recording device, we get a few grainy shots of Dylan on stage this time, more shots of his whisky and his paintings among the reviews that have been lifted from online. This set also comes with an additional booklet, like a souvenir from the tour itself, beautifully done from the only label that appears to be putting out modern-day Dylan nowadays.