BOB DYLAN : REAL LIVE

  1. Highway 61 Revisited
  2. Maggie's Farm
  3. I and I
  4. License to Kill
  5. It Ain't Me, Babe
  6. Tangled Up in Blue
  7. Masters of War
  8. Ballad of a Thin Man
  9. Girl from the North Country
  10. Tombstone Blues

Label : Columbia

Released : 1984

Length : 50:15

Venue : St. James' Park, Newcastle, UK + Wembley Stadium, London, UK + Slane Castle, Slane, Ireland

Recording Date : July 5, 1984 + July 7, 1984 + July 8, 1984

Review (Wikipedia) : Real Live is a live album documenting Bob Dylan's 1984 tour of Europe, released at the end of that same year by Columbia Records. Most of the concert was recorded at Wembley Stadium on 7 July, but "License to Kill" and "Tombstone Blues" come from St James' Park, Newcastle on 5 July, and "I and I" and "Girl from the North Country" were recorded at Slane Castle, Ireland on 8 July. Produced by Glyn Johns, it features Mick Taylor (formerly of the Rolling Stones) on lead guitar, Ian McLagan (formerly of the Faces) on keyboards, and a guest appearance from Carlos Santana. The performances on Real Live were recorded in support of his successful Infidels album. While Infidels was hailed as a "return to musical form" (as described by Kurt Loder in Rolling Stone magazine), critical reception for Real Live was generally mixed. Released in December to capitalize on the Christmas shopping season, Real Live still sold in disappointing numbers, reaching a then-career low of #115 in the US and #54 in the UK. In his review for Rolling Stone, Loder writes, "Although cynics may find that Dylan's trademark wheeze is verging on self-parody by this point, his singing is truly spirited throughout. The band he assembled for the tour generally serves him well, if without inspiration...Dylanologists will savor the heavily revised, third-person lyrics for 'Tangled Up in Blue' (although they scuttle the original song's compelling intimacy), and some fans may get a giggle out of the rhythm riff - lifted from Ray Charles' 'I Believe to My Soul' - that graces 'Ballad of a Thin Man.' But 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Tombstone Blues' suffer from formless arrangements, and the band simply can't replicate the reggae groove called for on 'I and I'...If [Dylan's] rag-and-roll approach to rock is dated, that's essentially a cosmetic problem. One continues to hope that he'll someday assemble a full-time band he really believes in...a band that will enable him to reassert his brilliance in the modern rock marketplace."

Review (AllMusic) : It may be his first live album in six years, but Real Live still is his fourth live album in ten years, and, as such, it still feels a little redundant. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel anywhere nearly as unnecessary as At Budokan and if it doesn't capture a historically significant tour, as Hard Rain did with the Rolling Thunder Revue, this is a better record all the same, capturing a working band -- a working band featuring ex-Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, no less -- on a pretty good night. That means there are few revelations -- though diehards will certainly revel in "Tangled Up in Blue," which has several brand-new (not necessarily better) verses -- but it's still pretty good all the same, providing lean, relatively muscular renditions of Dylan's great songs. This isn't an important, necessary Dylan record, but it's a good, solid live album, his best live album since Before the Flood, even if it's hardly as monumental as that.