Expecting Rain

I've been to Dylan shows in Italy each year since 2003.... that's the way I spend my holidays, seeing as many shows as I can. So, Padova 2010. Oh right, he did those songs. Well, I guess the reason they were loose on checking people was since it was numbered seats, as it would have been on the plaza in Piazzola. So, no need to run, rush or hurry. Regarding that it's a good thing, but otherwise I do not like to sit at a concert. He started to do the latest arrangement of Masters Of War there, with the repeated line at the end, so that was cool. I do know that the next concert after that, in Viareggio, was one of the very best I've ever been to. You have to like funny, playful Bob though, otherwise it won't work. Just about everybody who hates the NET should listen to the Viareggio version of Des Row all the way through.

Btw, GG, you refer to the "problem with the whole NET" in one of your above posts. I don't think it's as simple as that. There have been many different phases to the NET that have been different from each other. I don't think, if you were going to listen and compare, that you'd find much of the same things in '88, '96, '05 and '11.

I wouldn't say so, JP.

Unfortunately I think there's actually a common ground all over the NET:
Sure, if you like it you think there are differences, periods, hues and nuances.
Same thing that happens with a genre you like, say, heavy metal.
It sounds all the same to me but oh, go tell a HM lover!!!
They distinguish death metal, hard death, gothic death, gothic, gore, death gore.
And wrath upon you if you can't hear them all different!!!


I think there are different Dylans, sure.
60s, then 70s, then Xan period, then the rocker, then....the NET.
And in the NET, to me (and to me only!!!) it's all crooning, downhill vocals, flat arrangements.
Yes, surely Milan 89 was another story.
Sure The Supper Club is no 2006.
But at the end of the day they all sound similar to me.

I respect your high opinion of the NET and I think tha not *getting anything* from the NET is *my* problem.
But no, there's no live Dylan I'd save after the Tom Petty tour in 87.
After that, it's all too *old*, flat and *soft*, to me.

Yet you spend money on tickets?

Well, this is a bit complicated....


I mean, Dylan is Dylan.
The worst Dylan is always better than any act in the world except for no more than 100 names when at their best.....
(always in my opinion, it goes without saying).
So, yes, I go see him once a year.....any other year, maybe.

Secondly, I've been living *in Dylan* for more than 40 ys now.
(i was 11 when I played my first gig...one of the songs was Tambourine...)
The show we take around our country is called *Like A Rolling Stone*.
I think I *have* to follow him, whether I like him or not these days.

Thirdly, yes, I seldom buy tickets, that's true (10 gigs in the 00s).
But his records may keep on surprising me.
(Mississippi is easily in my top 20 and Workingmans + Aint'Talkin in my top 50 dylan).

Dylan is my muse, Johanna, so no, I don't buy too many tickets but he still remains my alltime favourite songwriter.
And he always will.

Thanks Arthur - that was great! I can't believe how little impact Dylan had on those kids at the time, when he should have seemed like an alien visitor!
And can you please assure Chris that he is far too reasonable and personable to ever be considered capable of mass genocide. (Although, to be fair, that's exactly what someone capable of mass genocide would want us to think. They're very cunning.)