Blackpool Opera House, surrounded by greasy fish and chips shops and dismal B&Bs, is a far cry from Greenwich Village of the sixties, but nevertheless found itself home to a 3-night stint on Bob Dylan’s “never ending tour”. I caught the train up from Manchester with no idea what to expect from such a prolific and legendary man, infamous for altering his songs beyond recognition at live shows. Everyone knows it’s a rookie mistake to turn up to a Dylan gig expecting to hear “Like A Rolling Stone” or “Girl From the North Country”, but nowadays it seems you’ll be lucky to get anything at all pre-Blood On The Tracks. If you’d turned up in this frame of mind, you’d be no doubt demanding your £60 back at the end, but if you had avoided the initial Dylan faux-pas of forming an expectation, this gig couldn’t possibly fail to disappoint.
If David Bowie described Dylan as having a “voice like sand and glue” in the seventies, I can’t imagine how he’d even begin to describe it now. With age, his voice becomes even more of a contentious issue. Annoying as it is to overhear the endless criticisms and lamentations that his ageing voice evokes, it has become part of his legend. I, for one, almost wanted to hear Dylan not sound like Dylan. Luckily the audience was equally receptive, content to be in the presence of one of the greatest surviving icons of the sixties, even if his face was obscured by a giant hat (not a leopard skin pillbox one).
Starting promptly at 7:30, he opened on “Things Have Changed”, but it was not until he got out his harmonica halfway through his second song, “She Belongs to Me”, that the audience really erupted. The first chord played on his signature instrument triggered the first standing ovation of the night, with many more to follow. He then moved across to the piano for “What Good Am I” – an instrument he has taken up now that arthritis makes the guitar increasingly challenging. It’s safe to say that his most recent album, Tempest, dominates the first half, with “Duquesne Whistle”, “Waiting For You” and “Pay In Blood” up next. For me, “Pay in Blood” was the highlight of the night. Like a modern “Masters of War”, revamped for a politically uninterested and disillusioned nation, repeatedly lied to by its bankers and MPs, this song proves that Dylan can still fire out sharp bullets of truth that hit their mark – (“another politician pumping out the piss”). In his Cuban heels, tasselled jacket and cowboy-esque hat, Dylan remains the timeless moral sheriff of the free world.
After a short interval, Dylan and his band return with a wholly unrecognizable “Tangled Up in Blue”, followed up with “Love Sick”, “Highwater”, “Simple Twist of Fate”, and “Forgetful Heart”. “Spirit on the Water” raised a tense moment with the line “you think I’m past my prime” which was met with an affirming grumble from the more disappointed audience members, but a triumphant “Scarlet Town” and “Long and Wasted Years” soon glossed this over. Dylan ended the set with the much anticipated “All Along the Watchtower” and “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Who cares if “Blowin’ in the Wind” sounded nothing like we know it to sound?! This is Dylan – still raw, intense and never past his prime.