Reviews

After having enjoyed two days "on the road" in Nürnberg & Strasbourg (it's
both a pain and a delight if the shows are five hours away from where you
live), the last show on my own little tour was considerably different, as
there was no need to leave early.  So no running around town all day, no
getting in line early, no conversations with some nice and some
not-so-nice people before the show - just leaving the house at 6.45,
getting there by 7.20, waiting for the show to start at 8.15pm.



I was surprised how many people turned up, I would guess about 8 000,
maybe even 9 000, so the huge Arena actually didn't look as empty as I had
initially thought it would. There were tons of "tourists" though, lots of
first-timers that made for a very unenthusisatic audience, and the show,
performances and setlist were only mediocre as well. If it had anything to
do with the audience or if Bob was a little sick (he was coughing a couple
of times) or if he just didn't care is open to discussion.


               Humming Bird (acoustic)

The band was great (Keltner's playing really improved compared even to
Strasbourg and he had no major fuck ups throughout the night), but Bob's
singing was in his best "I only woke up 10 minutes ago, so what am I doing
on stage already" voice. Nice solo from Larry on the electric guitar
though. I knew that we would quite possibly get another "electric" song in
the acoustic set again and we only had to wait till song #2. For the first
time since 1984 (or maybe even ever!?!) in an acoustic arrangement:

               You're A Big Girl Now (acoustic)

Bob's voice was still a bit rusty and it certainly wasn't a new
arrangement as such (like "Senor" in Innsbruck, they just played the
electric parts on acoustic instruments), but it was a nice choice and even
though Bob didn't sound great, his phrasing was quite good. Bob on harp
and Larry on cittern.


               Desolation Row (acoustic)

Although Jim's drumming was solid, the song  had lost the magic touch from
the Hamburg show, when George had really elevated the tune to another
level. Bob butchered the intro and first verse completely, he sang a
completely different melody and played a different guitar part (sounded as
if it belonged to another song!) and that surprised/puzzled not only me
but Larry as well, who looked very uneasy. Bob had trouble with the
lyrics, singing various lines off mic. Not the most pleasant rendition.

               Don't Think Twice (acoustic)


First real crowdpleaser, despite its less than perfect rendition.
Actually, it wasn't that bad, it was just playing safe and while Bob tried
to make thesong sound special, he just didn't manage to do just that.
Larry moved over to the steel guitar after the song and I knew - shock,
horror! - what was coming:

               Watching The River Flow

I don't care if it was the first time he payed the song in ages, as it
sounded exactly as before (even with Jim on drums) and since he had played
this at his last show at the Oberhausen Arena already there was no reason
whatsover why he should have played it again.Crowd reaction: Indifference.

               Positively 4th Street

I was surprised that Larry didn't play pedal steel on this song as usual,
but even with just three "regular" guitars it sounded terrific. Bob
delivered his first really good vocal performance of the night and the
band just hit the perfect groove, led by Keltner, who obviously knew this
song. It was faster than other recent versions I've heard, but it worked
quite well that way.

               Cry Awhile

Larry on slide guitar. not as rocking as the Strasbourg rendition (or
maybe I just thought it wasn't, as I was a little further in the back this
time). While Keltner didn't make any obvious mistakes the show before, he
missed his cues several times tonight, although you could only spot that
if you knew what George had played on the song before. The crowd needed
another blues song as much as a bullet in the head though and it was no
wonder that the crowd never got into the show as much as it should/could
have with a different setlist. Especially, since there was yet another
blues to come next:

               Subterrean Homesick Blues

Not as good as Munich, a little better than Nürnberg, with most of the
lyrics right.

               Tomorrow Is A Long Tome (acoustic)

This should have been a highlight, with Bob on harp at the beginning, but
while he delivered the first verse soft and tender and almost perfectly,
he messed it all up, when he sang "against" Larry's nice backup vocal
during the chorus, confusing both Larry and the audience. He completely
forgot the third verse as well (it had exactly two-and-a-half lines
tonight!). A pity. File under: Could've been great.

               Masters Of War (acoustic)

Best song of the night  so far. While Bob had trouble with the lyrics on
most of the songs before, he clearly enjoyed the fact that he didn't have
to think too hard to get the lyrics right on this one. Great, driving beat
from Keltner, solid performance from the rest of the band as well, with
Bob's singing reaching an unexpected high level.

               Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)

As expected they played it again. After they had massacred the tune twice
in a row in Nürnberg and Strasbourg, they actually managed to get through
it without any major incidents this time. Bob wasn's singing, only
mumbling the words, but that's what you expected from him at this point in
the show.

               Summer Days

Not as long and energetic as before.Charlie's solo playing wasn't too good
either.

               Every Grain Of Sand

Totally saved the show, even though the Stuttgart version a couple of
weeks ago had been slightly better. Nice harp solo at the start, too. Bob'
svoice was still a bit shot, but nevertheless he delivered his best vocal
performance here. He played around with thephrasing quite a bit and it
just sounded lovely (especially during thelast verse).

               Drifter's Escape

Same as before, long guitar jams, energetic harp solo. The usual.

               Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat

Another repeat from Oberhausen 2000 that they could have avoided. Same old
version as well, with the by now common soloing from all band members
during the band intros. Larry's solo had a nice call and response part
that Bob visibly liked and he gave Larry a nod of approval after he had
finished. Tony's solo made Bob crack up - for the first (and only time)
tonight. Side note: Bob had picked out a hrap beforethe song started, but
didn't play it at all.

               (encore)

               Things Have Changed

A sub-standrad version as well. I think he sang the verses in a completely
different order and had trouble to remember some of the lyrics as well.
All the same he decided to "steal" Larry's solo and tried to do a
fingerpicking solo (sans guitar pick) that went nowhere. Another song that
could've been great.

               Like A Rolling Stone

It seemed as if Bob had lost his interest in the show altogether during
this song. He still played his electric guitar without a guitar pick and
halfway through the song he started talking to Charlie and then
disappeared behind his amps for a drink. In the meantime Charlie delivered
his longest ever solo on "Rolling Stone" and did quite a good job,
although it was weird that Bob just left the stage in the middle of the
song. There was a new (slowed down) ending, probably because Keltner
didn't remeber how to end the tune properly. Didn't sound too bad though.


               If Dogs Run Free (acoustic)


As strange as always, this time with the added "weirdo bonus" of a harp
solo at the start of the song.

               Honest With Me

The usual rocking version. By now Jim felt confident enough to play a lot
of extra drum fills at the end of the song - made Charlie and Tony smile
big time.



               Blowin' In The Wind (acoustic)


Another highlight, at least in the context of all the weaker song before.
The harp solo was almost inspired and the phrasing was much better than
usual. For the final formation, Bob had his guitar on his shoulder, like a
lumberjack. very funny. Before they left, he talked briefly with Tony and
Jim and it certainly looked as if they were discussing a second encore,
but by the time they had disappeared backstage, hundreds of peoplein the
audience fled the scene and I think because of that they decided to scrap
the 2nd encore.

All in all a disappointing show and by far the weakest of the seven I've
seen on this tour. While Nürnberg and Strasbourg had some lowpoints mostly
due to Keltner not being familiar with the songs, this time around it was
only Bob who didn't deliver. Hope this was just a one-off, would be too
bad if he nothing more in store for the second half of the tour.

I've yet to decide if I'll do the Rotterdam show as well, but just in case
I don't make it, take a little advice: Go see Bobon this tour, even if
Oberhausen was really sub-standrad, the rest of the shows rank among the
best I've seen Dylan ever play. Don't miss it!

As always, thanks for reading and putting up with my bad grammar and tons
of misspellings. See ya next time!

Carsten Wohlfeld

How long has it been since I had so high expectations before a Bob Show? I
can´t tell. So many redescovered songs and enthusiastic reviews (not only
from the bobacolics). In the end it became what I would call a “could have
been-show” that was divided in two very different parts.

What I first thought about when we arrived at the Arena was the strategy
of Bobs touring company: Booking venues as large as possible (the Arena
has a 12.000 capacity), making tickets as expensive as possible (about
50€) and make hardly any promotion at all. I have no clue why they do it
that way – tonight they were not really succeeding though: The Arena was
about 80% filled when Bob and the Band hit the stage at 20.15. The Guys
were dressed in grey suits, Bob got his black suit combined with a white
hat and looked very grumpy for the first two songs. 

HUMMING BIRD

Larry and Charlie carried this song, Bobs vocals were not very audible, he
did´nt do anything apart from just standing there. Well, that’t not too
unususal, right? The second song has become a new surprise slot. I was
wondering which electric song he would transform into an acoustic one
tonight, and after a pretty good harmonica intro it turned out to be

YOU’RE A BIG GIRL NOW

Wow! This was an unexpected one indeed! It could have been an early
highlight if Bob had remembered ANYTHING of the lyrics. But unfortunately
he got only the first verse halfway right, during the second and third
verse he produced some kind of senseless noises that rhymed on “me” or
“you”. Quite funny to see, but of course that nonsense-singing ruined the
song completely. I have indeed never seen him singing a song with less
original lyric content!

DESOLATION ROW

was the first strong performance. Not only the new groovy arrangement made
it so good, but also Bob who did a good job at the vocals now. 

DON’T THINK TWICE 

was blocking this spot – I had high hopes for “Po´ Boy”, or “4th time
around”, but well, I like this tune much more than “Times” or “Tambourine”
or any other old warehouses, so I was´nt complaining. The performance was
again very good, maybe one of the best versions I´ve heard. Keltner played
much quiter than Kemper and Receli what helped much to give the song a
fragile feeling, Bob was again singin very well.  They could have kicked
the show into another gear after this – but it was´nt to be. Bob chose on
of his most uninteresting songs which is called

WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW

the audience fell into a deep sleep during this one and did´nt awake till
Rolling Stone.  River flow was a solid version but it´s definitely the
wrong song to kick off the electric part. Bob was still not showing any
signs of feeling comfortable on stage. No foot-tapping, no posing, no
smile.

POSITIVELY 4TH STREET

This was the new uptempo-arrangement. Everybody was doing a good job on
this one and Bob found a nice way of phrasing too. He stretched the last
two words of every line to great effect what made this on another strong
performance. The only problem was the fact that “Positively” was as fast
and hard as “River flow” and sounded pretty much the same to many people I
think. 

CRY A WHILE

very good performance again. Even if Jim Keltner could not really play
this one yet. Tony was coaching him very hard but there were a few
problems in the “rhythm-section”. Bob made up for that with a good vocal
performance. Audience was still sleeping, maybe because it was the third
uptempo blues in a row. I gave up hoping for “Homesick blues” and “Solid
Rock” now – but I was wrong:

SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES

followed and it was the best song so far. This has always been a favourite
of mine, this one brought me 20 points in the pool– and this one was
dammed good! I did´nt check the original lyrics but what Bob rapped
sounded right to my ears and they obviously found an arrangement for this
one now. Very funky!

TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME

opened the second acoustic set. This one was by far the best song of the
night. Great great performance by everyone on stage! Larry and Bob were
singing the chorus together and the song sounded as fragile as “Think
twice” did before. This song could have been a highlight of my
“Bob-career”, if… Well, if Bob had remembered all the lyrics. After
delievering two killer-verses he stepped up to the mic for the third one
and – forgot everything. Not only that he was mumbling something that
replaced the first line but he was also unable to produce a second line.
So he did´nt sing at all and could only recover with the last line of that
verse. Too bad! But it was a stellar performance nonetheless. The missing
lines should be overdubbed for the forthcoming live album!

MASTERS OF WAR

is a song that can´t go wrong. Very powerful rendition again. But nothing
I had hoped for really

TANGLED UP IN BLUE

was the turning point of the show.  Up to that point things had worked
very well even if Bob was´nt as half as animated as I have seen him during
the last shows. During “Tangled” he seemed to loose every interest into
his performance and the show turned into an really uninspiring one. Bob
sang the first and the last word of every line and filled it with some
noises: “I lived wethememberredem street – in abaranegemenf stairs – music
inafaremdesremde night - revolutionsamengenemngenair” and so on. Bad.

SUMMER DAYS

worst version I have heard so far. What was a razor sharp 4
minute-rockabilly last fall has now become a 7 minute jam-rock song
actually going nowhere. It was during this song when I realized that NO
ONE on stage was smiling and joking as usual. Charlie did his best and
added some tricky licks but he did´nt save the song from being boring.
What followed was the last attempt to save the show. A rarely played tune
is always the best way to bring things together again!

EVERY GRAIN OF SAND

is a nice choice, despite the fact that Bob played it in Köln (100km away)
when he was around for the last time in 2000 already. This was a brilliant
performance by the band. Very subtile, very strong. It could have been
another highlight of the night, if Bob had decided to SING the song. He
chose to speak the lyrics instead. Still a good version, but now things
went really downhill:

DRIFTERS ESCAPE

Bob got totally out of sync. with his band. We got Charlies funky riffs
but nothing more.

LEOPARD SKIN PILL BOX HAT

Hm, every other song would have been more welcome. I´d even preferred
“Rainy day”. Leopard was most definitely the most boring Bob-performance I
ever heard. Endless jamming, but no one really found a groove to settle
in. I was already thinking about which train to use after the show when
Bob introduced the band: He forced everyone to play a solo and “helped”
with playing some very fast random notes on his guitar. In the end I must
say that Larry was the one who managed the situation best. Even Tony had
to bring everything out of his Bass that´s possible… After all the song
lasted for about 10 minutes and I was quite happy when it was over. What
could have been a strong start of the enchores (“Constant sorrow”) turned
out to be

THINGS HAVE CHANGED

and was a rotten version too. Band played on autopilot, Bob was singing
off-mic half of the time. Why the hell does he play this if he obviously
is bored to death with this song? Lowpoint of the night.

LIKE A ROLLING STONE

Bob was very busy during this one demonstrating us how less he cared about
the whole thing now. First he was talking to Larry (during the song), then
walked to Charlie and told him something, than to Tony. In between he
somehow managed to sing some lines but you can imagine how good they were.
After he had talked to everybody he was checking his harmonicas for a
while (you know: there´s always the danger that someone steal them!), than
he disappeared behind his amps just for returning for the last verse. 

IF DOGS RUN FREE

Was my least favourite coiche in this slot – but was the best song in the
second half of the show. Very jazzy performance and Bob did an okay job on
the vocals

HONEST WITH ME

was “Honest with me”. It rocks – but it was nothing special tonight.

BLOWING IN THE WIND

The Band did a surprisingly good job on this one, giving it a nice relaxed
(and somehow new) groove. Bob sung the chorus with triple speed now to
make sure that Larry and Charlie could not follow him. Jeeez!

They did´nt come back for a second enchore, Bob did’nt fall on his knee
tonight. He was obviously pissed during the second half of the show. I
have no idea why that was, but it is always better to follow a bad first
half with a good secong half. Tonight it was the other way around. Well,
(count the “Could have been”´s in this review) it could have been a very
special show…

See you next time – and forgive my bad english!
Tobias

What remains special about yesterdays concert in Oberhausen? Getting there 
was easy, getting in took a while. Security showed off with dominance and 
indignity. Once we where in, we had to wait again in the recreation area, 
more closed doors in front of us. Another half hour of simple conversation 
and we found ourselfs running down the stairs towards the stage. Here 
things calmed down again, since we had to wait for another hour. Dylan and 
the Band came out cum tempore (about 8.15) with the opener "Humming Bird". 
Everybody was clearly concentrating on the job, Dylan himself a little 
stiff (a sixty year old man, with a couple of young, eager musicians, 
that make him look a little old, but then let him appear to be the wise, 
experienced leader, too). I was curious to see the new drummer, Jim 
Keltner, who wore sunglasses and did a fine job throughout the show. 
Sexton and Campbell didn't look as consternated as they did last year 
in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Everybody (except Keltner) was dressed très chic. 
Dylan with his dark suit, a black tie and a white Cowboy hat, the band 
members in matching suits. 
	
The second song was "You're a big girl now", Dylan still warming up, 
but already singing more cleary. One of my questions throughout the 
concert arose: How can he emotionally deliver such love songs, that 
have a long gone history? Or does the artist create a feeling that first 
of all allows to talk about the difference between the deliverance of a 
love song and the original feeling and situation that evoked it?

Next was the epic and enigmatic "Desolation Row", with both Dylan and 
Keltner clear and strong. I think - now looking into "Writings and 
Drawings" - that he has left out some verses. The above mentioned question 
was not as strong throughout this rendition. I just leaned to the sad 
atmosphere, still wondering about its beauty.
	 
Why does Dylan play the guitar so weird?, was a question between Michael 
and me on our way home. "He always does that", says Michael, "when he gets 
the feeling from Larry Campbell, that he is only doing a monotonous, 
stereotype guitar playing. He then tries to interrupt him." Some of that 
happened through "Don't think twice, it's allright". 
	
The electric set started with "Watching the river flow". This rendition made 
me hope that all of my friends would even recognize at least some of the 
songs and (therefore) enjoy the concert. "Watching" flowed by like 
Heraklitean water. 

A definite, even though decent highlight of last nights show was "Positively 
4th Street". Remember the key-question: How is the artist able to rebuild a 
feeling or question that evoked a song some 37 years ago? Dylan answers this 
question with grace and concealment. This song about injured friendship that 
has come to an end, has lost a little of his original envious anger. It 
advanced into now being the firm statement of an ageing man. That is 
something totally different from being "a living legend", as the newspapers 
always call Dylan, much to my disapproval. (What is this supposed to be, a 
living legend, and why are journalists always so easy with their "lying for 
a living"?)

"Subterranean Homesick Blues", spooky and witty as it is, cheers up the band 
and the crowd. The musicians, as you can tell, exercised this one and Dylan 
sings the lyrics concentrated. Tonight the verse "don't follow leaders, watch 
the parkin' meters" occurs to me as a critical statement on democracies false 
idols. As quick as the song develops, it is already over. 

(I am writing this without using the setlist, so please excuse me, if there 
are any mistakes concerning the chronological order of the songs.) I think 
"Every grain of sand" was next, sung accompanied with electric guitars and 
with the lyric change "I am hanging in the balance of a perfect finished 
plan". I am convinced by todays performance and once more impressed with the 
beauty of the words and the unirritable strength of Bob Dylans confession. 

Somewhere in the second half of the main set he surprised me with 
"Tomorrow is a long time". The acoustic sound is so clear tonight! This 
simple love song can be so beautiful!

After Fridays awful amuck in Erfurt tonights strong performance of "Masters
of war" seems to rise the question why this world is so brutal and mean. 
Dylan is really on with this one and he repeats the first verse at the end 
of the song. 

About "Summer days" and "Cry a while" I can only say little: good songs, 
well done; I haven't caught the lyrics yet. Both songs already give me an 
idea what they are about. And the band really liked playing the songs that 
they helped composing.
 
The main set had another Rock'n Roll high-light with "Drifter's Escape", 
which came along as intense as the "bolt of lightning (that) struck the 
courthouse out of shape" and left us all wondering, where he did go -: 
this "drifter (that) did escape". 

I tried hard to keep concentrated throughout the last song of the main set 
"Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat"; and I had images of Wolfgang Niedecken and BAP 
partying through that song a couple of weeks ago at the Dortmunder 
Westfalenhalle II. Don't forget to close the garage door, or, even better, 
live a life that doesn't need no garage doors to be closed. 

The encore started with Oscar-winning "Things have changed"; which was given 
to us in a strong and powerful version that reminded me of the good movie 
"Wonder Boys", that inspired the songs feeling of maturity and reconciliation 
(with ones self).

"Like a rolling stone" was nothing special tonight. "If dogs run free" 
slipped by a little fast. "Honest with me" was the high-light of the encores, 
with Campbell playing this bottleneck riff that charakterizes this song.
 
The final song tonight was "Blowing in the wind", with strong and engaged 
singing from both Larry Campbell and (even more) Charlie Sexton.
 
At the end of the show Bob Dylan showed an ironic gesture of discontent: 
his thumb halfway on his way down, but then he stopped there (halfway), 
grinned, and left the stage. What's that supposed to mean? The response 
to the show could have been better, I guess. The listeners weren`t very 
euphoric tonight. In the first few rows, where we were located, I sensed 
an atmosphere of attention. But as Dylan said in one of his interviews, 
he rather tries to reach the people in the back. If they were as inspired 
as the security staff was, dann Gute Nacht!

Thank you for your attention reading this. 

(Martin Burger, Wuppertal, comments are welcome under mburger@wtal.de)

The man in black

You missed it! An extraordinaire concert. I know, I`ve seen five concerts in 
the last two weeks, and Berlin still is something special. But first things 
first.

I arrived at Oberhausen, which is about half an hour from the place were I 
live. Oberhausen is in the west of the traditionel workers region, an old 
steelworkers town with no more steelworking today. They closed the factories 
in the last twenty years, the unemployment grow, still more than 15% are 
without any job. The answers, that politician know, is shopping. They build 
a huge shopping-mall, just as you might know them in the US. It`s still 
unfamiliar on the European continent.

Coming to the Arena, just beside this shopping mall, I went in for a walk and 
a coffee and waited for the light to shine. It was a nasty day, as it is so 
often in april here. A lot of rain and cold and windy, just that you think it 
is november. We had to wait till 6:30 p.m. when the doors opened, but the 
indoors kept close till 7:00 p.m., because the band was still practising. I 
thought I heard Knocking on heaven`s door, but I`m not sure. The crowd rushed 
in and we had to wait till 8:15 and the lights went down.

Larry took the electric guitar and "Humming Bird" started. Bob was wearing a 
black suit, white shirt and a black tie and his well known white Stetson 
(I think it is one). I was surprised because of the really good sound. I saw 
Neil Young last summer in this venue, and it was only loud and noisy. I 
didn`t like it. 

Everybody was waiting for …, no: no The times, they are. Bob took the harp 
and at first I wasn`t quite sure what it was, and then we heard "You`re a big 
girl now", sung in a wonderful silent way. I liked it very much. 

Followed by "Desolation Row", and I think he didn`t miss any verse. Wonderful, 
but I have heard it too much in the last years, so I couldn`t think of 
something special.

Bob started on harp again to another silent "Don`t think twice, it`s allrigt". 
When Larry went to the slide-guitar, I was hoping of one of my real favorites, 
like "Blind Willie McTell". But it came to "Watching the rivers flow", which I 
haven`t heard on stage for a long time. I don`t remember it. They played a lot 
of acoustic stuff, I like that very much, but I was also surprised hearing 
another one: "Positively 4th street". Wonderful, better than at the beginning 
of the tour.

Something electric had to follow: "Cry awhile", with Bob a good, "crying" 
voice. He sang very good this evening, as I think. I stood in the seventh row 
and was pleased with his singing and guitar playing. All three guitars could 
be heard very clear and stood alone on each other. Then the crowd pleaser 
followed, a song a lot of people were waiting for: "Subterranean Homesick 
Blues". I`m surprised, Bob still remembers all this words with a fast and 
clear voice. 

The acoustic concert was just interrupted with this few songs when "Tomorrow 
is such a long time" followed. This is still one of my favorites, a wonderful 
love song, I like it very much, even when Bob forgets some words. It happened 
in the middle of the song, he went to the microphone, and … nothing came. 
Look at people, who are thinking of something they know, they always look 
upwards. Bob`s eyes where looking to the ceiling and everybody could see, he 
tried to remind the song. After all, a wonderful song.

The acoustic set went on with a hard rocking, clear spoken "Masters of War", 
which the people like very much, because of knowing it as an anti-war-song, 
what ever Bob might say. Charlie played on dobro, he and Larry had a good 
evening, although at the beginning I thought they might be tired of touring.

Number 11 was another acoustic one, the well known "Tangled up in blue". I 
heard it so often, I still like it, but it`s not one of my favorites. 
Followed by another "Love and Theft"-outtake: "Summer Days". I`ve heard it 
several times in the last weeks and I think it is a real crowd pleaser, it 
will become a standard for years.

Bob took the harp again and another acoustic one came up: a wonderful 
"Every Grain of Sand". You missed it! A really great one. Almost to the end 
of the first set the electric guitars came to their right: Beginning with a 
hard rocking "Drifter`s Escape" and followed by the well known "Leopard Skin 
Pillbox Hat". When Bob introduced the boys in the band, something special 
happened. Suddenly I thought I was back in the seventies, when every 
musician had his right of his own solo. Bob introduced Larry on slide guitar, 
sixstring, and so on, and Larry began playing a short solo and the others 
followed, when they were introduced. Jim Keltner, who played all the drums 
again, sat behind his huge drums, wearing a big sunglasses and wasn`t really 
to be seen. He is a quite special drummer, he knows it all, even he hasn`t 
played with Bob for some time. I was surprised he didn`t use any brushes at 
the more jazzy, swinging songs. He had his drumsolo, too, and even Tony had 
one.

After a short break, as we know it, Bob and the band came back and played 
"Things have changed" in a standard way. How can it happen that many people 
come to a Bob Dylan Concert for the first time, and even don`t know, what 
songs he has written or might play? In Hamburg, two weeks ago, I met an 
elderly couple, who thought he might sit an a chair alone with his guitar 
and play "Tambourine Man". They were really surprised seeing him play with 
a band, and even electric. Yesterday the people around me didn`t even know, 
that he`s got an oscar. They thought the figure on the amp might be a grammy! 
Unbelievable!

When "Like a Rolling Stone" followed the musicians and the crew weren`t 
similar. The light was thrown on the crowd always when Bob went back and 
stopped singing. Strange! Next was a wonderful "If dogs run free". I heard 
it first two years ago, when Bob started playing this song in Münster / 
Germany on 1st of October. I think this was the beginning of the more blues 
and jazz style, which we find on "Love and Theft". Really a great song!

The last two were the rocking "Honest with me" and our alltime standard 
"Blowing in the wind". When Bob and the Band stood there for the well 
deserved huge applause, he was off. It was just to be seen. He took his 
guitar over his shoulder, had a deep breath and showed his right tumb down,
meaning: I´m off! This is the end! And so it came. The lights went on, 
everybody rushed home, I was pleased, happy and hoping he won`t stop 
touring for some years, so we will have the fine company of the man in 
black and his music. Thank you, Bob!

And thank you all I met in the last weeks, thank you James and Lutz, and 
all the others. I was pleased to meet you.

If  you want to write me, here is my address: u.schneider@regioconnect.net