"It's nice to be working with The Band again. We're just getting in a bit of practice."
Bob Dylan's set at 1969's Isle of Wight Festival was his first live performance in over three years. Rumors circulated the British festival grounds that he may be accompanied on stage by one or multiple members of the Beatles, and anticipation turned into expectation. The audience set their collective bar unreachably high, yet as has often been the case with Dylan, revisionist history canonizes his performances that were panned by firsthand accounts. Isle of Wight fits within Dylan history alongside the calls of "Judas" and his most criminally unappreciated works.
Dylan was on show in his best light. The country twang of Nashville Skyline influenced the setlist, and with his old friends and champions of the new sound of country rock at his side, the output was genuine. The crowd's hopes dictated the immediate evaluation of the performance, but hindsight gives us the opportunity for a more accurate assessment. From the limited video and extensive audio we have of this show, it is clear that Dylan had no rust to kick off.
Below watch "I Threw It All Away" from Nashville Skyline, which sees him flanked on stage by Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson, as off camera, the tones of Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm are unmistakably heard.
No comments :
Post a Comment