Subject: Review: Linda Thompson on Bob Dylan
From:
Colin Randall
Date: 26 Nov 24 - 04:47 AM
Hello: I've been away from here for a while but still get the email alerts and try to dip into the discussions from time to time. As many here probably know, I have run a folk website, salutlive.com, for the past 15 years or so. On Sunday, I published a piece that made me as proud as anything in all that time. Linda Thompson had posted at Facebook about one of the Bob Dylan concerts she'd attended at the Royal Albert Hall and immediately consented to my request to reproduce it. It has since been seen by 2,000 people if Statcounter can be trusted (that's four or five times as many as would normally have visited in the same period.
Here it is as she wrote it (beautifully in my opinion):
The evening started well. Great hotel. Great drink. Great nibbles. Then things took a turn for the even better. It was a beautiful evening so I walked to the Albert Hall, as I live nearby.
How can Bob Dylan make my knees weaker than he did 60 years ago? Well, obviously because my knees are rubbish these days, but he has always been my idol and he has not dimmed a jot.
The band was very old school. Nothing sounded slick. The harmonica solos were wild, like Larry Adler on mushrooms, all over le magasin and the more brilliant for it. The drum sound was ace. It sounded dampened somehow. Brilliant. Must get Dave Mattacks to explain.
I had a fantastic seat. Chatted to Andrea, Joe Boyd’s wife. Waved to a few people. On my last few visits to the R.A.H. the sound has been terrible. I usually blame my lousy hearing. I counted six guys on various desks. I’m awfully deaf as you know, but I could hear well. Especially the vocals.
You need to hear the words as the tunes bear little relation to the originals. Those sound guys had eyes and ears like hawks. I’ve said it before but a great sound man is possibly the most important member of the band.
No talking, no jokes, no backing singers. No kidding! He sang solo for 100 minutes. He don’t need beefing up. I could say how this gives hope to old people, but I won’t. None of us is Bob Dylan. He never really comes front and centre stage. but he does stand up and hold the mic.
Never seen him do that before. I read a review that said his piano playing was like Art Tatum meets Les Dawson. Perfect description. He shuffles around like Mr Burns but the singing is mesmerising. He really goes for it. Long notes, trills, singing high and low, the whole shebang.
It’s a long time since I saw that venue filled to the rafters, and it’s a sight to see.
Would I like to hear a recognisable tune occasionally? Of course, but he does what he does, he makes no concessions, and to be in the presence of greatness is an elevating experience.
Also not one person coughed, not one. That’s reverence.
I walked home, and did you know that walking at night in Kensington is wonderful? The streets are so well lit it was like daytime.
A little note about the Kensington Hotel, where I had a pre-show drink. I stayed there with my mum 61 years ago. Courtesy of the BBC. I was in a telly programme, Dr Finlay. The filming clashed with my exams, my parents didn’t care about that, they thought telly was much more important than school. The hotel was called the Onslow Court in those days.
I've given it in full but this is the link:
https://www.salutlive.com/2024/11/linda-thompson-on-dylan.html
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sj
