Comments on: Reflections on Dylan’s performance at White House Civil Rights concert

By: j murray

j murray — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:33:30 +0000

Great performance by Bob. All these years later, he’s still the
best – a true American treasure. Fitting that he should perform at the White House for the first African American president at a Civil Rights function. Bravo, Bob!

By: Charles Lyonhart

Charles Lyonhart — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:16:32 +0000

Bob was exceptional and stole the night. Half of the performers there would not have been there or would not have been enlightened if not for Dylan’s voice in the 60’s. How we all forget. Bob is a true bluesman in the tradition of Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. His vocals eminate the long and rough journey that he has been on forever. The arrangement of the song with Tony was amazing. Even to this day people love to throw stones at him. Leave the guy alone if you cannot understand his talent.

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:05:53 +0000

The beautiful lyrics are just as relevant now as when he wrote them. It was a wonderful performance.

By: Buddy Deal

Buddy Deal — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:23:13 +0000

The piano player was a session player from LA named Patrick Warren.

By: Louis Solnicki

Louis Solnicki — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:48:24 +0000

Seth,

A great review of Bob’s performance!! To me, he appeared like a troubadour from ages past. He wore what seemed like a doublet and a white scarf around his neck. He sang tenderly and forcefully with conviction. I agree that the arrangement was like a madrigal — the 3/4 time was interesting, accentuated by the base. I was startled to see him — I had to look twice–because PBS did not mention that he was appearing. I was also startled and so pleased to see the lovely and gracious Joan Baez. And I wonder,the romantic that I am, if Bob and Joan finally had a schmooze back stage after all these years and whether or not they left together…..

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:13:08 +0000

Well done Bob. I saw “Jack Frost” on the credits at the end but missed what it was for- what was that?

By: drp

drp — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:20:10 +0000

My understanding is the concert was pushed ahead a day because of the snow and they wanted to hurry everything up. He was ready to play another song but because of time constraints they “suggested” he get off NOW. A bigger question is what happened in the middle of Smokey Robinson singing “People Get Ready”, they stopped in the middle and started over. That was odd, I wasn’t paying close attention at the time so I didn’t see what precipitated that.

All in all I thought it was one of the best performances Bob has put on in a long time. Remember the ‘91 Grammy Awards (I think it was the Grammys) when Nicholson introduced him, Bob came out and rambled aimlessly, then ripped up an almost unrecognizeable “Masters Of War”? Actually, that was very cool.

By: Alan Berg

Alan Berg — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:28:34 +0000

You got it just write Seth. The piano ‘dance’ was the key, other than Bob’s voice ‘dance.’

By: Seth Kulick

Seth Kulick — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:48:54 +0000

Seth,

I agree with your comments about Dylan’s singing and also about
the piano. It really added to
the performance. Bob’s singing verged on the sort of staccato-type
thing he’s been doing in concert, usually to a ridiculous degree for
a verse or two on some songs. But here he only verged on it and
never went too far with it. Very effective I thought.

And yes, there was definitely something weird going
on at the end as far as whether he was supposed to play another song
or what. Another question is what happened to Bob for the finale of
Lift Every Voice and Sing ?

By: Ray H, Bournemouth, England

Ray H, Bournemouth, England — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:42:23 +0000

That a a very good version of the song , he did it as if it was an old English Madrigal, and it also swayed like a sea shanty,trust him to find a new special way to sing it again