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10/03/2006

Dylan And The Dead: refreshingly different

It's always a surprise to be reminded that an artist like Dylan, who has opened so many doors for so many people, has his fair share of purist followers who'll permit him to occupy only a narrow creative space.

The Grateful Dead, in particular, are disliked by many Dylan fans. And they're far too jazzy for the average beetle-browed rock scribe. So Dylan's live association with them, captured on Dylan And The Dead (1989) had a muted welcome and a generally poor press.

However, if you relish the prospect of sampling Zimmerman's back catalogue through the refreshing filter of a jazz-lite shuffle, then the 1989 live album might be to your liking. You'll hear half a dozen gems from the premier popular music songbook, all radically reinterpreted.

Dylan's performance on this show hints that he was energised by the Grateful Dead's mythic live act. The vocals have a rewarding intensity which had become unusual by the late 1980s: Dylan has remembered he's a writer without peer and seems newly determined to celebrate the fact. 'Queen Jane Approximately', in particular, is the best extant live version of that mid-'60s gem, transformed in this treatment into an epic. 'All Along the Watchtower' is a stirring version, whose powerful lead guitar riff was echoed in live versions by the Larry Campbell/Charlie Sexton bands of the late '90s/early '00s. 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' could have been written specially for this ensemble.

Dylan And The Dead, however, contains what must be the nadir of any Dylan performance on an official live release. 'Joey' in any version is a musically dull, limply written, morally dubious paean to an ill-chosen anti-hero. (Like Van Morrison's 'Whatever Happened to PJ Proby?', it poses a question which few people need answering.) With the Dead in attendance, 'Joey' plumbs new depths: "leaden" found a new benchmark.

For grown-up music fans, open to different genres, Dylan And The Dead, is an undervalued album. Not essential, maybe, but it’s refreshingly different, and well worth a careful re-listen.




Dylan And The Dead (1989):
Slow Train; I Want You; Gotta Serve Somebody; Queen Jane Approximately; Joey; All Along The Watchtower; Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door




Gerry Smith

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