Bob-Bob-Bobbing
Along
By David Ashbridge
He was
a worried man with a worried mind. He told me later that as he walked
along there was an uneasy quiet down the street. Nothing. Not even
a dog barking. The day seemed to refuse to shift from day to night
time. I'm also told that he paused briefly outside a café,
expecting to hear something music perhaps. Again there was nothing.
This was not a good situation. This wasn't going to work at all. You
see, the previous Bobfest had been great, a fantastic evening (Henry
Porter wrote a piece about it three years ago). But it was folly to
try to repeat the experience. It had been a one-off and should have
been left alone. On that previous occasion four workmates, Alan, Richard,
John and David, had met at Alan's house, and, after some initial anxiety,
it had worked so well. To go back though, David felt, to meet up again
three years later was risky: a shoddy second Bobfest would taint the
memory of the first. David was troubled. Troubled about the arrangements
for this second evening: as with the first Bobfest, each participant
was to play twenty minutes of music by Bob Dylan in a roughly half
hour slot, the remaining ten minutes or so being taken up by discussion
of the songs. There was one further condition this time, though. Whereas
the music for the first Bobfest could be chosen from so many different
sources "any year, any album, whatever" the rule for the
second Bobfest was that each person could choose music from one year
only, and it was this particularly that unsettled David.
The other three all seemed confident about their choices Richard knew
he wanted 1970, Alan was happy with 2000, John, of course, went for
1975 but David felt trapped, snared, cornered, in a fix, in a jam,
imprisoned, oppressed, incarcerated, in chokey, bound, shackled, condemned,
doomed, cursed, ill-fated. Finally, he got a grip and settled for
1978, but with a wary feeling. Then there were the specific choices
from the selected years.
Richard cheekily picked songs that totalled 20 minutes and 46 seconds,
but did so with such confidence and ease that no one thought to challenge
him.
John's choices from 1975 were decided on with an assurance to match
that of Richard. John had also told the others with aplomb that his
interpretation of the rules allowed him to use material either recorded
or released in 1975, opening up a rich vein of material. Alan was
always likely to plump for live performances and did so seemingly
effortlessly. David sweated over his choices, totting up the timings,
losing even more confidence and suddenly feeling unable to tell the
great songs from the good, the good from the mediocre.
I'm told that the journey to Alan's house was all jolly laughter for
John and Richard; David continued to panic. I wish I could have been
there to tell him it would all be fine, but I was busy digging in
the garden at that time. From my distant vantage point, I saw that
as the guests met up on the street corner and then moved on to his
house, Alan appeared in the doorway, looking somewhat bedraggled with
bits of yellow straw or something caught up in among his ruined clothes.
Concerned, the other three asked what was the matter. "Yes, apologies
for my appearance," muttered Alan, "but I've been hunted
like well, like a crocodile." Richard and David looked shocked.
Plucking a handful of vegetation from Alan's collar, John suggested,"You've
been ravaged in the corn, by the looks of things." Alan muttered
a muted, "Yes," but, determined that this would not spoil
the evening, he bucked up and declared that they should press on.
So, lots were drawn and Richard played his choices first. Was 1970
a catastrophic year for Bob Dylan? Maybe it was, with the release
of Self Portrait, Dylan's first and thus most alarming real
failure. If there is a case to be made for 1970 having its merits,
then RSH made that case. I won't ponder too much here on the individual
tracks have a careful listen and draw your own conclusions. David‚s
turn was next. All that fretting and a-sweatin' was shown to have
been unnecessary as the songs went down very well indeed, particularly
'I Want You' and 'True Love Tends to Forget'.
The tracks that John played were all good, except one: 'You're A Big
Girl Now' is not merely good, it is not merely excellent it is as
fine a song as has ever been written. Got a friend who doesn't know
Bob Dylan's work, who's unsure whether you like him or not, then start
with this song. If you can get them listen to it and I don't just
mean stick it on in the background, I mean listen to it properly and
they think there‚s nothing there, then you should give up on
them liking Dylan. If, on the other hand, you get some inkling that
there just might be something of merit, something special in the song,
then give some others a try. And so it was that the evening reached
a real peak. What was it? Alan's excellent loudspeakers? The camaraderie?
The occasion? Four friends listening carefully, but with good humour?
And then there‚s the song itself. It sounded magnificent. How
can a song sound so special? Even I could sense it and I was outside,
some distance away. After that, Alan‚s choices sounded perfectly
good, but nothing could live with 'You're A Big Girl Now' that night.
It was another great occasion, even better than the first Bobfest
which means it was very special indeed. Alan, Richard, John and David
were profoundly moved by well, by what? A transcendent experience
of art? The realization yet again that Dylan is truly great after
all? The shared experience of being in an audience and an audience
that is based on friendship? I don‚t know; but I do know that
they were all struck by the evening, by the songs and the singer,
by listening together. As for me, well, I was just glad to have been
there in the background, watching and listening, occasionally nodding
in agreement.
The tracks in, I think, the right order:
Richard: 'The Boxer' (from Self Portrait), 'Sign On The Window' (New
Morning), 'Blue Moon' (Self Portrait), 'Lily Of The West' (Bob Dylan),
'She Belongs To Me', 'Take Me As I Am Or Let Me Go', 'Belle Isle (Self
Portrait)
David: 'Mr Tambourine Man', 'I Want You' (At Budokan), 'New Pony',
'Baby Stop Crying', 'True Love Tends To Forget' (Street Legal)
John: 'Isis', 'Romance In Durango', 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'
(Live 1975), 'You're A Big Girl Now' (Blood On The Tracks)
Alan: 'The Wicked Messenger', 'Chimes Of Freedom', 'Tryin' To Get
To Heaven', 'Blind Willie McTell' (all live performances from 2000)
