i dreamed a dream

It turns out, if you buy the programme for a Bob Dylan gig you get three things. Well, five.
Physically, you get some nice old photos of the man himself, an interview and a review of his "best show ever". The fourth thing you get is a distinct feeling of inadequacy and the fifth is uncertainty of where his integrity is.

Third and fourth things first - "The Big Event:Bob Dylan - SECC Glasgow"
I'm ganna have to paraphrase this as typing out the entire article will bore both of us. Accept my dots and cuts thusly.
"..the greatest concert I've ever seen."

"..and he's playing 'Just Like A Woman'. And when he gets to the chorus - 'Aw,she takes..' - it happens..the building sings.. It astonishes everyone. You can see the effect it has on the band, breaking across the stage like dawn. Tony Garnier has a huge, helpless grin and is turning to the other players - as if to say 'Can You Believe This?' These Smiles are genuine."

"Dylan is standing chording away at his keyboard, leaning into the song now, listening, and a surprised grin flashes across his face, too. Anyone who knows anything about Dylan will not believe this, but, by the end of the song, just for a moment, the man famous for wilfully restructuring the DNA of his songs, seems to be singing along with the crowd, not vice-versa."

I'm ganna spare you the rest of the article as the amount of vomiting it induces is not something I'll put through another. Just know that it goes on to say that THIS was the crowd 'Dylan' spoke to, something he "never does" followed again by "if you know something about 'Dylan'. I mean, really. And now we know we'll never beat this amazing 'dream crowd' they once had in Scotland. What are we supposed to do with all this information? According to this, it's not the man we've paid to see that makes the gig but the people around us or also paid to come. I just felt a bit depressed at this point, as so far all I'd seen was some old people dancing and a creepy man in a leather coat with a girl who was too old to be his daughter and too young to be his girlfriend, just the right age to be a victim of rohypnol.

Next, among the first thing we get the second and fifth things. Possibly the most random choice for an interview they could have spared, we get 'Dylan' talking about his part in 'Hearts of Fire', a rather dire film (which he admits to) he starred in with Rupert Everrett. We get this:

Q:Why did you do it then?
A:I did it for the money, why else would I do it?

Well, fair enough. At least he's honest.

But hang on? How much was this programme? £12? And we got this? So history repeats itself then, huh Bob?
Some of the photos are lovely, though, so I'm not at all annoyed with the purchase really.
Sat between two sets of morons, one who decided the gig was the perfect place for a picnic and arrived late, listening to a set of songs which the majority of I didn't know and it was still amazing. Amazing because it was Bob Dylan, amazing because of how good the music was, amazing because he did "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' In The Wind" and because he did "All Along The Watchtower". Also amazing because of the smile that was on my face from the moment the lights dimmed and the man came out in his vampire-civil war soldier look.

Also, listen to Bill Callahan as his new album 'Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle' is beautiful, and his past project under the name 'Smog' is always worth a listen.