(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

Last night I went with my family and a friend to see a concert at the Bowie Baysox Stadium. It was as well-attended as I expected, so we had to follow an improvised parking practice and walk a ways. We missed the openers, a completely unfamiliar band called The Greencards, but oh well. We came in to the sound of Willie Nelson, who sounds the same as ever even now that he has two sons backing him up on guitars. Even his one brand new song, the unfortunately clicheic "Superman" (let's face it, that's too common a theme these days), had a semi-classic quality to it. He didn't quite make a western sunset finish, but close enough. The next performer, by contrast, has changed his sound dramatically: Bob Dylan.

Not long ago, I despised any remotely western sound, apparently out of general annoyance at its region of origin. (A camp friend, incidentally, said that he liked any accent but a western one and tolerated any music but country western. Talk about selective.) A visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame enlightened me to country's inextricable influence on, if not lack of distinction from, rock. While this realization has not helped my appreciation of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" or "Achy Breaky Heart," I could now listen to Nelson for more than an hour at a time, and I didn't mind the westerly wind that has picked up Dylan.

I had forgotten that Dylan, far from being a burnout today, did the award-winning song from Wonder Boys and has widely been considered better than ever since the late '90s. His voice is distinctive not just from others but from his distinctive voice of the hippie days. It has grown more baritone and less lackadaisical, but also more gravelly and therefore just as close to Sgt. Floyd Pepper. From what I could tell, he is exactly as talented a composer, as fair a performer, and as mixed a winner as he was when he did "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Blowin' in the Wind," and "Everybody Must Get Stoned." Of course, that's hard to judge when he's drawing from 40 years' worth.

We were sitting pretty close to the speakers, but that gave us no help in comprehension. My mom and I found that when we didn't already know the lyrics, we could barely figure out a single word. Sometimes it just seemed like 10-minute jabberwocky interspersed with growls. My dad and friend, however, had played most of the songs to themselves and could tell me that this was the most antiwar concert he'd done since before the Iraq War.

Apparently he totally changed all the melodies and instrumentations while keeping the chords intact. I don't blame him when I consider how quickly I tire of any song, be it my own or another's. His ending rendition of "Like a Rolling Stone," the only number very familiar to me, was very charming: even I danced to it.

The next time I hear of a concert, I will take into consideration whether it is outdoors. The stadium is supposed to have a nonsmoking policy, but cigarettes were everywhere that evening. Living in DC, which may soon up its tobacco restrictions even further, I don't adjust well to the presence of cigarette smoke. There were also satirical-looking large cups labeled BEER in every other fan's hand. From the looks of it, one fan had to be escorted away by three personnel for a drunken action, much to the protests of beermouths behind me.

I consider the concert worthwhile if only for cementing in my memory the identities of Willie Nelson and the current Bob Dylan.

Comments

[zombiechick.livejournal.com]

I grew up listening to all sorts of music because of my greatly spaced (in age) siblings and the fact that my mom was an earthmuffin while my dad had been raised in a very rural area so liked Country Western but also Country/Rock crossover stuff like CCR. I used to be embarassed about liking Country Western music but have since come to realize that, for the most part, Country music recorded before 1980 is great stuff with lots of folk influence. Since then it's become way too popish for my taste and is far too influenced by the crappy pop music genre going on in American music right now such as boy bands, Brittany Spears etc. There are some exceptions such as Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan who have stayed pretty true to their roots while at the same time experimenting with new genres.

[billis.livejournal.com]

My mother went to a Bob Dylan concert a few months back, and saw something very close to what you did, at least in regards to the intelligibility of the lyrics. She came away extremely irritated about Dylan's performance style, so it's interesting to read your comments on how he's bringing new life to old material.

My Near-Willie Experience

[-fairest.livejournal.com]

In the late 70's, when I was in high school, it was known around that the father of one of our classmates was a Willie Nelson look-alike. He would go to concerts and have his photo taken with Willie's fans and such. Now, I knew the girl a bit (we had a mutual friend). I'd even been to her house once, but I had never met her father. So it was that I had the chance to make that man laugh:

Very early one morning, I was crossing Artesia Blvd, going to my bus stop. I saw "Willie" stopped at the light in his beat up old Datsun. I smiled from ear to ear (I mean, c'mon...he had braids and the bandana on!) at him and he smiled back. I tapped on his car window (which I would NEVER do to a real celebrity! Never!) and he opened it a bit. I could tell he was used to the Groupie Treatment.

Slyly, I said (with a huge grin for him) "If you're not Willie Nelson, then you MUST be Debbie's dad!"

Oh, he got a good roar out of that one. "Yeah. I'm Debbie's dad."

ahhh...fame.

Re: My Near-Willie Experience

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wish I looked like someone famous, but of course I'd regret it if my wish came true.

I see that your LJ is very new. Think I'll monitor it a while.