 
Round Table Discussion of the Bob Dylan performance that was held at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California on March 14, 2005. There are no photos, because Bob Dylan didn't want us to take pictures.Discussion held March 17, 2005 in one of the plush conference rooms on the top floor of the Rasputin Tower, Downtown Berkeley The conversation takes place between Bob, Backstage Dave and Andrew, all employees of Rasputin's. Part One In Which Blue Note Recording Artist Amos Lee is discussed: Bob: The drummer for [Merle Haggard] was to me if Jabba The Hut was Southern Gentleman living in Georgia in 1870. [silence] Backstage Dave: Can we talk about Amos Lee? Bob: [laughs] Didn't see it. [points to Andrew] Andrew: Didn't see it. [NOTE: Bob experienced car trouble that caused both he and Andrew to
miss all of Amos Lee's set and some of Haggard's. They apologize since
this BSD: Oh. [pause] Amos Lee: The luckiest guy in the
show, 'cuz he gets to tour with Bob Dylan, he seems like a genuinely
nice guy. The highlight was Bob: I agree. Andrew: I don't even know who he is. BSD: He's from Philadelphia, he got his start touring with Nora Jones and Blue Note singed him. Andrew: [EMI rep] Mary-Beth was telling me that there was a stampede to get his autograph after his set. BSD: He's probably the new John Mayer. Bob: He seems a little more mature than John Mayer.
BSD: Okay, moving right along [claps hands]: Merle Haggard. Andrew: Fucking redneck. BSD: Classy show from beginning to end. Andrew: [groans] BSD: You don't like Merle? Andrew: Nah. BSD: Why not? Andrew: I was hoping for more of a Waylon [Jennings]-type thing. BSD: But you can't go in there expecting Waylon Jennings and not getting Waylon Jennings when you're at a Merle Haggard show. Andrew: [laughs] Bob: I agree with you, but I was also coming off a great Willie Nelson show a few months back.all the same great outlaw guys. But Merle left something to be desired. It was great to see him, it was great to be in the presence, he was very casual and not full of himself.it was cool but it didn't really sway me. BSD: I thought Merle was a total gentleman, he was friendly as hell, he told corny jokes, I thought it was great when people gave him a standing ovation when he did "Mama Tried". Andrew: He was blowing a lot of lyrics to a lot of songs I didn't even know. Which is fine, it's all in the live performance but was he drunk? Was he doing dust? BSD: He played guitar, he played violin and the band, these guys are all seasoned pros.I though they were really cool, he looked great and I'm glad they ended with "Okie From Muskogee" as an instrumental and he didn't have to do it. It's like: 'Here's my biggest song and I'm not going to do it, I'm going to walk off to it.' Bob: That's what that was? BSD/Andrew: [in unison] Yeah. Bob: Alright. BSD: And I like the fact that he did a shout out to all the ex-cons. Bob: [quoting Haggard] "Every con wants to be an ex-con." Andrew: Bonnie Raitt was sitting behind us. BSD: I walked in with Bonnie Raitt. Bob: I heard she was there. Andrew: .that means we had better seats than Bonnie Raitt. BSD: You couldn't miss her 'cuz her hair was so bright. Part Three In Which Columbia Recording Artist Bob Dylan Is discussed:
Bob: He did "Drifter's Escape", I knew right away. BSD: It took me a couple verses; I didn't recognize it at first, but I was real happy about it. Andrew: Was it 'Stump The Band' or was it 'Stump The Audience'? BSD: 'Stump the audience'. Well, the band was kinda
stumped 'cuz they'd only been with him for a week, and they were trying
to figure out what he was Bob: They all knew what he was doing, though, especially the slide guy, [violin/mandolin/pedal steel player Donnie Herron] he was in on it. BSD: His arrangements are really simple, there is nothing complicated going on there. Bob: The whole band was good, it was nice to see seven people on stage. BSD: I was really happy to see [violinist] Elana Fremerman in the band, she was the second happiest person in the show. Andrew: I was the happiest. BSD: You were the happiest? No, Amos Lee was the happiest. Andrew: Oh, that's right. BSD: You were the third happiest. But Fremerman was beatific, she didn't stop smiling the entire time, she was good.when you could hear her. Bob: At the beginning of the show I notice that; she seemed to have been turned up and more focused on for the rest of the show. BSD: The mix was a little muddy. Bob: It was around "Honest With Me" that they all started to get into it. And that was the same song at the show in the city [Dylan's October 13th, 2004 show at the Grand in San Francisco] where he got out from behind the keyboard and stated conducting everyone. BSD: He did that at The Grand, too? Bob: He came out [from the keyboard at the Oakland show] and started pointing at [drummer] George Receli. BSD: What I think is kinda odd is the way he's got the band set up. He's got his one guitarist here [gestures to the left]. Andrew: .sequestered... BSD: .he's got Fremerman here [gestures in the middle] and three guys crammed into some little area over here [vigorously gestures to the right] right on top of each other.it doesn't really make any sense. Bob: I feel that [guitarist] Stu Kimball is now the most tenured guitar player, so he's chillin' next to Dylan. [silence] Bob: [to the stenographer] Don't put "chillin'" in there, that'll sound lame. He's 'hanging out' next to Dylan. BSD: What do you mean he's the most seasoned? How long has he been with him? Bob: This is his third tour. BSD: The bass player [Tony Garneir] has been with him the longest. Bob: Well, no, of the guitar players I'm saying. BSD: How long was Charlie Sexton with him? Bob: Four or five years, and he left two years ago. And Larry Campbell, eight years and Tony Garneir, he been with him sine the beginning of The Never Ending Tour, like '91. BSD: The bass player was the one working with the drummer. Bob: He's the musical director. So that's probably the reason he was closer to [the new members]. BSD: When he was conducting, he would turn to the drummer and everyone else would watch his back. Andrew: He'd give hand signal behind his back to the new guys. BSD: Change-up. Bob: Did it seem like Dylan was laughing a lot? BSD/Andrew: Yeah. Bob: It seemed like they were all having a real good time and all of them were real happy to be on turn with Bob Dylan and figuring things out. BSD: It looked like he was making the set list up while they were going along.he would go to the band as if he was inspired and suddenly "Under The Red Sky" comes up. Andrew: When was the last time he played that? Bob: He plays songs from that album every now and
again. "Cat's In The Well, stuff like that. "Mr. Tambourine
Man" he was singing very gently and trying BSD: He sang well, but my one problem with his whole
new style of singing is that he does that: "Play a song for meeeeee."
He takes every song and goes Andrew: He changes his vocal sound every ten years
now and maybe that's this decade's nuance. What was the song he sang
standing at the front of the BSD/Bob: "Man In Me". [Bob then goes on a lengthy description of his favorite scene in The Big Labowski] BSD: That movie was not very memorable for me. Bob: The Big Labowski? Are you crazy? BSD: No. Bob: I like ["The Man In Me"], it's like cheesy song but it's cool. He did it in a lounge way, just got up in front. BSD: From the tour reviews, that's his thing now,
every night he gets up and does it solo. But the one thing that was
weird was that he didn't pick up Andrew: There was also a banjo at the side of the stage and a lot of other equipment lying around in the wings that didn't get used. BSD: .and a [second] pedal steel in front of him where he had all his set lists. Bob: I liked how they used the pedal steel as a table, that's a big budget. BSD: I'd love to hear what he yells at the band in-between songs, I'd love to have a microphone there and hear: [adopts a gruff voice] 'Okay, ah.let's do, ah.ah.' Andrew: [doesn't adopt a gruff voice] 'Wait till you hear what I'm going to play next!' BSD: They rehearse, what, like 150 songs before they go on the road, right? Andrew: They had quite a good rave-up during "Highway
61" that was the first instance that the audience knew they were
in for a pretty good show. That BSD: It sounded to me that they were doing a revved up Canned Heat styled boogie.it was great. Bob: "Can't Wait" from Time Out Of Mind was really good. His reinvention of his songs was unreal. Andrew: When the curtain went up and I saw a bunch of strange faces I thought: 'Oh, is this what it's like to see a band that's been re-invented at a quick pace? This could either be disastrous or a kick in the pants." They lit a fire under his ass. Bob: [yawning] I think he needed some new blood. Because when we saw him last time it was getting a little stale. BSD: Every tour now he picks some song and he does it every show. "A11" now he does every show. Bob: What is that song? BSD: Hank Cochran wrote it and Johnny Paycheck had
a hit with it. Like at the Greek [Theater, 2003] he was doing Warren
Zevon songs every show, so that Bob: He also did [Don Henley's]"End Of The Innocence". Andrew: [outraged] What? When! Bob: I think it was because Don Henley and him were together working on Warren Zevon's last album, maybe it was inspiration but during that tour after Warren Zevon died or when he was still sick [Dylan] was covering "End Of The Innocence" sometimes. Andrew: That's harsh. It was when someone shouted out "Werewolves Of London" from the audience, that, reportedly, Dylan shouted; "Shudup!" BSD: I'm hoping somebody recorded that show so I can hear that. I didn't notice that part at all. Andrew: It was right before a song kicked in, too.so if it's on tape it wasn't buried by any music. Bob: Other people had to have heard it cuz they were looking at each other. Andrew: People were laughing behind us, too. Bob: That was the guy, I think, who had a boner.that was really awesome. BSD: [aghast] What? Andrew: [nonchalant] Bob hit someone's boner. Bob: I had this guy behind me, I swear man.unfortunately
we had to stand up during "All Along The Watchtower", I sit
back down and [laughing and talking Andrew: That'll be the pull quote. BSD: The title of the piece will be. Andrew: "Bob Hits Boner At Dylan Show". BSD: What else did we like? "It's All Over Now, baby Blue"? He did the vocal thing. Bob: The one thing about Dylan, he doesn't do anything to warm up his voice, that's for sure. The last couple time I've seen him, the first few songs are like hacking through a cold. BSD: I wonder if he consciously sings like that, if it's possible for him to sing any better and he just doesn't. Bob: I think in some ways he doesn't give a shit, it's that "Dylan Thing". BSD: Maybe that's it. In "Tambourine Man" you can see he's actually trying to sing and he's doing a fairly good job rather than croaking his way through some of the other songs. Bob: When he covers other people's songs, he always gets it right. Andrew: He's tired of his own material. You'd think he'd be sick of singing "Tambourine Man", but this time he put a lot of effort into it. BSD: The arrangement was so sparse.you can't really get away with hardly any volume and have it suck that badly. Bob: That one part when he ran in front of George Racelli and made him get into it. Andrew: I love watching that.'Oh look, he's alive!' .and he was doing all those really funny gestures behind the keyboard. BSD: He can move when he wants to. Bob: He does those leg shimmies, too. What the hell is with putting that mic two feet below his head? I think it helps him bang on the piano, but it looks very uncomfortable. My biggest problem was with the lines to the bathroom between Merle and Dylan. [silence] BSD: That'll teach you to plan ahead. [silence] Andrew: That carpeting was something else. You go downstairs to the bathrooms and the carpet was dizzying, it was like a visual maze.I'm glad I wasn't on anything. BSD: Had you been to the Paramount before? Andrew: No, it was my first time, and that's another thing: the stage and the lighting, the footlights? BSD: Oh, it was gorgeous. The lighting, the curtains and the sparkly backdrop was his thing. Andrew: It was so nice. Bob: His clothes were nice. BSD: The silver studs down the side of his black pants, the bolo hat. [Here the discussion turns to such menial topics as Charlie Sexton's early musical career, Johnny Lang and his overbearing father/manager] BSD: So were you two guys the youngest guys at the show? Bob: I saw some families there. BSD: I think the average age was about forty-five. Bob: I think Merle helped with that, even more. I've been to a lot of Dylan shows these days and it's always a lot of younger people there. This one might've been the setting, too, because it was in a theater. Andrew: Dylan is also getting a lot of Deadhead runoff, too. BSD: Look a the merch, it's all knit caps and denim jackets. Andrew: Did you notice the Merle Haggard table? There were tumbleweeds blowing around it. Crickets. BSD: Amos Lee said: 'I'm going to be signing my album after the show', and he actually went out to the merch table and signed his record for people. Bob: It's cool, he did a gig at the Make Out Room on Tuesday, too. Andrew: Plus the Dylan show, that guys' working hard. BSD: [paging through his notes] Alright, we're done.
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