Bob's Not Supposed To Care, But He Does

Here is a cover of a Gordon Lightfoot tune, from Toronto in 1998. 

Lightfoot is a highly respected singer songwriter from Toronto who had his heyday in the mid-70s and who, like Bob, still plays out today. He is an old friend of Bob's and hung out for the Toronto nights of the Rolling Thunder Revue in '75. Bob even gave him the coveted penultimate performance slots both nights. Who knows how good of friends they are? (It's Bob after all. Who knows anything?) 

Is there a secret history here? Lightfoot recorded this song a few months after Rolling Thunder. Maybe Bob was the first person Gordo ever played the song for. Maybe Bob helped him fix a lyric here or there. Maybe Gordo wrote the song for Bob, but disguised it as a romantic love song.

The set lists tell us that Bob played "I'm Not Supposed to Care" live only three times in his vast touring career: all on this same '98 tour. First in Vancouver, then Anaheim, and lastly, again in Canada, this time in Toronto. 

Like so many others, Lightfoot is a candle to Dylan's bonfire. There's no comparison--Lightfoot's not even Christopher Marlowe. Bob pays tribute to his old friend by playing the man's own tune his own hometown. Those three performances were it for Bob and "I'm Not Supposed to Care". He put it away, probably for good. I'd bet ol' Gordo felt honored.

I love it when Bob has a great time like he does in this performance. His band is digging it too--because Bob is digging it. Tony's face lights up just as Bob rips into a signature three-note guitar solos. They feed off each other creatively in the best sense. 

And for dessert, here is evidence that the man has turned into my grandfather once and for all.

More Louie Please

The culture of mass media rarely allows an artist to explore ideas and thrive on his own terms. Louie is a testament to the power of nurturing a singular artist's vision. In general, television and the Internet broadcast content diluted by too many committee-made decisions.

Slow Train Coming, But Coming Nonetheless

Here is a live version of "Slow Train Coming" from the late 80s, somewhere in northern Europe--Rotterdam, I think. Bob is resplendent in this performance, and his aura is enhanced by the super shitty camera work done by some jack in the audience. He's singing one of his great gospel tunes and he actually looks quite appropriately like Jesus Christ, complete with halo and all. When the camera zooms out, we learn that the backing band is Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Now, as a nights and weekends Dylanologist, I of course knew those guys toured together around that time, but I obviously didn't have the date locked in because the reveal really surprised me.
He starts the song slowly and soulfully, and does a few verses like this--so many verses in fact that you start to think that's how the whole song will play out. But then he kicks it into gear after about the third verse. That's a vintage move. Part of the man's artistry is that he is so unexpected and so raw, almost all the time. He pushes too hard, too far, too fast, too soon. He's not packed but fuck it, I'm ready to go, and he goes there anyway, without his toothbrush or the book he wanted to bring along. He tries and fails constantly, and at the last minute he trades in his ticket and books a flight somewhere else at the last minute.  As evidence, note how he is essentially constructing the phrasing for the backup singers on the spot, just before the false ending, when he mouths the lyrics for them.