Uncle John Reviews
Bob Dylan´s Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour
MultiMediaReview
Before the internet, we would go to the Library,
& use the Card Catalogue and Reference section to research information.
I was at the Civic Center Old Library in San Francisco, researching
information about the first century A.D., and I was able to find
books about the early Roman kings, but it wasn´t enough.
I was also using the last book in the Bible, Revelation, to understand that century.
I didn´t find my answer in the main library,
but I noticed this locked room with stacks of books.
I asked for and received special permission to go into the Closed Stacks room
for an afternoon, to browse, skim books, read, and search, until I did find the info
I was looking for, in a first century timeset book, about early Roman emperors,
with information about a numerological system called Gematria.
When I returned home, I typed up three pages,
a summary of what I had read that day.
I also discovered a "philosopher pirate" Jean Lafitte, in a story about how
Lafitte helps Colonel Jackson save New Orleans from the British.
I later wrote a song about Jean Lafitte.
I also studied Bob Dylan´s lyrics, and their meanings revelant to Revelation.
In Bible College, I did my thesis on this subject,
"SECULAR SOURCE USING REVELATION: BOB DYLAN"
focusing on the songs Bob Dylan played with Jerry Garcia.
I got an "A" on this final paper.
I will use some of this information in this review.
Watching The River Flow
Most Likely You Go Your Way & I´ll Go Mine
I Contain Multitudes
False Prophet
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Black Rider
I´ll Be Your Baby Tonight
My Own Version Of You
Crossing The Rubicon
To Be Alone With You
Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
Gotta Serve Somebody
I´ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
Big River
(covers)Mother Of Muses
Goodbye Jimmy Reed
Every Grain Of Sand
to be published 2024
EXCERPTS
Uncle John´s Review - excerpts
Bob Dylan´s Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour
"It's darkest 'fore the dawn (oh, Lord)"
--Bob Dylan from Rough and Rowdy Ways
The grateful dead are the Largest and bob dylan the grandest.
When I think of the Grateful Dead I think of Bob Dylan.
He is like Planet X, hidden but really there.
Walt Whitman´s Leaves Of Grass is in Bob Dylan´s playbook.
By definition, Bob Dylan has a complex and apparently paradoxical nature, to be inconsistent,
especially in a way that is ultimately noble or admirable.
I first heard "I Contain Multitudes" live, last October @ The Sweetwater Music Hall
when Blonde On The Tracks star Emma Swift covered Dylan.
Emma says, “Like many of the great Bob Dylan songs,
‘I Contain Multitudes’ is a magnet, a fly’s eye view of the cultural wilderness in which we wander. It’s magnificent and heartbreaking, a love letter to words and art and music, to all that has been lost and all that might be redeemed. To me this song has become an obsession, a mantra, a prayer. I can’t hope to eclipse it, all I hope to do is allow more people to hear it, to feel comforted by it, and to love it the way I do.”
MOST LIKELY YOU GO YOUR WAY & I´LL GO MINE
Bob Dylan´s audience is anything but rough and rowdy. Not that they are not capable, many will find their way into a rowdy bar later. Rough and Rowdy Ways is not about the audience but it is for them. It is a communication in spirit. This audience, at the Fox Theater in Oakland, all 2800 sitting in their seats, are well behaved, a gentle folk, focused and attentive when the music begins. They are a quiet crowd who listen rather than talk in distraction. This concert does not allow pictures taken or video recordings. Not a cell phone is lit in the place. Everyone is wearing a mask, indicative of the sensitive times we live in on a world bugged by viruses. Everyone I see leaving the show has a satisfied look. The crowd is upbeat and the conversation is not about Rough and Rowdy Ways. The buzz on the street capturing the attention of everyone walking by is a question posed to them: "What is your favorite song that Bob Dylan didn´t play tonight?" The answer given most
"Tangled Up In Blue"
"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"
"Things Have Changed".
"I am happy to report the
only thing that has changed about Bob Dylan is he keeps getting better and
is still going strong at 81 years old."
POLITICO 
PBS 
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