My Ramat Gan, Israel 21/6/2011 Concert Review

Bob Dylan Concert, Ramat Gan 20/06/2011

I arrived early at Ramat Gan stadium which is home to the national football team to be faced by about 10 security guards at each entrance checking bags (for what I later found were video camera’s they had been instructed to confiscate, luckily not small digital camera’s with video capability:)!

Ramat Gan Stadium seats 43,000 and although it looked full and of course with seating also over the entire length of the football pitch, the stage took up alot of space and the section to the right of the stage was kept empty, so how many were there tonight is hard to estimate but to my eyes it definitely looked full!

The local star Assaf Avidan came on for a 3 song acoustic set at about 8pm and he performed well and it’s the first time I’ve seen him and I just wished that he’d performed a longer set as what followed in my opinion was deserving of just a 3 song set. I’ve never seen nor heard of Ricky Lee Jones before and I thought upon seeing & hearing her that she was a a cross between Joni Mitchell and Melanie and to be honest I really found her songs sounding all the same with undecipherable lyrics, on one of the songs I thought she was singing ‘stick it in there, stick it in there  …… Cools Ville, Cools Ville’, but surely not, but maybe yes!

Anyway, Bob came on at 9.15pm to the usual ‘The Poet Laurette of Rock n Roll’ introduction and of course the whole stadium erupted as Bob and the band immediately got into the groove with his funky version of ‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking’ with Bob on the swirling organ, sounding like a cross between an old funfair Wurlitzer and a church organ.The original version is very much a ‘Born Again Christian’ song, coming as it does from the album ‘Slow Train Coming’ and even with its completely re-written lyrics that ‘Christian’ element is very much there, particularly with the lines ‘Jesus is coming, coming back to gather his jews’ for of course the ‘coming back’ reference implies ‘He’ was here before, as the believers believe Jesus Christ was, and that ‘He’ will return again, which is the reason that this is a Christian reference as Jews believe that ‘The Messiah’ is still to come and perhaps why Dylan doesn’t sing the name ‘Jesus’ whole but only the 2nd part of His name and he does not repeat the line as he has in all previous performances of the song (everywhere except in Israel).

I really liked this song as the opener and it certainly set the tone for the rest of the set and I’ve never heard Bob sing with so much power and he was definetly right up in the mix along with his organ although none of the songs that followed would match the intensity and conviction, perhaps only ‘Forgetful Heart’ would come close. It really looked as though Bob was fired up and this is by far the best opening song I’ve heard Bob perform (for me taking over from ‘Down in the Flood’ from the ’95 Tour’) although he perhaps did go a bit overboard by doing one too many leg kicks while playing the organ and he was definetly off balance on one of them:)!

Bob then left the organ and moved to centre stage for a powerful performance of ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’ with some great harmonica playing, in fact I haven’t known Bob play so much harmonica in a concert and I must say that I was very happy to find that for the majority of the songs Bob took centre stage and also played a fair amount of electric guitar with his guitar well up in the mix and prominent.

Bob stayed centre stage and strapped on his electric guitar for an interesting and almost ‘Bosonova’ sounding version of ‘Things Have Changed’, I guess it sounded like the original version but live, if that makes sense, but it would take a lot to beat the studio produced version but this was very goog indeed and one must wonder how Bob manages to remember all the words of every song he performs!

Bob remained centre stage,  bare and without guitar for ‘Tangled Up in Blue’  which, having heard this song so many times before in concert was quite impressed with this new version and some nice harmonica playing by Bob.

Bob moved to behind the organ for a song I never really appreciated in concert and that’s ‘Summer Days’.  Bob seemed to have a whooping good time but it seemed a bit flat to me for some reason and the song maybe went on for a bit too long.

Bob back to centre stage for another song I’ve heard loads of times but Bob gave it a new paint job and it sounded good, ‘Simple Twist of Fate’  with Bob on electric guitar for this one.

An excellent version of ‘Cold Irons Bound’  followed with Bob keeping centre stage with some more great harmonica blowing which lead us into one of the highlights of the evening and that’s the new version of ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’  which sounds georgeous and Bob started off centre stage with some harmonica solo’s and then moved to the  organ. When you think that this song is from 1963 it is amazing how fresh and how relevant Bob has made it, really nice and worth checking out.

We next had ‘Highway 61’  and for me this new version with Bob on the swirling organ doesn’t really work when you think of all those times it’s been played with great electric guitar solo’s, this time it also seemed a bit flat in this new form.

Bob the performer then pulled out all the dramatic stops on a song that I must admit I hadn’t really listened to before and that’s ‘Forgetful Heart’  with Bob centre stage performing a song that seemed so right for him at this point in time, a really lovely song with some equally lovely harmonica playing from Bob.

I’m afraid that ‘Thunder on the Mountain’  didn’t work for me and seemed rushed and unconvincing although again Bob seemed to be a real whopping good time belting it out and yet another highlight followed, a gorgeous re-working of ‘Ballad of A Thin Man’  with Bob once again centre stage and in total command of the stage, himself, his band and the audience as you could hear a pin drop as his performance was lapped up and then the lights dimmed, we had the 5 minute break and Bob and band returned for the organ swirling version of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’  which maybe, for me, is too laid back and needs the guitars more up front with the song driven by them and not Bob’s organ, but it was still a great version and of course, like all 3 encore songs are real crowd pleasers!

A strange to my ears version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’  followed with Bob again on organ and this is a watered down version of what went before at so many concerts and I guess in it’s own right it is good but something definitely is missing from the song, I think it’s the dramatic intro build up of previous versions that is missing and is missed.

And so to the final song with Bob taking centre stage with guitar for ‘Blowing in the Wind’ which was nice and it certainly pleased the crowd and then the lights went out and came back on a few minutes later as the band took their bows, Bob actually gave a 2 handed fingers up gesture to the audience at the front as the lights were dimmed again and Bob and the band were gone.

This was definitely the best Dylan concert I’ve seen, mostly because Bob managed to maintain the power all through the set, in many previous concerts his energy wavered and I’ve seen all too many unbalanced concerts but for this one Bob was obviously up for it and in for my opinion his voice was as strong as I’ve ever heard it albeit that maybe the arrangements are as they are to tailor fit Bob’s current voice but tonight Bob definitely didn’t disappoint and he gave all that he had to give which I hope was gratefully received by all!

A short video review can be watched HERE.

My concert highlights were:-

Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

Cold Irons Bound

Thunder on the Mountain

Forgetful Heart

Paul Robert Thomas, Tel-Aviv 20/06/2011

Gonna Change My Way of Thinking (5.20)

(As sung by Bob Dylan, Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel 20/06/2011)

I’m gonna change my way of thinking, make myself a different set of rules

I’m gonna change my way of thinking, make myself a different set of rules

I’ll put my best friend forward, stop being influenced by fools

Sittin’ at the welcome table, so hungry I could eat a horse

I’m sittin’ at the welcome table, so hungry I could eat a horse

Well last night thinking, and let the law take its course

(Je) sus is coming, coming on back to gather his Jew

Coming on back to gather  his Jew

We’ll we’re living by the golden rule, whoever got the gold, rules

You know the sun is shining, ain’t but one train on this track

Well the sun is shining, ain’t but one train on this track

I’m dipping out of the dark woods, I’m jumping on the monkey’s back

Well I’m all dressed up, I’m going to the county dance

You know I’m all dressed up, I’m a-going to the county dance

Ev’ry day you got to keep a conscience

Ev’ry day you got to give yourself another chance

Well there’s storms out on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too

Said there’s storms on the ocean, storms out on the mountain, too

Oh Lord, you know I’ve got no friend but you

I’m gonna change my way of thinking, make myself a different set of rules

I’m gonna change my way of thinking, make myself a different set of rules

I’ll put my best friend forward, and stop being influenced by fools