Happy 80th birthday Bob!
What a cracking show at the Memo Music Hall on Sunday to celebrate Bob’s birthday.
A musical soiree of Bob songs performed by the cream of Melbourne’s music scene was as good as having the man himself there. So many great songs, so many fab performances selected from a repertoire of over 600 songs from Bob’s catalogue composed over nearly 60 sixty years.
It is difficult to select highlights from the show as there were so many. In fact every song was a highlight in itself, brilliantly and sensitively interpreted by each performer, and backed by a cracking band. With Shane O’Mara as the musical director, the singers could not have asked for more. The music was superb.
Highlights for me are always going to be my favourite songs. Rebecca Barnard’s version of Positively 4th Street was a spirited and moving rendition of such an emphatic song, and brought me great joy.
Rebecca Barnard and band
(Image: CGR)
Lisa Miller surprised me with Like a Rolling Stone. I’d envisaged the song to be the climax of the show with everyone belting it out at the end but not so, instead it came early in the show. There was so much feeling in her singing, one moment she was holding back and teasing the audience who knew what was coming then sweeping us up in the emotion as the band rose to greater heights.
Lisa Miller
(Image: CGR)
Tim Rogers surprised me with Murder Most Foul. Due to its length (over 17 minutes) I was not expecting it to be performed but performed it was, and what a performance, Bob would have been proud!
Tim Rogers
(Image: CGR)
Charles Jenkins closed out the show including a massive and powerful version of Visions of Johanna, sensational, and was clearly the highlight of the night for me.
Charles Jenkins
(Image: CGR)
See you at the 90th!
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About Colin Ritchie
Retired teacher who enjoys following the Bombers, listening to music especially Bob Dylan, reading, and swimming.
Great stuff Col. Jealous. Bob’s 90th? Hmm, who’s most likely to get there – you, me or Bob?
Good on you PB. Bob’s a bit like Keith or vice versa, they just keep on, keeping on! I think we’ll all get there if we haven’t knocked on heaven’s door but don’t think twice it’s all right, the answer is blowing’ in the wind!
Iggy will outlive both of them (Bob & Keith).
Nice work Col. I’m envious.
Lisa Miller is such an underrated performer. She is always great. Not surprised they left one of the really big songs to her. Many others have fallen badly at that particular hurdle.
Rogers doing Murder Most Foul? Interesting.
Cheers
JB, Lisa Miller certainly is a fine performer, like many she goes under the radar for whatever reason. I have some live footage from the show but was unable to upload to the site. Tim Rogers gave a dramatic and intense interpretation of ‘Murder Most Foul’ and I don’t think many could have pulled it off the way he did.
I was keen to get to this show, as the line-up was fab. Unfortunately I was working.
Thanks for the report, Col. It looks like it was a brilliant show.
Good stuff, Col! To me, Dylan is one of those extremely rare figures in the arts who are like they’ve come from another planet and can see what’s around them here on Earth with utterly original and clear-sighted eyes.
Thanks for this Col. Dylan’s music has been one of the passions of my life for thirty years now. Unfortunately, due to some serious hearing issues I am dealing with, I was not able to get to these shows, but your words and picures have helped give me a glimpse. I have nothing but respect for Tim Rogers giving Murder Most Foul a crack. Incredible. Geez, I’d really like to hear his version.
Don’t forget the line from My Back Pages: “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
Went to Rebecca’s 60th at The Kelvin Club earlier this year and she, of course, sang. With some performers the love just tracks back and forth between them and the audience, and she’s one. She did a great cover of the Dylan song Boots of Spanish Leather on an album called Fortified a few years ago. Well worth a listen.
Great stuff Col. Tim Rogers just keeps on surprising.
Dylan just keeps on giving.
I reckon his autobiography is a must-read.
Love ‘Chronicles’ too JTH. Did you know that the book is almost entirely made up of other people words? A sleuth called Scott Warmuth has discovered hundreds of passages in the book that are from other peoples books. In fact almost everything Dylan has written since 1997 (both songs and the memoir) is a collage of other peoples words. Dylan the trickster.