Bob Dylan 980630 in Paris, France
The Zenith
Capacity: 3400
Showtime: 8 PM
Double bill with Van Morrison
Subject: Paris June, 29th #1
From: (fguillez@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 22:58:41 GMT
Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat :
A rocking beginning !
Lay Lady Lay :
1st surprise, and a very good one, as I never saw him play this one.
Dylan's voice was good !
Cold Irons Bound :
1st TOOM song, nearly hard rock
To Make You Feel My Love :
2nd TOOM song, nice version.
Silvio :
I listened to this one on so many bootlegs that I was afraid to hear it once
again, but it surprised me with its good guitar solos.
The Times, They Are A-Changin' (ac) :
A very nice intro, and the singing is so good and convincing after 34 years !
Masters of War (ac) :
Wow ! as energetic as if it was electric.
Desolation Row (ac) :
As good as the Highway 61 version, with perfect guitars & singing.
Mama You Been On My Mind (ac) :
One of my favorite Dylan songs, near country version.
Happy Birthday (x2) (ac) :
dedicated to Susie (Pullen ?). sung in 2 different keys. funny piece.
Tangled Up In Blue (ac) :
There it goes! After each one of those acoustic songs, I thought they couldn't
do any better, but they did it !
My Back Pages (ac) :
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now" : hope you gonna stay as
young as this some more decades, Bob !
with a harp solo at the end, for the 1st time in weeks.
Highway 61 Revisited :
The final song, hard rocking.
Love Sick :
I prefer the acoustic version, as on TOOM, but this one was good anyway.
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 :
Half the people danced on this one (which is exceptional at the Paris Zenith).
Subject: Paris June, 29th #2
From: (fguillez@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 23:07:16 GMT
(following)
Blowin' in the wind :
A very moving ending !
Overall, the best Bob Dylan show I ever saw, except that it might be a little
longer.
Thank you Bob, & come back soon please !
BTW, I managed to record the show without the 3 encores on a minidisc. You
can hear people speaking sometimes, but the sound is really good. I'll trade
a tape or md of it for Wallingford 1998, or Penn Station 1990, or any other
that I don't have yet.
Subject: Re: Paris June, 30th
From: Francois Kahn (francois.kahn@ens.fr)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1998 20:19:04 +0200
I was slightly disappointed by the performance of Van Morrison, who
didn't feel very concentrated during his set: he spent most of his time
offstage, which made his (very fine) band say several introductions.
Besides, the show started very early and some spectators, including me,
had to find their seat during the set. I know that Van the man can do
better and I'm ready to see another performance but I prefer to forget
most of his show.
But, of course, I was there for Bob. That was his third performance in
Paris that I saw and certainly the best one.
Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat was a perfect opener. Great guitar parts from
Larry Campbell, no flaw in the performance. I can't remember how good
was Lay Lady Lay because the security had seized a man who photographed
next to me and annoyed him during the song. Cold Irons Bound was a
little wasted by a bad sound but Make You Feel My Love was as great as
in Madison Square Gardens in February. Silvio featured the classic
duelling guitars and the breaks in the song are as good as ever.
The highlight of the show was the acoustic set. Bob was really inspired
both vocally and on the guitar. I think that he feels more at ease in
acoustic performance than with the electric set these weeks and he's
right to perform some many songs in a row acoustically. The Times,
They... was awesome, better than on MTV Unplugged. Masters of War was an
absolute killer, every nuance of the lyrics was crystal clear.
Desolation Row was on the same level, with a very tight arrangement
which could have made me believe it was electric if I hadn't seen the
folk guitars five meters away. Mama, You Been... was performed with the
same power, even if it's hard to distinguish it from Don't Think Twice
or It ain't me Babe in the recent performances. Happy Birthday was quite
a funny surprise but it was too short to laugh as the band quickly began
Tangled Up In Blue, for the umpteenth time but I would have been happy
to hear it a hundred more time.
Another surprise was My Back Pages. It was very pleasant to hear him
play some harmonica and he gained some condidence while performing. Very
funny moves from him. He was dancing in a mix between Elvis and Michael
Jackson's moonwalk. You should have been there...
Highway 61 came then and even if it's close to a slow performance by
Johnny Winter, it stills is the ultimate killer with Stuck Inside...
(sadly missing from the set). The encores were powerful and Bob the Man
succeeded in renewing the song (which sounds like a mix of Mr Tambourine
Man and Hard Rain)
Well... When is the next French tour????????
Subject: Paris, France, 30 June 1998 - a review
From: Carsten Wohlfeld (happyjaq@confetti.ruhr.de)
Date: 08 Jul 1998 01:00:00 +0100
Bob Dylan
Paris, France, June 30, 1998
Le Zenith
A Review By Carsten Wohlfeld
Welcome back... the third and final leg of my lil Euro-Bob tour started in
beautiful Paris, France, where indeed everything was very beautiful except
for Bob's choice of songs and the obnoxious french audience. Gunter and I
had started our trip to the french capitol very early in the morning so
were arrived rather early in Paris as well, picked up our tickets, had a
slice of pizza and then went straight to the venue, just to find out that
there was nobody there yet. Even though I had booked a standing ticket,
the promoters had decided at the 11th hour that there would be chairs on
the floor, too, thus reducing the capacity of Le Zenith to a mere 2,500.
And it wasn't even sold out! You get Van AND Bob on one bill on one of the
hippest cities on the planet and they don't even sell 2.,500 freaking
tickets. Of course they weren't cheap (but not more expensive than Boston
were the two sold close to 40,000 tickets) and a most french people are
probably so in love with the soccer worldcup that they just couldn't be
bothered but it still was very strange. Van came out at 8.05pm, black
suit, black glasses, looking as if he was waiting for a bus (as Robert put
it afterwards) but still delivering a killer show. This was my ninth Bob
and Van double headlining show this year and for the first time I enjoyed
Van more than Bob. Morrison has a 'new' band now, I guess the Mister Scott
on guitar is the bass players brother and Gorgie Fame has been replaced -
permanently as it seems - by John Savannah, who's doing a lot of the "Van
the Man" crap Brian Kennedy (who's also left) did before. Anyways, Van
played a lot of his monster hits, inluding "Tupelo oney", "Moondance",
"Jackie Wilson Said" and my personal favourite, "Crazy Love". He also
pulled out some songs he doesn't do every night, like an amazingly
touching "The Healing Game", that closed the very short main set and made
way for 40 mins of encores, including "Wherever God Shines His Light" and
a rare "No Guru...". After a short break Dylan took to the stage at around
9.55pm to launch into:
> Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
Which of course was the first minor disappointment - no "Serve Somebody"
tonight. The sound was bad and the intro messed up badly. "Things can only
get better" I thought, but next up was:
> Lay Lady Lay
Which made my smile because a) a guy next to me went nuts as soon as they
started it and b) I had to smile at the fact that our friend Uta missed
this one again even though she definitely would've loved to come and see
this show. Solid performance.
> Cold Irons Bound
The "weird" intro gets longer and longer with each performance it seems,
harder as well. Tonight David waited very long till he joined in. Bob
turned his head as if he was going to say: "Hey man, whatcha waitin' for?"
> To Make You Feel My Love
Yet another disappointment. As soon as Larry changed guitars I knew that
my least favourite song in the curent Dylan repertoire was going to be
performed. Solid version that, as I said before, is several lightyears
away from the LP version, so much better.
> Silvio
David messed this one up badly, thus ruining the whole song. It simply
wasn't as good as it used to be.
> The Times, They Are A-Changin' (acoustic)
A huge crowdpleaser, not much more. Bucky played a very nice low-tone solo
on pedal steel.
> Masters of War (acoustic)
Yet another one from the greatest hits section, but for me the highpoint
of the show. Sounded very dramatic, verrrry intense. Maybe it#s time for
yet another arrangement, but the song remains one of my favourite Bob
tunes ever.
> Desolation Row (ac)
Only six verses tonight and one sounded to me as if it was a 'medley' from
several others. Maybe a tape will clear that up for us. Seems to be one of
Bob's curent favourites - he only played it once last year, but now he's
plays it almost three times a week in Europe.
> Mama You Been On My Mind (ac)
Solid. Not a big surprise that this one was performed, as it has been
featured in the set at almost every show since it made it's first European
appearnace in Brussels two weeks ago. Bucky joined in on the chorus, Larry
did not. As far as I know there's only two songs where the two of them
don't share the backing vocals, this one, and Larry's "solo spot" on
"Tomorrow Is A Long Time".
> Happy Birthday (acoustic)
After "Mama" Bob had a short discussion with Tony who told Larry to come
over. A few smiles later Bob stepped up to the microphone and started
"Happy Birthday", Tony and Larry following close behind. I don't think
that he actually got eneither the chords nor the melody right, but it's
the thought that counts, right? It was sung for a mysterious Suzie, that's
all I know. After he had finished the song, Bob laughed and said: "We did
play it in a different key at the end, didn't we?" and then he played it
again!
> Happy Birthday (acoustic) 2nd time
It was almost a solo version cause Larry and Tony were laughing so hard
that they almost forgot to play. They totally killed the melody again and
it actually sounded even worse than the first try. Still a charming
surprise, not only for Suzie, but all of us.
> Tangled Up In Blue (acoustic)
was "Tangled...". Solid performance.
> My Back Pages (acoustic)
closed the acoustic set that had either six, seven, or eight songs,
depending on how you look at it. If you ask me or Bill Pagel, it had
eight. The last of which featured a harp solo that was short and not very
loud at all. Solid is the word, I guess. No band intros followd, he
actually didn't introduce the band at all!
> Highway 61 Revisited
yes, they revisited the highway as well, but didn't find anything new.
Halfway through the song Bob went over to Bucky to show him what to play.
Bucky imitaed Bob's riff a couple of times but as soon as Dylan had turned
away again, he went back to what he had played before.
> (encore)
> Love Sick
Was very fast and not very convincing.
> Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35
was "Rainy Day Women". Houselights on so Bob could take a look at the
almost sold out venue.
> Blowin' In The Wind
Closed off the proceedings. A solid 95-minute show that gave us some
strong singing, but a rather predictable (you also may say boring) setlist
and generally not too much fun. Given the fact that the tickets were
pretty expensive and Paris isn't very cheap generally as far as food and
accomodation is concerned it wasn't exactly value for money. Hopefully
he'll remember that he can play 17 songs on a van-less night in Dijon
tomorrow. Until then... bye!
--
carsten wohlfeld
"what once you called home is a minefield" (damon & naomi)
