Dylan and the Dead

an excellent 'upgrade to the upgrade' #D108.su, this carefully authored DVD combines best available pro-shot with best available audience filler to offer the complete performance for the first time on one DVD. Also, this time the audio is from FOB audience rather than the somewhat flat SB feed, offering a richer listening experience, give or take occasional enthusiasm on the part of other attendees according to your taste. Mattman always does top-notch work, and this is another fine example from him and his friends.
In terms of the performance, I agree that the 1987 run with the Grateful Dead had it's share of lower moments and that some are to be found on this video. However in terms of arrangment, downright fun on the part of the performers, and passion of performance, just take a look at the Joey ( as one example ) on this DVD and decide for yourself whether this collaboration was fruitful. To my mind, this is a interesting and often enjoyable part of the history of all the musicians involved.

An easy 4 stars for this DVD, worth having.

D629 SLUMMING WITH THE DEAD

Which is your least-played BD album? Dylan? Bob Dylan? Saved? Self-Portrait? Pat Garrett? New Morning? Down In The Groove? Or maybe it's BOB you don't like? Right up near the top of most people's list will be Dylan & The Dead which resembles nothing more than a pub band backing a stumbling drunk who fancies himself as Sean MacGowan. This afternoon I played the CD just to reacquaint myself with its failings, which number two: (a) D's distressing lack of lyric command (especially damaging to the reputation of one Joanie called "so good with words", although check out his IOW LARS on Self-Portrait or his New Year's Eve '71 LARS on Rock Of Ages and you'll find the problem isn’t new) and (b) the leaden playing of the band. According to the rumour-mill, after declining Garcia's help, perverse Bob deliberately chose for the record the poorest tracks he could find from the 84 available to him from six Dylan/Dead shows. But were these outings really quite as bad as the CD would have us believe? D629, recalling a 15-song 90 minute set from 12 July 1987, gives us the chance to judge anew.

We see a pro-shot film in which the first and two last songs are recorded by a single left-side camera whilst tracks 2-13 are edited professionally together from feed from several cameras. Sound is fine, image, though less than pristine, is still passably good. And the answer to the above question is no - the shows (to judge by this one, at least) are a considerable improvement on the rotten CD. (Incidentally, none of the seven tracks on Dylan & The Dead derive from this gig.)

Don't run away with the idea that this is classic Bob - it isn't. He looks a sight - heavy-set (for him), full beard, fingerless gloves and the '62 Huck Finn cap (or a ringer for it) jammed back-to-front on his head. He sings without charm or subtlety and the band never take it beyond workmanlike. H61 in particular made me better appreciate the talents of his more recent backing bands, any one of which would put this sorry crew to shame. In mitigation, Dead drummer Mickey Hart said in 1989:

We were trying to back up a singer on songs that no-one knew ... I don't know why it was ... made into a record.

And though there were two rehearsal sessions before the tour, the video evidence does support his claim, with D clearly seen, before John Brown, teaching Bob Weir the riff. Garcia picks it up (well, it's not Mahler, is it?) and the two then crank it out with turgid monotony while D puts over his trite little tale. (Having gone to all that trouble, by the bye, he muffs the pay-off last verse!) The Wicked Messenger that follows is that song's first ever live performance, and sounds it. Queen Jane is faster and less felicitous than the CD version, which was about two or three takes away from being a good tune. In Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Garcia's steel guitar work is tentative and just barely proficient. But what I expected to see here and did not was D struggling badly with his lyrics. Rather, he delivers very wordy songs like Chimes (five verses of six) and Joey (unabridged!) virtually without a flaw. The first of these is worth twenty of any of the botched CD openers - the stories of D passing over the coherent and competent for the not, then, appear to be true. In Baby Blue he fluffs or forgets the first line of two verses, but this is the exception here. He also shouts the song, which is not. He's a country mile away from his best form just now, though nothing like so bad, either, as it could and would become just a little further on down the endless road. This DVD, not D's finest hour, or anything like it, is still worth seeing once. Though few are likely to hasten back for a second trot through, in that D629 is hardly alone.

GRATEFUL THANKS DH
STARS Three