Dylan vs. Pynchon

[jd]

I was lucky enough to see Dylan live maybe almost a decade ago now...
right after his throat surgery (tangent: he has the cover of Rolling
Stone or some other magazine this month, I think it's RS tho).
Couldn't understand a word he said but I was glad that I was there
anyways.  It was odd, though.  It was at Great Woods, a semi-outdoor
sit-down stadium type deal, and most people there were the aging baby
boomers who had all gone on to discard their past and take up arms in
the business sector.  So the audience was mainly people with
button-front polos and brand-new jeans, more than a few Lexuses in the
parking lot, standing quietly at attention while he strolled on stage
like some aging clown, hands clasped behind their backs, realizing,
perhaps, that they had shed aside what it was he had grown from, maybe
the idle thought - for what? - coming across their sober minds as he
burst into Tamborine Man.  But one row in front and a few seats to the
left there were two teenagers in store-bought tye-dyed shirts whooping
it up something awful.  One tore his shirt from his chest somewhere
halfway through the set and threw it up on stage, narrowly missing the
post-op Dylan, and I can't really say for sure which side of the
audience won the night.  Ol' Dylan must have felt something though,
coming from either those stoic San-Fran-regets come middle class minds
or those two hollering boys that drew so many mean stares, because he
did three encores that night.

My sister bought an extra ticket for the Wallflowers earlier that
year, so I got to see his son at the same venue.  I remember that for
the encore he came on stage and claimed his bassist had bet him good
money he wouldn't stand on the amplifier for a period of time during
the song.  I can't say that I was entirely impressed, but there's not
much a son of Dylan could do, really.

On 8/31/06, The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com> wrote:
> > Maybe you're listening to the CD over and over compulsively, but I don't know
> > anyone who is.
>
> Me.
>
> --Quail
>
>
>