Fall 2002: Bob Plays the Piano and Covers His Peers

2002-11-01 Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL / 2002-11-13 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

By random coincidence, this month I have two subscriber requests for two November 2002 shows a couple weeks apart. One a famous and beloved show, the other a lesser-known gem.

So I thought I’d do ‘em both in one newsletter. First I’ll check in on where Dylan was at during the Fall 2002 tour and see what these shows share in common. Then I’ll share some individual highlights from each show.

Bob Dylan in Fall 2002

The big news: This is the first piano tour! Well, partially. Up until this tour—like, his entire career—Dylan almost entirely played guitar onstage. Soon after this tour—for the next twenty-plus years and counting—he almost entirely played piano. But, for this transitional tour, he picked a middle ground. Every show was half piano, half guitar. He switched back and forth all night.

It makes less difference on the tapes than you might think. While you can hear the piano if you listen, it’s not yet very prominent. Perhaps the main change is you get a lot fewer aimless Bob guitar solos, and more space for the two hotshot guitarists flanking him to stretch out (including, in Larry Campbell’s case, playing a lot of instruments other than guitar).

Speaking of Larry, when I interviewed him, he pegged this as his favorite tour with Bob:

Was there a particular period that you look back on especially fondly?

There was a tour we did where we were doing some Warren Zevon tunes and we were doing some Rolling Stones tunes. When everything just started to click in a lot of ways. I can't remember what year that was. [It was Fall 2002 –Ray]. Everything just felt like a smooth machine that tour. I don't know how to explain it or why, but the material we were doing, Bob's seeming contentment with everything, it just felt like we were all clicking.

Yep, this is that tour! Sure enough, both shows have both “Brown Sugar” and a Zevon tune or two (“Mutineer” at both, “Accidentally Like a Martyr” in Rosemont). Plus nightly covers of Neil Young’s “Old Man” too, plus some surprises.

All those covers except “Mutineer” have something else in common too: what Steven Hyden termed The Tough Guy Angels! That is, Larry and Charlie Sexton’s knockout backing vocals. They appear on plenty of original songs too, including, at both shows, some of the best “Blowin’ in the Wind”s I’ve ever heard. In fact, the combo of the wild-guitar-workout “Summer Days” into the beautiful-harmonies “Blowin’ in the Wind” in both shows has the be one of the best one-two punches of the entire Never Ending Tour.

“Summer Days” is, incidentally, one of many Love & Theft highlights here. He plays five of the album’s songs across both shows. They’re in that sweet spot where, a year in, they’re road-tested enough that the band is confident and firing on all cylinders, but it’s a little too early for any wild rearrangements. These are the Love & Theft versions performed at their absolute peak.

That’s what the shows have in common. Now here are some specific highlights of the two shows. The first is the lesser-known gem. The second is famous due to one of the biggest surprise covers (and arguably one of the best) he’s ever performed.

Rosemont, IL, November 1

• Two songs in, after a fine-but-forgettable “Maggie’s Farm” warmup, things kick into the high gear where they will remain. It’s “In the Summertime,” the Shot of Love song never played outside the gospel years…except for eight times on this tour. More importantly, it was a knockout every time, fueled by those Tough Guy Angel™ harmonies. Our first taste of many.

• This show boasts one of the best Never Ending Tour “Masters of War”s I’ve ever heard during the acoustic set. Not a flashy arrangement like some of my other highlights, but each line sung with care. (And the “It’s Alright Ma” that follows is almost as good.)

• He plays “Cold Irons Bound” at both shows, but at only one is the crowd going to explode at the “winds in Chicago” line. Always love those local-color moments (I wrote about a bunch of others, from “Highlands” in Boston to “Thunder on the Mountain” in DC, here).

• A truly excellent bit of BobTalk before “Old Man”: “I’ll try my best on this song not to mumble it. I’ve seen reports that I mumble it. If you know who wrote that report, knock him out!”