Dylan, Dead concert album uninspiring

Press, 19 May 1989, Page 23

Dylan, Dead concert album uninspiring

808 DYLAN and the GRATEFUL DEAD. “Dylan And The Dead,” (CBS, 463381-1 and 4). For diehard Dylan fans there is a question that should be asked. Is this, his fifth live album, going to add anything vital to your collection? And the response must be a reluctant “No.” As far as sixties nostalgia was concerned the bringing together of Dylan and the legendary San Francisco band for concerts in 1987 was itself of some significance.

Around the same time as Dylan’s “Mr Tambourine Man” was the song to “get high” to, Jerry Garcia and the boys were the house band for Ken

Kesey’s Merry Pranksters at their Acid Test LSD parties. Twenty years on the combination of Dylan and the onetime heroes of the psychedelic set (minus the late keyboard player, Ron McKernan, more commonly known as “Pigpen”) does not seem a total success. Critics have widely commented about the looseness of the Dead as a backing band, though this can be quite beguiling. They appear to be having fun, but get just a little too ragged on the lengthy

song about the gangster, "Joey” (Gallo).

This record includes just seven songs, spanning 14 years from the 1965 “Queen Jane Approximately” (off “Highway 61 Revisted,” Dylan’s first rock album) to the 1979 “Slow Train” and “Gotta Serve Somebody?” (from his first “born again” album, “Slow Train Coming”).

All but two of them are in the region of six minutes-plus and therein lies a problem. It’s as though Dylan has thrown the original lyrics into a malfunctioning blender. At times old Bob seems to be making up the words as he goes along; they bear only a passing re-

semblance to the Dylan bible, “Lyrics 1962-1985.” 'Dylan and the Dead are together nicely in “I Want You” and the standout track, “Queen Jane,” while on “knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” there is some of the eerie feel of the original. Garcia also lifts the old Dylan (and thence Jimi Hendrix) classic, "All Along the Watchtower,” with some nifty guitar work in the closing stages. “Cracked bells and

washed out horns/blow into my face with scorn,” wrote Dylan in "I Want You.” In spite of hints to the contrary, here Dylan is not yet washed up as his later, very strong contribution to the superb Travelling Wilburys album showed. This is not a bad album, but not one likely to be replayed too often if Dylan’s other 30-odd are at hand. ★ ★ TIM DUNBAR

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