William Cocke: “In a lot of ways it was a typical U-Hall show. The acoustics aren’t that good in there, the acoustics were never that great.
“I’m probably the only one, but I liked ‘Joey.’ I’ve always liked that song. It’s about a mobster who gets whacked at a Clam Bar. It was off of Desire, the album that came out in ’76, the one that had ‘Hurricane’ on it. It’s sort of like the flip side of ‘Hurricane’…
“Oh yeah, ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’ I don’t think he does that much anymore…[A] lot of the stuff [that he performed] is stuff he’s still doing: ‘Queen Jane,’ ‘Thin Man,’ ‘Masterpiece,’ ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ so, you know, it was a good, solid show.”
Valeria L’Herrou: “His attitude was actively hostile at the ’91 show…[T]hese are people who, you know, you admire and feel some kind of emotional connection [towards], so it was kind of a slap in the face, I guess. I think that when he did his acoustic set at the end his attitude seemed to change a little bit…
“Somebody told me…that he had spit or something, and I don’t remember that. I just remember that he wasn’t relating to the audience at all.
[On whether she’ll attend the JPJ show]: “No, I don’t think so. I didn’t get tickets and you know I have seen him twice. I did buy his most recent CD, which I think is excellent.”
Kevin Kellam: “In ’91 it was a fantastic show…I was trepidatious about it because of the horrible one before [at U-Hall in ’88].
“I remember the highlight of the show being that he closed with ‘Rainy Day Women’ and a very extended harmonica solo—really involved, really animated…[E]verybody wants to sing ‘Everybody must get stoned’ or whatever. But that was a really, really good performance of that song.
“[H]e changes structure and composition of his songs live from their known structure and composition. He changes the arrangements all up. And so if his voice is not good…sometimes you can’t tell what the song is. And I remember everything being clear enough at this concert.”
Robert Nowicki: “With G.E. Smith leading the band!…[W]ith that ugly old robotic head of his. [G.E. Smith] was a weird looking dude.
“I knew it was going to be Dylan, which means it’s going to be some eccentric, not necessarily enjoyable performance, but what the heck?… [T]he band was really good, but Dylan was in usual incoherent, atonal [self], changing the tempo of the verses around, so you had no idea what he was playing, I mean none. And I know Bob Dylan’s music well.
“The band was really good and G.E. Smith is a heck of a guitarist, so he burned right through that lead on ‘Highway 61 Revisited,’ that I do remember well.
“Yeah, it was a real big crowd; it was everybody from students who just went to see the legendary dude to old folks who wanted to see the legend and everybody in between…
“God, ’91. That’s 16 years ago! …[A]t that point, there was no venue for big acts like [Dylan] so it’s one of the reasons I went—because, you know, it was a rarity for someone of that ilk to play in Charlottesville.”
Setlist
“To Be Alone With You”
“Joey”
“All Along the Watchtower”
“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
“Confidential”
“Gotta Serve Somebody”
“When I Paint My
Masterpiece”
“Maggie’s Farm”
“Trail of the Buffalo”
“Mr. Tambourine Man”
“Don’t Think Twice,
It’s All Right”
“It Ain’t Me, Babe”
“Everything is Broken”
“Queen Jane
Approximately”
“Ballad of a Thin Man”
“Highway 61 Revisited”
“Man in the Long
Black Coat”
“Rainy Day Women
#12 & 35”
