“On this album, I took a few steps backward, but I also took a bunch of steps forward because I had a lot of time to concentrate on it. I also had the band sounding like I want it to sound. It’s got that organ sound from ‘Blonde on Blonde’ again. That’s something that has been missing.”
~Bob Dylan (to Robert Hilburn – May 1978)
Jonathan Cott interview – Sept. 1978: Jonathan Cott: What do you think of all the criticisms of Street Legal? Bob Dylan: I read some of them. In fact, I didn’t understand them. I don’t think these people have had the experiences I’ve had to write those songs. The reviews didn’t strike me as being particularly interesting one way or another, or as compelling to my particular scene. I don’t know who these people are. They don’t travel in the same crowd, anyway. So it would be like me criticizing Pancho Villa.
First of all… “Street-Legal” is a fantastic album. I have never “understood” all the criticism it got.. and still gets, and I even dig the original overall sound & production.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming
Madison Square Garden
New York City, New York
27 July 1999
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
JUN 13, 2016
San Diego, CA
Humphreys Concerts By The Bay
“At 75, Dylan shows every sign of rising to new heights. He is doing so by embracing anew his own legacy, and adding new twists, as has long been his style, and by embracing some of the Great American Songbook gems he pointedly spurned in the spoken introduction to his 1962 song, “Bob Dylan’s Blues.”
“This is unlike all the rest of the songs comin’ out of uptown New York — a Tin Pan Alley thing,” he said at the time, the derision in his voice unmistakable. “This one wasn’t written up there … this was … written down in the United States.”
Today, 54 years later, Dylan’s songs are as indelible a part of the American music fabric as any batch of Tin Pan Alley classics. Things have changed, undeniably, since then. But Dylan — in the autumn of his years — remains sturdy and vital. We’re lucky to have him.” – San Diego Union Tribune
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
Great sound & good video… GREAT version.
Rose Garden Arena Portland, Oregon 12 June 1999
Musicians:
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Charlie Sexton (guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar
