You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Heineken Music Hall
April 17, 2017
Bob Dylan – piano & vocals
Tony Garnier – bass
George Recile – drums
Stu Kimball – rhythm guitar, maracas
Charlie Sexton on lead guitar
Donnie Herron – violin, banjo, pedal steel, lap steel
What good am I if I’m like all the rest
If I just turn away, when I see how you’re dressed
If I shut myself off so I can’t hear you cry
What good am I?
What good am I if I know and don’t do
If I see and don’t say, if I look right through you
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky
What good am I?
April 18: Bob Dylan – If You See Her Say Hello Lakeland 1976
If you’re making love to her, watch it from the rear
You’ll never know when I’ll be back, or liable to appear
For it’s natural to dream of peace as it is for rules to break
And right now I’ve got not much to lose, so you’d better stay awake
~Bob Dylan (“Lakeland 76” lyrics to If You See Her, Say Hello)
And then, with an ease I find terrifying, Dylan moves into one of the most nakedly personal performances of his career (something like “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” but inverted, and
without the gloss of riddle and mystery): the 1976 version of “If You See Her, Say Hello.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
For a master of masks and distancing effects this is an extraordinary performance – no-one listening to it can feel anything other than that there is no distance at all between the author-performer and the performance.
~Andrew Muir (Troubadour: Early and Late Songs of Bob Dylan)
Brilliant, breathtaking & brave version of this great song.
This is not the jokerman. This is someone whose heart can be got ahold of. And in a real sense this person is more vulnerable, and even more in need of a place to hide, than the genius who could write and perform “Blind Willie McTell.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
It’s getting harder and harder to recognize the trap
Too much information about nothing, too much educated rap
Never could learn to drink that blood, and call it wine
What looks large from a distance, close up is never that big
~Bob Dylan (Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart)
Great song recorded during the “infidels” sessions in 1983, but sadly not included on the released album.
It later developed into “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)”, recorded during the “Empire Burlesque” sessions in 1985 (and released on that album).
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