Bob Dylan: He'll Know His Song Well Before He Starts Singin'

Part 2 of the Together Through Life with Bob countdown: an historic series of random snapshots from the life of the master in the days leading up to his forthcoming record.

YouTube is chock full o' great Dylan performance clips from every phase of his career. In fact, Dylan has so many phases, it's almost like he's five or six different people. Maybe someone should make a movie about his life with different actors representing his various guises. Anyway, here are a few of Rock Turtleneck's favorite Dylan performance clips.

First up is "Solid Rock" from 1980. He is truly a man possessed here, as the literally rocking spirit of the song (which appears on Saved and Biograph) moves him to center stage to do what can only be called the Bob Dance. This is a very long way from the folkie loner-with-a-guitar stance of his earlier era, so it's no wonder few knew what to make of Born-Again Bob at the time.


Next is "Shelter from the Storm" from Dylan's 1976 Hard Rain TV special, a show which would make a fabulous Bootleg Series DVD release. Here we catch Dylan in a mutated phase of the Rolling Thunder tour. He's been on the road for longer than anyone can remember, his marriage is in shambles, and Shelter hath given way to Storm. Might as well throw on a Jesus-style do-rag and play some slide guitar.


Thirdly we have "Crossroads," wherein fellow Robert Johnson disciples Dylan and Clapton pay tribute to their idol with a spirited version of one of his most famous songs. Dylan is remarkably jovial here in this 1999 benefit performance for Slowhand's Crossroads rehab center. He also plays some nice lead guitar, which is no surprise to anyone who has seen him live in the past 10 years or so.


And let's bring it all back home with a truly awesome performance of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" from George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. For all of Bob's accomplishments, he may never have written a better song than "Hard Rain" and may never have done a better version than this one here.

And for that matter, has anyone ever written a more beautiful verse than:
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.