James Beaty: OPINION: Bob Dylan's 'Shadow Kingdom'

Jun. 11—Listening to Bob Dylan's new album "Shadow Kingdom" reminds me of the first Bob Dylan concert I ever attended.

It's not that the Dylan of the first concert I heard and saw sounded anything like the Dylan you hear on the newly-released "Shadow Kingdom." Both Dylan's vocals and the band playing behind him on "Shadow Kingdom" are stylistically musical miles apart.

So are the arrangements and the voice Dylan utilized in the concert when compared to his new album.

But that first concert introduced me to a practice Dylan has used throughout much of his career — at least from the time the then-revered folk singer famously first went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

It's his penchant for adopting sometimes radical new arrangements and sometimes even new lyrics to some of his most well-known songs as well as deep album cuts and relative obscurities during his onstage performances

It's a practice he fully continues to utilize on "Shadow Kingdom."

It's still easy to remember those feelings of anticipation I felt the first time I saw Dylan perform live.

I had a seat in a huge Texas arena, but where I sat still turned out to be pretty good, far removed from the nosebleed section that had been a possibility.

Before embarking on that tour, Dylan had not played an entire concert for eight years and had only performed at a few one-off appearances with The Band, such as the Tribute to Woody Guthrie, where they'd performed three of Woody's songs.

Indeed, the last time Dylan had played an entire concert prior to the tour that included the one I was about to witness in Fort Worth had been on a British and European tour, with The Band backing him that time, too.

A lot had changed since then, though. At the time of their first tour together, The Band was still called The Hawks. Now, not only were the members collectively known as The Band, they were huge in their own right, having released a series of acclaimed albums and performing enthusiastically-received concerts with a reverent fan base of their own.

As the time for the concert neared, I felt filled with anticipation. In those pre-Internet days, there was little chance to see what the set list might be. However, I got a clue.

My mother had been a reporter, too, at the McAlester Democrat. In those days, news from the wires were literally transported over a teletype, meaning statewide, national and international stories would be automatically typed on a long piece of paper. Then, the newspaper or radio station receiving it would grab the items they wanted and discard the reset.

My mom had told her friend and co-worker, Sharon, about my anticipation of seeing not only Dylan, but The Band as well, perform live. Though it's hard to believe now with Dylan's so-called Never-Ending Tour, for awhile some had thought he might never perform again following that infamous motorcycle wreck that had taken him off the road in the first place.

When my mom handed me that piece of wadded-up teletype that had been rescued from the cutting room floor about Dylan and the Band's concert opener in Chicago, I hurriedly smoothed it out to see what they'd performed as the tour's opening song.

What? I blinked when I saw the title of the Chicago concert opener, "Hero Blues" — a song that hadn't been released on any of Dylan's albums. I'd never even heard of it before.

I later learned "Hero Blues" came early in his acoustic folk career, even then an obscurity.

Now, as I sat in my seat for the Texas concert, the entire stadium erupted in a roar as Dylan and The Band strode onstage to a set made to resemble some sort of frontier living room, with rugs, a lamp and even a couch onstage.

As Dylan and The Band fired out of the gates at a musical galloping gait, something about that opening rift sounded familiar.

Then Dylan began singing in a strong, forceful voice: "You say you love me and you're thinking of me, but you know you could be wrong" — with Dylan shouting the word "wrong" and stretching it out for emphasis.

Wow! I heard a new Dylan voice I had never before encountered, with Dylan going all-in to deliver a strong and forceful persona. He had opened not with "Hero Blues," but with "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine," a song from his 1966 masterwork and double album "Blonde On Blonde."

Dylan and The Band went on to deliver a resplendent, breathtaking concert that literally reduced some audience members to tears — of joy. They performed that night in all of their various incarnations beginning with, Dylan and The Band together. Then, Dylan left the stage and The Band performed their own songs, including the fitting "Stage Fright."

Next, The Band stepped into the wings and Dylan walked onstage himself, carrying an acoustic guitar, presenting songs such as "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Gates of Eden" and "Its Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."

Then The Band returned with a few more songs, including "The Weight" until finally, the entire ensemble gathered onstage again for the finale, which included "All Along the Watchtower," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Like a Rolling Stone" and an electric "Blowin' in the Wind."

On his new album, "Shadow Kingdom," Dylan — the man of a thousand voices — presents yet another take on what was initially billed as his "early songs."

I use the quotes because the songs range from 1965's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" from his album "Bringing It All Back Home" to "What Was It You Wanted" from 1989's "Oh Mercy," which, even then, had been hailed as yet another Dylan comeback album.

On "Shadow Kingdom," Dylan offers yet another version of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine). He also performed the song across the U.S. again during his "Rough and Rowdy Tour" and is performing the same set list on his European tour.

Dylan is now in the best voice of recent years, which some attribute to his three-album span of albums saluting the Great American Songbook — "Shadows in the Night," "Fallen Angels" and "Triplicate."

"Shadow Kingdom" opens with "When I Paint My Masterpiece." Although I truly like his rendition on "Shadow Kingdom," it's still my third favorite version of the song.

My favorite — the version by The Band on their album, "Cahoots." My second favorite is Dylan's original version produced by Oklahoma's own Leon Russell, with backing by fellow Oklahomans Jesse Ed Davis, Carl Radle and Jim Keltner.

Another song on "Shadow King," Dylan's "Watching the River Flow," had originally also been produced by Leon, who adds some great piano, along with Davis on electric slide guitar, Radle on bass and Keltner on drums. Eric Clapton hadn't been the only one trying to get that Tulsa sound in the 1970s!

And so it goes. None of the songs on "Shadow Kingdom" are better than the originals, but that's never been the point when Dylan reconfigures a song.

These are different arrangements, sometimes even different chord structures and lyrics, but Dylan brings it all back home, again.

That said, I really like his new version of "Pledging My Time" which includes some down 'n' dirty blues guitars and the previous almost-sarcastic "Queen Jane Approximately" is now recast as a gentle ballad.

I also like his new rendition of "What Was It You Wanted" — but Willie Nelson also raised that bar by a couple of feet with his cover version from Willie's "Across the Borderline" album.

"Shadow Kingdom" is presented as the soundtrack from Dylan's 2022 pay-per-view outing which was available for a time for a fee. Also, there are questions as to whether the musicians on the film are the same ones performing on the new album.

One thing's for certain, the Bon Bon Club in Marseille where the "Shadow Kingdom" performance was first presented as emanating from doesn't exist at all.

With Dylan, there's always something in the shadows, even when he's presenting his songs in a new, if somewhat hazy, light.