The band that helped Bob Dylan realise his full potential: “I really had some sort of epiphany”
Every artist is going to have limitations on where they can go throughout their lifetime. As much as David Lee Roth may be the all-star model for a frontman, no one was expecting him to do the insane vocal runs that Freddie Mercury was capable of whenever he played. It’s important that most people know their strengths before they get out onstage, but even after years in the spotlight, Bob Dylan never missed an opportunity to learn something new whenever he put on a show.
Then again, Dylan’s shows were always going to be something special no matter what era he was in. Although there were some polarising times, like his first gigs going electric or his years becoming an evangelist rock star in the late 1970s, he always left people thinking as to what his next move was going to be. His crowd was curious about where he would go, but so was his band whenever he counted them in.
After all, Dylan is one of the finest artists of his generation, but he was never that big on rehearsal. The Band had already grown accustomed to his style of playing, but even when they had a certain symbiosis, there were times when Dylan would suddenly decide to play a song in a different key or make a tune that didn’t rely on the recorded version as its basis.
Even when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers started backing him up, there were many times onstage when the heartland rockers got scared. Drummer Stan Lynch had described the gig with Dylan as the equivalent of playing for your life, but even with someone as unpredictable as Dylan was, his rambling style was always bound to work well if he had a band behind that knew how to jam properly.
Despite the Grateful Dead being one of the most nonchalant legends in rock and roll, they did have a lot in common with the way Dylan played. They didn’t necessarily have the same rambling lyrics, but that kind of breakneck inspiration came out whenever they played their instruments, being as prolific with their solos as Dylan was with his words, often coming up with different musical passages much, in the same way, the musical poet would change verses.
Although Dylan’s eventual collaborations with the Grateful Dead have been polarising among fans, he felt that his work with them helped him become a much better musician by playing more obscure tunes, saying, “When I began to play with the Grateful Dead, those are the only songs they wanted to play: the ones that I wasn’t playing with [Tom] Petty. I really had some sort of epiphany then on how to do those songs again, using certain techniques that I had never thought about. When I went back and played with Petty again, I was using those techniques, and I found I could play anything.”
Since Dylan has only continued surprising people on his Neverending Tour, it seems like he’s taken the mindset of the Grateful Dead to heart as well. He didn’t have to necessarily play a tune the same way every time he played, and even if fans were pissed that they didn’t hear every single tune they wanted, it was about seeing him as an artist rather than some greatest hits jukebox of his own music.
Dylan already had a lot of musical sides to himself, but if there’s one thing to be gained by working with other people, it’s gaining that sense of fearlessness. There could be tunes that he hadn’t played in years that he decided to throw into the setlist, but playing them exactly like the studio version didn’t seem to matter. It was more about getting his own personal take on the tune after years in the vault.
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