Bob Dylan – Live 1961–2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances Review

Hoovering up the all-time greats of modern concert performance and hoping the rest of them are uploaded to YouTube or some forum out there in the great unknown is the best way to experience the deep cuts and bootleg tapes of Bob Dylan. Sincerely, it is a thrill. To get through Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances, a tactical skill equivalent to espionage but instead of toppling governments you are, instead, browsing the internet for a specific take of a song performed over a hundred times. Thirty-nine of them, then. A fun way to pass some time on a train, sure, but not the way they were meant to be listened to. Needs must. Spotify playlists have run their course and if the wind is to batter this train anymore, there is a good chance of ending in the ocean. 

This is an eye-opening collection for those who can hunt it down. Opener Somebody Touched Me is a real glimpse into the bulk of Dylan’s work. What they all hold and continue to do, followed by songs from the early, early years of Dylan. His voice is closer to how it is now than it was in his heyday of the 1960s. Repetitive, yes. But a hell of a dive into his work, nonetheless. Some of these pieces are ripped from other Bootleg Tapes to create a complete sixteen-strong record. Hear the same effectiveness in the follow-up Wade in the Water, a rough early piece to hear those deeper tones Dylan would sometimes provide. More so now, but the blues-oriented roots of these early pieces are exciting and sound like truly empowered folk. The turn of the century is the right time to get all these live pieces put together, and it is refreshing to hear a compilation record not reliant on hits.  

Diving boards into the bigger bootlegs and harder-to-find experiences, then. Live 1961-2000 is just that, a hallway with a crack in the sixteen doors which can safely and sharply define Dylan. It Ain’t Me, Babe, is changed wonderfully – the Rolling Thunder Revue benefits these tracks greatly and is well worth a sidestep into listening through entirely. Exceptional rocking style on Cold Iron Bounds is matched by the slower movements and sharper experience of Born In Time. Album closer Things Have Changed is another instrumentally tight revelation from Dylan – his talent and knack for lyrical and guitar-heavy pairings has never left him though he has moved his art elsewhere.  

Get your hands on the right copy and Live 1961-2000 serves an essential purpose. These are finely selected deep cuts which do not have the distractor of being the all-time greats, the endlessly played numbers. I Don’t Believe You and their like are perfectly placed. Things have changed, of course – the final track of this compilation determines it – but within this collection is the understanding of how timely and constant Dylan has been with his live performances. A highlight reel for an artist who did not need one – yet what a rewarding and laid-back listen this is. Finely selected slices of the Dylan live discography. Lend an ear to the likes of Dignity and a perfect stretch for Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and let the man himself glide through thirty-nine years of great concert performance.