What a strange time for Bob Dylan. It was the start of an uneasy decade in his career yet he had every reason to head in with confidence. Slow Train Coming was received with slight concern but got the job done after the desire to find a producer was heard on Street-Legal. What came after it is surely the worst run of albums Dylan would ever provide. While Saved has since been salvaged for the stage (Shot of Love too, for that matter), the performances of the time were jagged and rough. Impressionable live moments were lost to a scattering of errors and attempts at kindling a heartfelt interest and respect of the divine. Trouble No More does well to exorcise the best moments and this, Live in Toronto disc, is the sum of relatively charming but forgettable moments.
Such was the decade for Dylan, where his high points were songs Nick Cave would cover and The Traveling Wilburys. What remains worrying about Live in Toronto 1980 is how little of it is interesting. Flat performances do nothing to strike disaster or confidence. A real shame considering the Rare and Unreleased songs preceding it. Build-ups like this must be paid off. Ill-shaped live performances are not the way to do this. Covenant Woman is a clear example of this middle-of-the-road quality. Nothing particularly wrong, but therein lies the problem. Little is happening on stage, there is even less to get excited about. Even those shimmering percussions and the roars of the crowd feel dull and neutered. It makes for a strained listen, a difficult experience where Dylan is tinkering with tracks not quite ready for the stage.
His voice is in good form and the instrumentalists surrounding him are filled with the usual confidence but still, it lacks. When You Gonna Wake Up? has a slow trickle of standard rock filler in it. Dylan has never sounded much stronger than this with the material at hand. A slight crackle to his voice does not deter him from hitting higher notes on When He Returns, arguably the highlight of this live performance. Passionate performances may be found within, but they lack a greater punch. It is a unique experience. Here is Dylan, completely convinced of his conviction to Christ yet unable to make it stick with his stage presence. What a strange place we find ourselves in, listening to the cries of a man carried by his faith yet unable to oversee a resounding impact which can define it.
Ain’t Gonna Go to Hell for Anybody gets close, as does the aforementioned When You Gonna Wake Up?. Ultimately lifeless – but not a disappointment. It threads the needle of what we expect of Dylan in a live environment yet fails to muster the courage needed to become a bombastic exploration of his sound at the time. Instead, there is a constant reliance on slick instrumentals, and nice as they are, they do not give us the desired change of tone Dylan was set on displays in the 1980s. Those dates from April 18 to April 20 are a surefire collection of Dylan on stage but Live in Toronto fails to capture the spirit. Those flourishes of hardened experience and the departure from his expected deliveries are not documented. Instead, it is just stifled and thoroughly listenable performances. One after another, with little difference from the April 20 performances of In the Garden to disc closer Pressing On. That he was, but little gravitas and weight to his God-loving word.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I have to say that the Toronto 1980 discs of Trouble No More are the highlight of the set. High quality multi-track recordings of the second phase of the Gospel show. I am an atheist but I am moved by ‘When He Returns’. ‘Cover Down Pray Through’, ‘Precious Angel’ and ‘Solid Rock’ are right up there as well in my book. Many fans resisted this material but over the years, this era has received more appreciation and the box set was a big part of it. If you ask me, the Earls Court show from the box set is a much harder listen with wooden versions of Bob classics dominating the show.