Bob Dylan – Woodstock 1994 Review

A disgruntled Bob Dylan snubbed the original Woodstock festival. Rightly so. In some ways, the encampment of peace-loving members of the public on the front lawn would be quite the trouble. Nobody likes an unexpected public encounter. For Dylan at the time of the original festival, his profile and family were stratospheric. He was the man. He still was when he took to the Woodstock stage twenty-five years later. Woodstock 1994 does well to detail this performance, the return of a hero who had never played the festival yet was tethered to it through the others of the time. Dylan does not disappoint when he finally gets around to playing the legendary show – which would take on a nastier legend just five years later. What a difference half a decade makes.  

But for those in attendance at the calmer joys of Dylan at Woodstock 1994, they were treated to an artist slowly finding his groove again. Jokerman opens a decent set of whining guitars and a hit-laden experience which features a neat spread of his best and brightest efforts. This is not the devolution of an artist expected to play his hits but another, sudden reinvention of his style. Exceptional live performances of Just Like a Woman and All Along the Watchtower fly through, the instrumental work of the latter simply divine. This is a Dylan reinvigorated on stage. His resurgence as a prominent artist of cultural interest and consequence builds from here. Make no mistake about it, his reckoning is found on the stage at Woodstock 1994. An intense effort which is not about making good on missing out on the original occasion but proving his performance there would have been perfect.  

What is the secret for this change of pace, then? Simple. Engagement. Dylan now sounds developed as an artist more than in the last decade of his touring and the opportunity, presented to him as this big deal which never quite captured the spirit of the original festival (how could it), seems to have invigorated him. In turn, the performance is an astounding example of how flexible these greats are. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right is given a summery flourish and draws on the new vocal tones Dylan is stuck with for the rest of his career from here on. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue gives us a chance to listen to Dylan in near isolation. His vocal range is extraordinary here, the silence of the crowd is chilling and, ultimately, it provides a double-bill of near-perfect live performances. Woodstock 1994 did not know what they had on their hands. Bootlegs are our salvation once more. 

Heavy guitar work on God Knows, a neat Under the Red Sky cut which sounds better live than from the album, is a nice change of pace. It sets up the rest of the show – four massive hits back-to-back. I Shall Be Released, Highway 61 Revisited, Rainy Day Woman 12 & 35 and It Ain’t Me Babe makes for a colossal conclusion to a sought-after performance. Decades in the making for some and the experience is surely close to euphoria for them. For those nonplussed by the Woodstock craze, this is still a strong bootleg. Fine quality recordings and an exceptional series of performances which hear Dylan start to shake through with a new, contemporary edge. He would make good on it just three years later – and it all starts on stage. He finds his groove and there is a sense of flowing passion once more, something Dylan did not have for Woodstock the first time around.