Bob Dylan – Live in White Plains Review

Bob Dylan was not keen to rest on the folk charms of his past. After just a few months of working through some career-best work, it was time for a change. It is a common part of his working order. It happened at Live in White Plains, on The “Royal Albert Hall” performance and continues now on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. Any bootleg worth its weight has the perfect blend of sound quality and audience involvement. Where it is no good to hear someone whistle or whoop for the fourth time Dylan slaps his tongue around his harmonica, the noise of a stunned audience member not believing their ears is priceless. Live in White Plains may be rough around the edges, but it marks an essential precursor to a gig that would change Dylan’s favour forever.  

Opener She Belongs to Me has those immediate fan reactions, the “Oh my God” of the opening and the smatterings of applause making for the same goosebumps-like feel of hearing the man himself in person. Live in White Plains has tapes of varying quality. She Belongs to Me sounds fiery and close to the action while To Ramona may as well have been recorded from the venue’s lobby. It is impressive to hear the harmonica flourish and acoustic consistency even if the vocals are garbled. We take what we can get with these bootleg recordings and cannot chastise these homebrews too much for lacking the same quality of sound as an official live recording. Live in White Plains does its job. It captures a moment in time which builds to one of the biggest shifts in music history. Warped tape may stop us from getting a clear picture of Visions of Johanna but it certainly does not stop the passion. 

Those shouts and cries from Dylan, as well as the audience, are staggering to hear. Bootleg tapes from Dylan concerts can often pick up on the little idiosyncrasies, the rare words spoken to an audience which would not be uttered again. What Live in White Plains captures is a gear shift. Clanging parts of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue cannot stop the brilliance of those echoed lyrics. An interesting performance here, more for the manipulation made by the tape than anything else. Bootlegs have their unintended flair. Desolation Row is certainly a highlight – a song which has been mangled, ripped and evolved over the last sixty years. It has some interesting avenues of performance to it, much of it found in the tempo changes over the years. But here is a performance of it as close to the studio version as you can get.  

A tremendous set from an important tour. Live in White Plains is another side of a bold period to come, a precursor to the madness from crowd and artist just a few months down the road. Push through the harsh tape spikes, the off-balance mix and hear the charms of a crowd hearing these strokes of brilliance for the first time. Many of those who still attend Dylan gigs are looking to recapture the magic of his heyday but are lost when they find he has moved on, as we all should, from this period. Live in White Plains is nothing more than a quality performance playing through for those hardcore fans wanting to pick up the pieces of a noteworthy tour. That much is great fun and of interest to those who need their daily Dylan fix – as we all do.